Federation Council leadership returned from the nation's capital last week after taking the fight for fair regional funding directly to the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) National General Assembly.
Mayor Cheryl Cook, Deputy Mayor Rowena Black, and General Manager Adrian Butler attended the peak national conference in Canberra to highlight a critical funding crisis threatening the sustainability of local government services across regional Australia.
Federation Council Mayor, Cr Cheryl Cook, revealed that over the last 30 years, local councils have watched Commonwealth Financial Assistance Grants dwindle from 1 per cent of federal taxation revenue to less than 0.5 per cent. Concurrently, the operational and regulatory responsibilities placed on local councils have grown exponentially.
"We are being asked to do much more with drastically less," Mayor Cook said.
"For regional and rural councils like Federation, this isn't just a line item on a balance sheet - it is about the survival of our community's most basic lifelines. Our dedicated council workforce works tirelessly to maintain our local roads, manage our parks, run our libraries, and support our communities through floods, droughts, and fires."
Mayor Cook said that regional communities cannot continue to carry the burden of federal funding shortfalls.
"Without adequate resources backed by the Federal Government, maintaining these essential day-to-day services is becoming an impossible task," she said.
"We cannot rely on our local ratepayers to plug a systemic funding gap created in Canberra. Restoring the Financial Assistance Grants to the 1 per cent benchmark is a straightforward, reasonable, and necessary solution."
Federation Council joined peak local government bodies from across Australia at the assembly to demand immediate legislative action to secure the long-term future of local communities.
"The time for talk has passed. We need the Federal Parliament to act now to ensure our communities receive the fair share they deserve, protecting the vital services our residents rely on for the future," Mayor Cook concluded.
