The call comes after Australia’s 538 local councils stood together in June in a step unprecedented in scale and unanimity warning of a financial crisis affecting local government.
They called for the Australian Parliament to deliver an immediate increase of $3.5 billion, restoring Financial Assistance Grants to 1 per cent of annual federal tax revenue.
Mr Farley told the Parliament that Farrer spans 126,000 sq kms and its 160,000 citizens have a median personal income of just $810 nett per week.
“We are the people who grow the food, mine the minerals, and move the freight that underwrites the national economy,” he said.
“Meanwhile, shires are being forced to consider annual rate increases of 50 per cent to 85 per cent, not from bureaucratic excess, but because the cost of keeping roads open, towns functional, and halls standing has been inflated by forces originating not in our towns, but in this Parliament.
“A household earning $810 a week nett cannot absorb an 85 per cent rates hike.”
In 2026-27 the Australian Government will provide about $3.6 billion in untied funding to local governing bodies under the Financial Assistance Grant program.
The grants are split into General Purpose Grants and Local Roads Grants, allowing local governments to spend money based on community needs, but Mr Farley said the program was running in reverse to inflation.
“Its formulas and algorithms were built for a different Australia and do not reflect the true cost environment regional councils now face.”
“Its formulas and algorithms were built for a different Australia and do not reflect the true cost environment regional councils now face,” he said.
“Every year, the real value of the grant declines while obligations grow; our post-war memorial swimming pools are cracking, town halls and community halls are decaying, and roads and bridges carry freight they were never engineered for.
“A shire with a shrinking grant and an exhausted ratepayer base cannot fund these renewals alone.”
Moira Shire Council’s chief executive, Matthew Morgan attended the National General Assembly of Local Government in Canberra in June and said restoring the Financial Assistance Grants would increase Moira Shire’s funding from $15 million to $28 million annually.
He said that the extensive geographic footprint meant that, unlike metropolitan councils that benefit from concentrated populations, Moira Shire Council must provide services across numerous dispersed communities while operating multiple facilities and service points.
Federation Council mayor, Cheryl Cook was also at the National General Assembly and said councils were being asked to do much more with drastically less.
"For regional and rural councils like Federation, this isn't just a line item on a balance sheet; it is about the survival of our community’s most basic lifelines,“ she said.
“Without adequate resources backed by the Federal Government, maintaining essential day-to-day services is becoming an impossible task.”
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