LOCAL government would not be local anymore, if a proposal to create 13 ‘super councils’ in Victoria were to come to fruition.
According to Swan Hill Rural City Council CEO Dean Miller, they would be better defined as regional councils.
The comments follow a media report this week calling for Victoria’s current 38 rural councils to be condensed to 13 super councils — with Swan Hill to be in the Lower Murray area — to avoid a “crippling funding crisis” and bankruptcy for up to one third of them.
But Mr Miller yesterday disputed the call, which would see boundaries roughly align with water catchment areas.
“This model that they have come up with, you may as well take the local out of local government,” he said.
“There are a number of small rural councils where sustainability is questionable, there’s no doubt about that.
“But if [state and federal] government continues to cost shift, or introduce rate capping, or cut our grants back, the whole sector will become unsustainable.”
Local government bodies across the country have been severely affected by a freeze on the indexation of the Australian Government’s Financial Assistance Grants.
The grants were a significant source of income for some councils, with Swan Hill alone expecting to lose about $1 million in revenue each year the freeze continues.
Despite these difficultues, Mr Miller said Swan Hill council was “not in crisis”.
For more on this story, grab a copy of Friday’s Guardian (April 10).
