Mayor Dempsey’s ‘cost of living’ budget a win for pensioners, ratepayers

The Bundaberg council’s 2023-23 budget has been criticised as a ‘vote buying’ exercise ahead of next year’s elections in a heated meeting in which the Mayor clashed with a member of the public and rates were kept on hold, despite council spending on its biggest project ever.

Pensioners are the winners from the “cost of living” budget handed down by Bundaberg Regional Council in a heated budget meeting on Tuesday.

A zero percent general rate increase and doubling of the pensioner rates rebate were the headline measures in the 2023-24 budget, which Mayor Jack Dempsey said in his opening remarks would address rising cost of living pressures.

“We know that our community is dealing with cost of living pressures, and your council team here has worked hard to deliver a budget that will offer relief in these difficult times,” Mr Dempsey said.

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He said delivery of a 0% rate increase for the second time in four years and doubling the pensioner rates rebate to $330 was enabled by “strategic decision making” that had placed the council in a “strong financial position”.

The budget will deliver “generational projects” such as the Bundaberg Aquatic Centre, Anzac Park redevelopment and Moore Park Beach master plan, which Mr Dempsey said were “indicative of our strong financial position and something which will offer our community even greater confidence into the future”.

The positive messaging took a turn for the worse when councillors were asked to formally adopt the document.

Councillor Greg Barnes, attending via videolink from Tasmania, said he could not support “a vote buying budget ahead of the local government elections next year”.

Councillor Greg Barnes opposed the budget due to the lack of itemised reporting of large projects including the Bundaberg Aquatic Centre.

Mr Barnes said he had been trying “for some months” without success to obtain detailed costings of the Bundaberg Aquatic Centre project, and could not support the budget without knowing the details of “the largest project that we’ve ever had”.

“This is not our money; we‘re here as trustees of the ratepayers funds,” Mr Barnes said.

“There’s no way that I can put my name to supporting a budget when I’m being denied access to critical information that I need to help me make an informed decision.”

Budget documents provided to the public lacked an extensive list of capital work projects and their costs, which the community has been calling for.

Speaking in support of the budget, councillor Jason Bartels said the Aquatic Centre project “is on budget and on time,” and asked how Mr Barnes could criticise the budget when he had attended 20% of the council budget sessions, a claim that was seconded by Tracey McPhee.

Despite standing orders being suspended, Mr Dempsey did not allow Mr Barnes the opportunity to rebut Mr Bartel’s and Ms McPhee’s claims.

Bundaberg Regional Ratepayers Association president Helen Blackburn called for the return of the 10 per cent early rate payment discount.

This prompted an expletive to be uttered from a member of the public sitting in the gallery, who was admonished by Mr Dempsey to “please don’t say derogative (sic) words”.

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While saying that the 0% rates rise was “pleasing,” Bundaberg Regional Ratepayers Association president Helen Blackburn said the doubling of the pensioners rebate did not go far enough and called for the return of the 10 per cent early rate payment discount which was axed in 2020.

Mrs Blackburn repeated Mr Barnes’ calls for “a more open and honest budget” with detailed budget documents with line items for capital works projects.

“These wouldn’t have cost the council one cent to provide to us,” she said.

Originally published as Mayor Dempsey’s ‘cost of living’ budget a win for pensioners, ratepayers