Jamie Chaffey (Parkes, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

Today I rise to stand up for local government right across Australia. As a former mayor of a New South Wales regional town, as a former board member of Local Government New South Wales and as a former chairman of the Country Mayors Association of New South Wales, I know the challenges of local government. I have lived with the struggle of stretching limited dollars further than they were ever meant to go. Councils provide essential services Australians can't do without—water services, waste services, animal services—and they are responsible for the roads, for the planning, for the sporting fields, the public pools, the libraries, the playgrounds, weed control, sometimes even aged care, child care and disaster planning and resilience and much, much more.

Now, as shadow assistant minister for local government and territories, I know that the struggle to make ends meet is real for our councils, and I know that this federal budget has left councils right across Australia devastated. After fighting for the financial assistance grants they rely on so much to be increased to one per cent of Commonwealth taxation revenue, they have been cut instead. This week the Albanese Labor government announced a financial assistance grants that are now currently sitting at 0.51 per cent of Commonwealth taxation revenue will now drop to 0.49 per cent. This is absolute proof that councils have not been heard—or, even worse, that they've been totally ignored by this Labor government. Despite shifting costs and responsibilities onto the tier of government that can least afford it, the federal government is asking them to do more with less.

The statistics show that councils are struggling financially. They are forced to resort to seeking special rate variations or other methods to raise more funds for their communities, with massive increases of up to 100 per cent. No-one can afford that massive bill shock. Once again, it is the local ratepayer who ends up footing the bill; cuts to councils are cuts to our ratepayers.

There are almost 10 million Australians who choose to live in regional Australia. That's 10 million Australians who have been left out in the cold with this budget. Alongside the cuts to financial assistance grants, there is minimal spending in regional infrastructure. The Inland Rail project north of Parkes was cut, leaving my regional communities shell-shocked. Communities, businesses and families have factored this project into their life decisions for the last 10 years. The Local Roads and Community Infrastructure Program has gone, under this budget, and there's no new funding for the Regional Precincts and Partnerships Program either, in the years to come.

This budget is a nail in the coffin for local government's trust, is the final blow for local government's respect and is the latest in a litany of broken promises. This government needs to remember that state governments can't deliver without local government and that the federal government can't deliver without local government. Councils should be our trusted partners to deliver the services Australians need.

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