This article, by LGAQ media executive Craig Johnstone, originally appeared on LinkedIn here.
Good on The Courier-Mail for drawing attention to the difficulty many regional parts of Australia have in attracting and keeping professionals such as doctors, teachers and lawyers to live in their communities.
It has reported on figures compile by the Regional Australia Institute that suggest only 5 per cent of small towns have access to a dentist, 18 per cent have a GP and 6 per cent a psychologist.
The report mentioned the decline in professional services in the bush is particularly acute in places like Childers, Tully and Winton.
Local councils know all too well the battle to provide their communities with a level of access to services that people in the nation’s larger cities take for granted.
In fact, a large proportion of councils in Queensland have found themselves having to dip into their own coffers to help fund teaching and medical positions, despite these positions traditionally being a State Government responsibility.
The Local Government Association of Queensland conducted a survey in 2015 to try and get some idea of how widespread the practice of councils funding non-council services is in Queensland.
It found that, of the 44 councils that responded, 11 were funding medical positions in their communities and 18 were offering home care services.
About 28 councils were involved in providing community housing, while seven were funding teacher positions.
This work formed part of the LGAQ’s submission to the former Abbott Government’s ill-fated reviews into Australia’s federation and the adequacy of the tax system.
Neither of these reviews went anywhere. But for councils, the problem of ensuring an adequate level of health, education and other services to ensure their communities remain viable remains.
In 2015, councils were spending at least $26 million annually on “non-traditional” services. That is, services that their rates revenue was never meant to support.
All this is unsurprising when you realise that of all the taxation revenue collected in Australia, the Commonwealth takes 83 percent while local councils take just 3 percent.