Image: Mamooli.
Councils in Western Australia have retaliated against state government rhetoric that has been critical of local government rates and spending.
A new level of hostility has emerged between the local and state government sectors in Western Australia, which has manifested following the 2015 WA Local Government Convention, where Minister for Local Government Tony Simpson advised that councils need to be accountable and transparent.
This was exacerbated by comments made by Premier Colin Barnett on 6th August, 2015 on 6PR radio where he accused council rate hikes as being “excessive” and that CEO salaries in metropolitan Perth were higher than his own.
But the Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) has responded to these state government claims that councils require financial oversight or a rate cap from a third party to achieve transparency and improve rating processes by calling them “unnecessary and unhelpful”.
WALGA President Lynne Craigie provided a comprehensive and detailed response to the state government’s claims, saying that whilst the sector’s current budgeting and rating processes would stand up to scrutiny, rates capping or financial oversight will not achieve improvements in service delivery to communities.
“Local government is the only sphere of government that isn’t operating in a massive deficit situation,” Ms Craigie said.
The state government has criticised local government rate increases above five per cent, but Ms Craigie responded that it doesn’t compare to state charges increasing “far beyond this”, such as the Emergency Services Levy (ESL) up 10.6 per cent, street lighting up 7.5 per cent and water up six per cent.
“So if state charges are a measure of the cost increases that the community is capable of absorbing, council rates don’t deserve anywhere near the level of attention being directed at them by the Premier,” Ms Craigie said.
Ms Craigie expressed that she’d rather avoid a “public slanging match” because it’s not the way to introduce discussions around improved rating.
She said it was “disappointing” WALGA as the peak body of the sector had not been approached by the state to discuss the proposed processes.
One last point Mr Barnett made in his on-air comments was that local government backed out of structural reform to amalgamate councils in February 2015, but Ms Craigie said this accusation “failed to recognise” the state’s decision to terminate the program.
Mr Barnett’s on-air claim that local government CEO salaries are “excessive” also provoked criticism from Ms Craigie.
She said councils set their CEO salaries based on rules set by the state in accordance with salary bands set by the State Salaries and Allowances Tribunal.
“This approach begs the question of what the State’s true agenda might be. Whatever the questions are about local government, I’m absolutely certain that rate capping doesn’t hold the answers,” Ms Craigie said.
She said when New South Wales examined the impact of rate capping on local governments, there was “clear evidence” of a massive run-down of infrastructure as funding shifted away from asset replacement and maintenance to underwrite operating costs.
“Rate capping isn’t good financial management,” Ms Craigie said.
She said it creates a higher expense in the long run, that the state will ultimately have to take responsibility for.
