G'day, it's Digby Rayward here, and it's my pleasure to present this week's Council Happenings.
As you hear me say all the time, we've been very busy, and we have. Yesterday, Cr Paton, Cr Carruthers, the General Manager, and I went up to Wauchope to talk with the Forestry people about issues we've had with antisocial behaviour at the Upper Allen. It was a very productive meeting, and we cleared the air on several issues. So we're going to try to work through those the best way we can.
Also, last week, the General Manager and I were in Sydney for the Country Mayors meeting. It's always good to bring smaller councils together, and the usual topic was the financial sustainability of small rural councils. A major discussion point, of course, was the federal government and its failure to increase the Financial Assistance Grant money. I'll try not to bore you with this one, but it's an important message for you to understand. It used to be 1% of the total Commonwealth tax revenue. That was the bucket the Feds put together. Anyway, they've been shrinking that over the years, and it's now less than 0.5%. I think it dropped a bit again when we were asking for it to go back up from 0.5% to 1%. They dropped it to 0.45%. So less money, and we're required to do more with it. So we've lost that argument so far!
But let me try to explain it to you. There's a bucket of money that the Feds give to all the states, and that's then divided among the states, and NSW gets a portion. NSW then divides that money among all the local government areas under the State Government Grants Commission. So you've got the Feds at the top, and that bucket of money gets split up among all the states. It comes to NSW, and that's then distributed under the State Government Grants Commission. Now, here's where it gets tricky. And stay with me. Under the Federal Act that gives this money, there are a number of principles that the State Government Grants Commission has to follow. What we've been arguing, especially in Dungog, and we haven't been able to get any traction on this for a long while, is that the federal legislation prevents the State Government Grants Commission from distributing that money as it was meant to be, so the councils with the greatest relative needs - the smallest councils - get more of that bucket of money. What's been happening is that it's been going to Sydney councils that don't even need it. They get more in parking fines than we do.
But just recently, the state guys sent us a letter, and they're now reviewing the methodology for how they distribute this money. They've admitted that the Federal Act prevents them from distributing the grant money based on the relative needs of the council. Now this is a major breakthrough, and that takes me to my Mayoral Minute. We had an Extraordinary Council Meeting on Wednesday night, and I highlighted this. This is the first time that a government agency has actually made this call, so now it's really important for us to get support from politicians and other councils to push the federal government to review this act. That would free up more money to come to the smaller councils with the greatest relative need. So I hope I haven't lost you with all that. For small councils like Dungog, it is especially important that we get that argument going, and we need to put a lot of pressure on the federal government to make sure that their act is actually strengthened and that the smaller councils get a fair go.
Now let's talk about some other issues we raised at the Extraordinary Council Meeting on Wednesday night. We had a submission into IPART, so they review Hunter Water's Operating License. IPART set the fees for a number of these agencies, but the Hunter Water Operating License is up for review, and we were able to put in a submission arguing that Dungog plays a significant regional role by hosting and protecting the Chichester Dam and the Williams River catchment, which supply drinking water to about 650,000 people across the Lower Hunter. It affects our development planning, infrastructure impacts, and all are born locally. One example of the inequity in this IPART review from last time is that, if we look at Hunter Water's headwater sewer fee, the fee for Dungog is $15,200, whereas for Rutherford it's $2,292. That's a 563% disparity between Dungog and Rutherford. So we were jumping up and down about that, of course.
And this review will hopefully establish a stronger memorandum of understanding with Hunter Water and promote a genuine partnership that strengthens Hunter Water's social license. So watch this space as we take this argument forward.
Now, another very important topic is our shift in our advocacy approach, specifically how we engage with politicians ahead of the upcoming state election. What we've found in the past is that when we talk to politicians, we get nowhere. So we've decided to change our approach and key message to 'Fair Funding for Dungog'. This will shift what we've been doing before, and we're looking for a broader community-led advocacy story. So we will need you to come with us on this journey. So watch this message as it goes out: Fair Funding for Dungog. So come on, get there and be with us on this one. The election's going to come up quick.
Now, another interesting one is that Council agreed on a new corporate brand. After extensive consultation with the Councilors and ELT, we felt a new corporate brand would provide a contemporary, professional, distinctive identity that reflects the organisation's future direction, but still retains a strong connection to the character of Dungog Shire.
So we've gone with this new corporate brand, and to advise the community on how we arrived at this decision, we're holding a community information session at the Doug Walters Pavilion next Monday. It'll be held at 4:30pm at Doug Walters. Our team will be there, giving you all the background and information about how we came up with the new corporate brand and logo. So, hope to see you there if you can make it, and you'll get the full story.
So we're full steam ahead. We just need your support on a number of very important things coming up for us. Anyway, that's enough banging on from me. I hope I didn't confuse you too much with all that Commonwealth Grants money and the Financial Assistance Grants (FAG), but you know we're fighting hard for that. Anyway, see you next time when it's my turn. Cheers.
