The nation’s mayors have travelled as far as 3,000km to Canberra in the hopes the federal government will hear their voices.
Council leaders from almost all of Australia’s 537 local governments will gather in the nation’s capital on Wednesday for an annual conference to call for better local funding after enduring COVID lockdowns and years of natural disasters.
The Australian Local Government Association’s national general assembly will debate more than 100 motions for more federal support on climate change, local clean energy transitions, water security and skills shortages.
Association president Linda Scott, a City of Sydney Labor councillor, is confident the government will listen.
Scott said prime minister Anthony Albanese showed his commitment by restoring the Australian Council of Local Government, which will sit on Friday for the first time in a decade.
“This is an invaluable opportunity for Australian council leaders to speak directly to federal ministers, and hear from the prime minister about key issues facing our communities,” she said.
The conference will also feature addresses from regional development minister Catherine King, opposition leader Peter Dutton and Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko.
Council leaders are set to passionately advocate for increases to financial assistance grants, which give regions untied funding for priority community projects.
Though the federal government’s May Budget provided $3.1 billion for the grants over the next year, councils want the level of funding restored to 1% of commonwealth tax revenue.
At the association’s regional forum earlier in the week, local government minister Kristy McBain said her office was reviewing the financial assistance legislation.
“We want to make sure that it is equitable, that the money goes to where it needs to go,” McBain said.
North Burnett deputy mayor Robbie Radel told McBain the regional Queensland council’s funding was reduced despite having one of the longest road networks in Australia supported by a ratepayer base of 7000.
Radel said the council was considered financially unsustainable and had to shut down swimming pools, libraries and town halls.
“How much more can small regional communities do with reduced funding year after year?”
Other council leaders raised concerns about doctor shortages, flood preparedness and pastoral care for Pacific workers in the regions.
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