Drought and Financial Assistance Grants (FA Grants) will be two of the hot button topics to be tabled at this year’s LGAQ Annual Conference motions debate.
Financial Assistance Grants (FA Grants), a critical source of funding for councils, have declined by 43 percent over the past 20 years, now amounting to only 0.55% of Commonwealth taxation revenue. The motion to be tabled at this year’s conference will propose the LGAQ lobby the Federal Government to restore FA Grants to at least one percent.
LGAQ CEO Greg Hallam said the move would provide much needed security to councils,
“It is not as if pushing for at least 1 percent of Commonwealth tax revenue is a random ask. That is what local councils received more than 20 years ago. Since then, successive Federal governments have seen fit to gradually reduce their support for local communities through these grants, until today when the funding under FA Grants amounts to just 0.55 percent of total Commonwealth taxation."
Drought has been a tough reality for many Queensland communities with 57.4 percent of the state currently affected. This year’s drought motion calls for the LGAQ, through a formal submission, to call on the Federal and State Governments to adopt a bipartisan, coordinated and whole of government response to the impacts of ongoing drought in Queensland communities.
Watch the video below to hear from Longreach Council Mayor Ed Warren and Barcaldine Regional Council Mayor Rob Chandler speak on these two issues.
Each year, Queensland councils gather at the LGAQ Annual Conference to debate the most urgent issues impacting their communities and set the LGAQ's policy agenda for the next 12 months. Hundreds of motions have been submitted ahead of the LGAQ Annual Conference motions debate to be held on day two of the annual conference in Brisbane (29 – 31 October 2018).
It's an example of grassroots democracy in action, and the biggest event in the Queensland local government calendar.
You can find out more about the motions process here.