Whopping increases in rural rates, off the back of big rises in land valuations, are continuing to cause angst in many parts of Queensland, not least in the Central Highlands.
A ratepayers' group there has hit out at the latest rate hikes, describing them as unsustainable, while the issue is set to take centre stage at pre-budget information sessions being run by the Central Highlands Regional Council this week.
AgForce representatives planning to attend say that while people have to work together and have conversations, rural producers can't be expected to take on an extra rate burden without being given a way of handling it.
Meanwhile Gregory MP Lachlan Millar, who is hearing from disgruntled ratepayers every week, warns of the proposition of further amalgamations if councils become financially unsustainable, and says he wants to see an overhaul in the way local governments are funded.
The Central Highlands Ratepayers Group, formed in the wake of shire amalgamations in 2008 to lobby the disparity in rating across the four local government bodies that were lumped together, was inactive for a number of years but has now reformed as rates skyrocket.
Grazier Kevin Pickersgill, a self-described major ratepayer, heads up the group and says the shire as a whole is heading towards a critical situation, blaming the council's rating policy.
He said the council was applying increases in the unimproved capital value of land as a standard measure for what rates to charge, without adjusting the cents in the dollar to moderate increases or decreases.
"I've been on the council twice - with the Bauhinia Shire and then a term with the amalgamated council - and I think this is a dangerous precedent," he said.
"The council is arguing that the UCV is up 100 per cent so why shouldn't rates go up that much.
"This ignores that they then set the rate in the dollar. The councillors aren't looking at the income side, or the relativity of income to land values."
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A Central Highlands council spokesperson said that when property valuations substantially increased for rural properties two years ago, the council chose rate capping, rather than the rate in the dollar method to reduce the impact of increased property valuations on rates.
"Without the caps, the full impact of increased property valuations would have flowed through to rural ratepayers," the spokesperson said.
However, Mr Pickersgill said the UCV of his land had gone up elevenfold in 20 years, whereas his income had only gone up just over twofold.
"If you project this out to the next 20 years, we will be paying over half a million dollars in rates - you just can't do that," he said.
Paroo's differential dilemma
Cunnamulla landholders Lindsay and Carol Godfrey have been vocal about the rating strategy adopted by the Paroo Shire Council to manage rural rate increases, saying that when valuations went up 85pc on average in 2021, the council originally kept the same cents in the dollar rate as the previous year.
That was changed to a 10pc capped increase, but the council has now brought in a differential rating system, incorporating five different rates, which Mr Godfrey said was based on size and value.
"I argue, based on information in government publications on rating strategies, that's not legal," he said. "Rates are supposed to be based on land type."
Mr Godfrey said the differential rating virtually imitated the 10pc cap.
"The fundamental thing is that the council has moved away from using UCV, which reflects if land has gone up or down in value," he said.
"The UCV is a fairly independent tool that we've had for a long time.
"It's been an independent arbiter that councils shouldn't be fiddling with."
AgForce CEO Mike Guerin said capping was a conversation that could be had in the Central Highlands' case.
"Our message is that industry doesn't want to step away from paying fair rates," he said.
"We acknowledge the significant land increases but councils have to allow people to manage that.
"Costs of production are going up, and cashflows aren't going up at the same rate as land valuations."
Council sustainability
Managing rates in a resource-rich shire like the Central Highlands is an exercise in contrasts, where rural rates contribute 23 per cent of the shire's rates but rural properties represent almost 80pc of the shire's valuations.
The resource sector is responsible for almost 50pc of the council's rates but is only 4.6pc of valuations, and commercial and residential ratepayers contribute almost 27pc to rates.
The Central Highlands council statement said rural property revaluations that increased some rates up almost 100pc had been problematic.
"We know that CQ is considered a premium agricultural investment location and it's no surprise that strong sales have followed," it said. "That's a great boon to farmers' equity, but it has a flow-on effect on rating."
According to the CHRC, it was one of a number of councils that had financial assistance grants reduced by the Queensland Grants Commission, and it had been strongly advocating for a review of that process for regions like theirs.
Lachlan Millar agreed, saying the system needed a complete overhaul, and that state and federal governments should work together for that outcome.
"The state government is putting more on local government - health, childcare, education and so on - but the rural ones don't have a huge rate base to cover that," he said.
"We don't need to see FAGS go to Cairns, Townsville and big centres, when they have a bigger rate base to draw funds from.
"It's the same in Brisbane - they're getting a massive amount of funding for Olympics infrastructure and good on them, but let's redirect the FAGS money they're getting."
Mr Millar warned that in another 10 or so years, without change, more councils would become financially unsustainable, bringing on more forced amalgamations.
"We need to turn this on its head - what's happening now isn't working, 100pc rate increases aren't sustainable," he said.
Pre-budget sharing
Mr Pickersgill said the problem wasn't confined to rural ratepayers, saying rates in Emerald represented twice what was being paid on the eastern seaboard.
He'd ascertained this by speaking with people who owned a house and a motel in Rockhampton, and discovering that rates for each in Emerald were twice what they were paying in the beef capital.
"There's no incentive to live out here," Mr Pickersgill said.
Adding fuel to his fire, he said that although the council was planning a pre-budget meeting this week, attendance was by invitation only, and he hadn't been invited.
"I think it's staged - questions have to go into the council before the meeting," he said. "I don't think anything will come of it."
He has been urging ratepayers to join the ratepayers' group so that it can get dollars in the bank and the support of numbers to fight the council's position, but in the longer term he would like to see a group of like-minded people stand at the 2024 local government elections.
"I don't think we're isolated in this shire - it's happening elsewhere," he said.
"But we're struggling to talk to councillors, who say they're not allowed to talk out of school or comment on issues.
"They're there to represent us but we don't have any sight of what they're doing."
The CHRC pre-budget sessions will be used to show stakeholders how the Local Government Act requires it to budget and the parameters that it must work within.
"The sessions are a unique information sharing opportunity and our council is looking forward to the engagement program," the council statement said.
"The sessions will cover the wide range of factors that councillors consider as part of their budget decision-making.
"We have sought out peak body representatives, grazing and irrigation representatives and farmers to ensure that those key minds feed valuable questions into our process.
"It will be a little different to their own budgeting processes, but the fundamentals are the same."
All information provided at the sessions will be made available to the general public via council's website and Facebook page.
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