TO fix the roads crisis, we need to fix the rates system, according to Member for Mildura Ali Cupper.
Ms Cupper said the rating system was “rigged” against small rural councils with a “raft of unique cost pressures including massive road networks to maintain”.
“While Robinvale and Mildura brace for potentially record-breaking floods, the crisis is far from over in Buloke where residents brace for more rain and grapple with major road problems which it simply can’t afford to fix,” she said.
“The roads crisis in Buloke is a combination of two major factors: recent flood damage, and chronic underfunding by state and federal governments.
“And roads funding is just part of the answer.
“The bigger issue is the Victorian rating system and how it is rigged against small rural councils with a raft of unique cost pressures including massive road networks to maintain.
“In short, to fix the roads crisis, we need to fix the rates crisis.”
Ms Cupper said the answer was an equalisation funding system, which would mean properties of the same value would pay the same rates regardless of where they were in the state.
“No longer would a farmer in Buloke be paying six times the rates of a resident in Stonnington for a property of the same value,” she said.
“In the meantime, there’s some even quicker ways the state and federal governments could help councils fund and fix their roads, not just in a flood crisis but all year round.”
She said an example was changing how the Financial Assistance Grants were distributed.
“Victorian Minister for Local Government Shaun Leane committed to doing his part,” she said.
“Via the State Grants Commission, he committed to redirecting approximately $30 million a year from wealthy metro councils, into the coffers of poor rural councils. All he needed was the permission of the feds.
“But when I took that case to the then federal Coalition Government, including National Party Assistant Minister for Local Government, Kevin Hogan, he wouldn’t even give me a meeting.
“With the stroke of a pen, Mr Hogan could have increased Buloke’s annual grant funding by $5 million, and Yarriambiack’s by $3 million. But the National Party wasn’t interested.
‘The National Party had the ability to make a game-changing difference to the financial sustainability of our smallest councils, whose road networks are among the biggest in the State, and they failed.
“Right now, there are 90 undrivable roads in Buloke and not enough money to fix them.
“The current support from the federal and state governments is welcome, but insufficient.
“Federal rules about ‘no betterment’ mean their grants barely patch the roads, let alone fix them.”
