Crippling Council Rates: What Can be Done? By Paul Walker

Even in the cities, council rates have become financial killers for ordinary families, but this is nothing compared to what rural farmers are facing. The story below is a shocker, with one farmer paying $ 84, 000 a year for the local council. And, they get very little for their money. So, why? Well, the rates are based upon property valuations. The question is, why should this be so? Why should that be a ground for assessing rates at such a high rate? It seems a scam. And the solution is political opposition to this, at the state level in all states. It is something that should be done and activists need to begin lobbying.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-17/rural-rates-in-queensland-questioned-by-farmers/101504290

“Lawson Geddes's family has run his central Queensland cattle property near Shoalwater Bay for more than 140 years.

He loves the rural lifestyle, far away from populated areas.

"We take care of ourselves and always have," he said. "We like it that way."

Given the relative isolation of his 10,000-hectare property, Mr Geddes said he's had little to do with the local council in Livingstone Shire, north of Rockhampton.

So, he was shocked when he opened his half-yearly rates notice to a bill for $41,605.

"It had jumped about $16,000, about 24 per cent," he said.

"So now we're paying about $84,000 a year for rates for the local council."

Mr Geddes said he had always understood the need to provide for the community, but his latest payments had him wondering what he was paying for. 

"I think if you're in the shire you've definitely got to pay rates, but it's been a bit exorbitant," he said.

"I've got to pay $84,000 before I feed a cow, before I feed myself, before I pay anyone to come and work for me.

"I'm basically running a paddock of bulls to pay the council."

How do councils determine rates?

Livingstone Shire Mayor Andy Ireland said local councils needed to levy rates from landholders to provide services for their communities.

He said individual rates were based heavily on property valuations.  

"We have a differential ratings system, so we have lots of different categories based on their purpose and valuation," Mr Ireland said. 

"Then for each of these categories, a rate in the dollar is applied, or a cent in the dollar is applied."

Mr Ireland said this process meant it was difficult to keep rates low when land valuations increased.

The Queensland Valuer-General released its latest land valuations for 30 local government areas in March.

Livingstone Shire increased by 30.9 per cent overall since the last valuation in 2020, but some areas rose by up to 60 per cent.

The Valuer-General noted "rural lands have generally had significant increases, due to the strength in beef commodity prices, as well as a low interest rate environment".

"We did our very best to try and get that dollar down so the impact wasn’t as bad as it potentially could have been," Mr Ireland said.

"But in order to raise the revenue we need to provide services across the board, those rates in the dollar are what we determined we have to charge.

"Certainly, a lot of that is beyond our control."

Rural returns

Mr Geddes said despite his enormous council contributions, his property received few council services. 

"We get no rubbish services, we look after our own water and everything like that," he said.

"They used to come and spend a month bringing gravel and doing up the road.

"But I can't remember the last time they carted gravel up here."