Revolt over $925 mil Budget raid on councils

Rates rises and big cuts to local community services set to roll as Financial Assistance Grants frozen.

16 May, 2014

Vic councils slam Labor policy to cap rates at CPI

The local government sector in Victoria will be gearing up for a bout against the Labor Opposition after its controversial election proposal to cap rates and force councils to justify any further increases.

6 May, 2014

Victoria bends to meet piped gas deadline demands

By Paul Hemsley The Victorian government has granted energy companies in the state more time to come up with bids for an $85 million tender to pipe natural gas to Murray River communities and other selected towns that were promised mains supplies during the last election campaign. The extension to providers heads-off what was threatening […]

17 December, 2013

Call to overhaul Victorian library system

By Julian Bajkowski Victoria’s network of council run public libraries could soon be set for a centralised overhaul after a key government report recommended the adoption of a single state-wide library card, radio-frequency tracking of books and new platform to allow digital resources like e-books to be borrowed. The biggest review of public libraries ever […]

5 December, 2013

Vic councils sandbag against flood levee cost shifting

By Paul Hemsley Victoria’s City of Greater Bendigo is digging in for a fight to prevent the state government from shifting responsibility for flood levee bank funding from the Catchment Management Authorities onto local governments. The council has announced is investigating the formation of a lobbying alliance with other municipalities to oppose any potential state […]

15 November, 2013

Victorian rates hike blamed on superannuation slug

By Paul Hemsley and Julian Bajkowski The Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) has blamed unpopular rate hikes averaging 4.8 per cent or $76 on growing ‘critical’ cost pressures arising from the need to top-up $396.9 million worth of unpaid liabilities for the Defined Benefit Superannuation Shortfall, a yawning infrastructure backlog and pervasive cost shifting to […]

8 July, 2013

Lender tender for Vic councils superannuation funding gap

By Paul Hemsley Going to the bank for a loan doesn’t ordinarily require the extra screening of a tender process, but the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) is doing just that to get financial help to fund a Defined Benefit Plan that is troubling councils which urgently need to top-up their employees’ superannuation shortfall. MAV […]

18 June, 2013

Victorian state and local governments split over referendum

By Paul Hemsley and Julian Bajkowski Victorian councils have slammed the state’s local government minister, Jeanette Powell, over claims that a referendum on financial recognition of local government in the Constitution could result in an erosion of state government power as deliberate scaremongering. In a broadside aimed squarely at his state government, Municipal Association of […]

16 May, 2013

Councils cautious on Coalition’s copper NBN plan

By Julian Bajkowski and Paul Hemsley Australia’s local government sector has been left facing tough choices over how to deal with the release of Coalition’s policy on the National Broadband Network that would forgo fibre-to-the-premises in favour of recycling Telstra’s ageing copper lines in many regional areas. After decades of campaigning to get better internet […]

12 April, 2013

Ratings guide doesn’t rate: MAV

By Julian Bajkowski   The Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) has taken the state government to task over what it claims are “serious shortcomings” revealed in draft differential rating guidelines.   A new submission by the MAV urges the Napthine government to adopt “greater support to develop rating strategies” as the state’s local government sector […]

19 March, 2013

LGSA accelerates social media push

By Paul Hemsley The Local Government and Shires Association of New South Wales (LGSA) has become the latest local government peak body to launch a Twitter account as part of its website redesign and relaunch. The LGSA has joined the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA), Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV), the Victorian Local Governance Association […]

17 January, 2013

Strapped councils demand superannuation break

By Paul Hemsley The Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) has ratcheted-up its campaign for local councils to be given a funding bail out to cope with an escalating series of budget cuts and funding shortfalls. The demands for new money come as a $396.9 million superannuation shortfall looms over local governments which could soon be […]

30 August, 2012

Victorian councils demand CSG probe into ‘fraccing’

By Paul Hemsley and Julian Bajkowski Victorian local governments have warned that new bans on the controversial practice of coal seam gas (CSG) extraction through hydraulic fracturing (fraccing) in the state still don’t go far enough. The peak body for councils in the state has vowed it will continue to push for a parliamentary probe […]

27 August, 2012

Carbon tax hits up council rates

By Paul Hemsley Individual councils will be affected differently according to their own unique situations and rates may increase, according to the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA). ALGA President Genia McCaffery said councils are faced with challenges in working out the full impacts of the carbon price on their operations. “The introduction of the carbon […]

2 July, 2012