Shocking disparity in Vic farm rates exposed in new data

Some Victorian farmers pay seven times more in council rates than others despite owning properties worth exactly the same amount, our exclusive analysis reveals. Use our searchable graphic to see the figures.

Farmers across the Mildura shire are paying seven times as much in rates as those with farms of the same value in other councils.

Mildura council is imposing the highest farm rates in Victoria, charging $34,196 on a $10m dryland property this financial year.

In contrast a farmer with a $10m property in West Wimmera shire is due to pay $13,361 in rates, while at the southern end of the state, Mornington Peninsula farmers will pay just $4950 on a property of the same value.

An analysis of 47 rural and regional councils’ 2025-26 budgets shows what most politicians and farmers say is a rates system that is unjust and desperately needs reform.

But endless reviews and parliamentary inquiries, including one into local government funding and services completed last year, have failed to deliver any major reforms.

Opposition local government spokeswoman Bev McArthur said while councils in Melbourne were able to raise vast sums from fees and charges, the state’s rural councils have no such option.

Melbourne City Council’s latest budget estimates it will collect $147m in fees and charges alone this financial year, while nearby Yarra City Council expects to pull in $74m.

Ms McArthur said rural councils had no way of raising money, other than ramping up their rates in the dollar, at a time when more costs were being shifted onto them by the state government.

“One of the great beefs I have with the system is it’s so unjust,” she said. “It’s a property tax that’s archaic, unfair and disproportionately taxes people outside the city’s tram tracks.

“It’s the only tax that is based on geography.”

The Municipal Association of Victoria has repeatedly highlighted the impact of the state government shifting costs onto councils, while capping their revenue.

In its submission to last year’s inquiry the MAV listed a raft of cost shifting examples, such as the erosion of the 50-50 cost sharing of libraries a decade ago, to the state government’s contribution now making up just 20 per cent of the cost.

Other examples include the government cutting the Country Roads and Bridges Program and the Fixing Country Roads Program, which provided rural shires with additional resources to maintain their road networks.

Councils are also being forced to collect waste and fire services levies on behalf of the state government, which the MAV estimates makes up 12 per cent of the amount they collect through rates notices.

Victorian Local Government Minister Nick Staiokos’s response to the inequity of the current system was to state the government had a rate cap in place.

Ouyen farmer Leonard Vallance, whose properties sit in the southeast corner of Mildura Rural City Council’s 22,300 square kilometre domain, said “the whole system is stuffed”, leaving farmers to pick up an ever increasing proportion of the rates revenue.

Mr Vallance said Mildura council had 500 employees, “(but) what do they do”.

“We don’t mind paying rates, as long as we get bang for our buck.”