Peter Whish-Wilson Tasmania, Australian Greens
3:37 pm
I move:
That the Senate—
(a) acknowledges the vertical fiscal imbalance in the Australian federal system and the impact this has on local government's ability to meet its expenditure responsibilities;
(b) notes that Financial Assistance Grants to local government have been subject to an index freeze since the 2014-15 Federal Budget; and
(c) calls on the Government to lift the freeze on indexation of the Financial Assistance Grants in the 2017-18 Federal Budget.
James McGrath Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister
I seek leave to make a short statement.
James McGrath Queensland, Liberal National Party, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister
The government does not support this motion as the indexation of financial system grants for 2017-18 onwards was announced in May 2016 and is reflected in the 2016-17 budget papers.
Question agreed to.