Gympie councillor Bruce Devereaux says rates changes are ‘for the battlers’

“Going from the 10 to the 5 was for the battlers, the residents who never get to have the discount at all because they couldn’t manage to get the money paid on time.”

Gympie Regional Councillors (clockwise from left) Bruce Devereaux, Warren Polley, Town Hall, Mayor Glen Hartwig, Bob Fredman, Jess Milne, Deputy Mayor Hilary Smerdon, Dan Stewart, Shane Waldock and Dolly Jensen.

A Gympie councillor has defended the council’s controversial 2021/22 budget, saying the slashing of on time rates discounts from 10 to 5 per cent was “for the battlers”.

Division 4 representative Bruce Devereaux offered his perspective this week in response to criticism of the council’s move to raise rates by 3.2 per cent, as well as the early bird discount for paying on time.

But that payment now applies to the entire rates bill, including the special levies, which have all been rolled into general rates.

Incumbent Mayor Glen Hartwig said the new rates notices were a continuation of the council’s promise to go “back to basics”, with the $157.6 million budget including a $40.07 million capital works program with an expectation to scrape into surplus by $60,000 at the end of the financial year.

Gympie councillor Bruce Devereaux

Residents slammed the decision, but Cr Devereaux said the important decisions were made with struggling residents prominently in mind.

“We looked at a whole heap of scenarios,” Cr Devereaux said.

“Going from the 10 to the 5 was for the battlers, the residents who never get to have the discount at all because they couldn’t manage to get the money paid on time.

“For me, it’s giving them a chance to catch up from being a bit behind, to have a bit of a reprieve.

“That wasn’t brought to us as a reason or a recommendation, but it’s certainly what I thought of when I looked at it.”

Cr Devereaux said a prominent focus of the budget was to make things “fairer and easier” for residents, and he could not see a reason why keeping rates and levies separate was still necessary.

Cr Dolly Jensen, CEO Shane Grey, Mayor Glen Hartwig, Gympie council

“There was a lot to this budget to try and make it fairer, easier and less complex for people. For example rolling the levies in to the overall rates,” he said.

“A lot of the stuff (levies) was for is stuff council has to do anyway, when they were first bought in I’m sure there was very good reasoning for it, but I couldn’t see any reason that it was worth keeping them separate.”

Regional news at the heart of our best journalism

What do you make of the council’s new budget and rates hike? Give us your thoughts at [e-mail].

Originally published as Gympie councillor Bruce Devereaux says rates changes are ‘for the battlers’