Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was going to speak today about the NBN and the lack of NBN service in Bendigo—the fact that Bendigo has been knocked off the map. But I want to take a moment to pick up on the contribution a few moments ago of the member for Indi, who spoke of the importance of financial assistance grants to our local governments, and how disappointing it is that this government has frozen the indexation of those grants. I would like to take this opportunity to put on the record again what the freezing of indexation means to the local governments in my own community.

It was disappointing that during the member's contribution she was being so rudely interrupted by those opposite—the way in which they were interjecting and speaking over the top of the member for Indi—because it dismisses how important this issue is to regional communities. I agree with the member for Indi that our local governments are struggling right now. They are struggling in regional Victoria for a number of reasons. First of all, they have the problem of large distances and smaller rate bases. That is not something that our city councils have to tackle. The fact is that city councils like those in Sydney and Melbourne are smaller geographical areas. The fact is they have more people living there. So they have a greater rate base yet a smaller geographical footprint in which to spend the rates that they gather.

That is one of the big issues that we face in the bush. This is compounded by the fact that more and more people are, unfortunately, leaving regional areas to move into the cities—though not in all areas. In Bendigo we are growing, but that is not true of all of my electorate of Bendigo. There is a drain going on. There are fewer and fewer people in the regions who have the capacity to pay rates. That is also putting pressure on our local government.

At the same time that we have this going on, the needs of these communities are increasing. We have ageing infrastructure in our regional areas. Our roads are in disrepair and we need assistance with that funding. The role of local government in regional communities is very important. It is very important for a number of reasons. I have mentioned infrastructure. I also need to mention that our local governments, particularly in regional Victoria, quite often are the providers of community services.

Right now, the City of Greater Bendigo is going through a debate about whether it will continue to deliver HACC services. In Melbourne, there are a number of not-for-profit and for-profit providers that are able to provide those HACC services. But in regional Victoria, where you cannot turn a buck and where you cannot make money out of community services, quite often our local governments step up. They step up and deliver those services so that people in our community do not go without.

Part of the debate that they are having in local government about whether they can continue to deliver HACC services is about wages. These are good jobs in our community and we want our councils to continue to have these good jobs. But what they need is help to pay the wages. That is why these financial assistance grants are so important. They help local government meet the wages bill of these good jobs.

It is not just HACC services. In a lot of our regional communities our local government is the major employer. The City of Greater Bendigo is one of the biggest employers that we have in my electorate. In the Macedon Ranges local government area, the Macedon Ranges Shire Council is one of the biggest employers. The Mount Alexander Shire Council, again, is another big employer in my electorate. We cannot underestimate the importance of the jobs that our local governments provide. That is why it is so important that this government actually gets behind local government.

I disagree with one of the arguments that is being put forward by our local government areas about rate capping. I support the state Labor government in rate capping and saying that local governments cannot increase their rates by more than CPI without making a justification or case for it. That is because our rates have gone up 18 per cent in some of my local government areas. Now that that is not happening, we need this government to get behind and support our local government areas more than ever. I join the member for Indi in calling on the government to reverse the decision to freeze the financial assistance grants.