Randwick Mayor Kathy Neilson is calling on candidates standing for election in the seat of Kingsford Smith and Wentworth to support the call by the Australian Local Government Association for a fairer share of taxation revenue to flow to local communities through their councils.

Councils across Australia receive Commonwealth grants, known as Financial Assistance Grants (FAGs), to provide services and infrastructure for their local communities but the relative size of the grants has almost halved over the past 20 years, stopping many communities from achieving their full potential.

“Communities everywhere face major challenges in attracting and retaining people or trying to meet the needs of growing populations and we are no different”, said Mayor Neilson.

“At the national level councils manage 33% of the nation’s public infrastructure, including 75% of our roads, but we raise only 3.6% of taxes through our rates.

“We rely on transfers from other levels of government, especially the Federal Government, and without a fairer share of tax revenue we can’t hope to keep our roads, parks and public facilities up to scratch.”

“The future of our community depends on getting a better deal.  It seems only right that a fair share of the taxes we pay to the Federal Government should be spent here at the local level on the things our community considers a priority.

“We’re joining the calls of the local government sector for all political parties and election candidates to commit to fairer funding to local councils as part of their party’s election campaign platform.”

Randwick Council resolved on 30 April 2019:

RESOLUTION: (Mayor, Cr Neilson) that Council:

(a)acknowledges the importance of federal funding through the Financial Assistance Grants program for the continued delivery of council services and infrastructure;
(b)expresses its concern about the decline in the value of Financial Assistance Grants funding at the national level from an amount equal to around 1% of Commonwealth Taxation Revenue in 1996 to a current figure of around 0.55%;
(c)write to our local Federal Members of Parliament to call on their support for this campaign; and
(c)calls on all political parties contesting the 2019 Federal Election and their local candidates to support the Australian Local Government Association’s call to restore the national value of Financial Assistance Grants funding to an amount equal to at least 1 % of Commonwealth Taxation revenue and therefore to provide a Fairer Share of Federal funding for our local communities.

More information about this and other local government federal election initiatives is available at www.allpoliticsislocal.com.au
For more information about Randwick Council visit www.randwick.nsw.gov.au or call 1300 722 542.

Media enquiries:
Chelsea Hunter – 0419 694 983 or chelsea.hunter@randwick.nsw.gov.au

Joshua Hay – 0402 351 459 or joshua.hay@randwick.nsw.gov.au