Green light for rates increase

By Christine McKee

May 21, 2025

A public forum in Corowa showed large opposition to the proposed Special Rates Variation.

Federation Council’s application for a Special Rate Variation has been approved by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART).

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

The council applied for a rate increase of 69.94 per cent over two years, with 52.01 per cent in 2025/26 and 11.8 per cent in 2026/27.

IPART chair Carmel Donnelly said the decision was based on IPART’s assessment against the Office of Local Government criteria, taking into account the issues raised by stakeholders during the submission period.

Federation mayor, Cheryl Cook said it was important to note that the increase included the temporary increases of 19 per cent applied in 2023/24 and 17 per cent in 2024/25, and included the ordinary rate increases allowable for those years.

A further increase of 19 per cent will be applied in 2025/26 and 11.8 per cent in 2026/27.

Cr Cook said the council had continued with its productivity and efficiency program and had delivered more than $800,000 in savings and efficiency improvements in each of the past five years, with further commitments noted and sought for future years.

“Unfortunately, savings and productivity and efficiency improvements alone are not enough to arrest years of underfunding, with this being a systemic issue across many rural and regional councils from years of rate pegs being set too low,” she said.

“Council's application for the SRV was driven by the need to more responsibly and sustainably deliver services and manage the assets needed for those services, through continuing to improve financial sustainability.”

She said hard decisions were needed, such as raising rates and taking a longer-term view of asset management, with ageing assets not in acceptable condition, including large areas of the road network from years of underfunding, increasing traffic loads, and extreme weather events.

Federation Council’s draft budget for the 2025/26 financial year includes an $11.6 million capital works renewal and improvement program for roads, bridges and footpaths.

- Boat Rock Road, Savernake

- Kooringal Road, Balldale

- Redlands Road, Corowa

- Federation Way

- Morundah – Coleambally Road.

The rate rise comes at a time when many people are feeling financial pressure and Cr Cook said she was very conscious of the hardship a rates rise could cause and help was available.