Weekly column from Council Courier e-newsletter by CEO Greg Hallam, Friday 17 June 2016.
The past week has been a bloody satisfying one for Queensland councils – especially their chief financial officers.
First, the 2016-17 State Budget rewarded months of lobbying by President Margaret, Advocate general manager Greg Hoffman and his tenacious team of advisors. It was the best State Budget we’ve seen for several years and it rained money for local government.
We'll receive as much as $200 million in extra funding over the next financial year. We can put ticks beside most of the big-ticket items we’ve fought hard for – the renewed Community Resilience Fund, continued Transport Infrastructure Development Scheme (TIDS) funding, money for telecommunications in remote and rural communities, innovation and job creation programs and more.
We must give the Palaszczuk Government credit for delivering such a strong, smart Budget. We’ll often clash on issues and have opposing points of view but we’ll always send bouquets when warranted.
As I hinted last week, the Association and our insurance subsidiaries have achieved a financial coup for its members. The LGAQ Board has moved to hand back $6 million in cold hard cash to members in 2016-17 from special LGM and LGW distributions.
That’s $10 million in returned money in the past two years alone – just $1 million more than what councils paid the LGAQ in subscriptions over the same period! This is not a new phenomenon – the Association has distributed a whopping
$22 million to its members over the past seven years.
Of course, producing such a windfall can’t be done prudently every year, however when actuarial advice deems it appropriate, then we’ll always follow our rule that “it’s members’ money, not ours”. No other peak body in Australia does this. It’s yet another concrete example of the billion-plus benefits the LGAQ has delivered to its members over the past four years.
Finally, congratulations to LGAQ President Margaret, the Board and Policy Executive whose terms are now ending. The Policy Executive elections end at 5pm today and councils will be advised of the results on Monday.
A new Board and acting President will be elected on Thursday, 30 June. The President for the remainder of the term will be elected at the LGAQ AGM, which is held at the same time as the Annual Conference in late October on the Gold Coast.