PRIVATE MEMBERS' BUSINESS

Mr WILLCOX (Dawson) (18:22): I'm pleased to second this motion supporting local government. After all, local government is the level of government closest to the people, but I believe many in this place have completely forgotten this. Earlier today in the House of Representatives, during question time, in response to a question asked by the member for Fowler, the Prime Minister said: This isn't a council.

This is a serious parliament … This just goes to show how out of touch the Prime Minister really is. Does the Prime Minister realise it's local councils who actually do the heavy lifting? They build and maintain tens of thousands of kilometres of rural roads and local roads.

They provide the vital sewerage, water and waste management services. Can you imagine if there were no sewer, if there were no water, if there were no waste? You couldn't get a good drink of water.

Your bin couldn't get emptied. You couldn't go to the bathroom. Councils maintain the parks, the gardens and the sporting fields that our families rely on, and they manage libraries, halls, civic centres and cultural hubs.

Councils maintain the very essential services that our community cannot do without. The Prime Minister then went on to say: No-one has done more for local government in this House than me. The audacity of that statement is staggering.

The member for Parkes, who presented this motion, served as Mayor of the Gunnedah Shire in New South Wales for eight years before entering federal parliament. I spent 10 years in local government, four years as a councillor and six years as Mayor of the Whitsundays. I can guarantee the Prime Minister that there are many more people in this place who have done a heck of a lot more for local government than he ever will.

This Labor government doesn't back local councils; it abandons them. We're talking about the exact same prime minister who just slashed the federal government's contribution to disaster funding, of all things. The uncomfortable truth is that local government receives only three per cent of all tax revenue—that's derived from rates, fees and charges—the state receives around 16 per cent and the feds receive a whopping 81 per cent, mainly through income tax.

Yet despite only receiving three per cent of tax revenue, local governments are forced to manage 33 per cent of all public infrastructure assets. How is that fair? To add insult to injury, the latest federal budget has slashed financial assistance grants to just 0.49 per cent of Commonwealth tax revenue, down from 0.51 per cent.

This financial assistance grant is so important to local councils because it's untied funding, so the councils get to determine what is the best use for that money. Let me tell you, they use it very, very wisely. The Albanese Labor government has completely defunded and eliminated the Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program.

This has been used for priority local roads and priority infrastructure programs. They've also made cuts to the Regional Precincts and Partnerships program and the Urban Precincts and Partnerships program. In its latest stunt, the Albanese government recently announced a massive overhaul to the disaster recovery arrangements, the DRFA, reducing the Commonwealth funding share to a split of fifty-fifty with state and territory governments.

This is a huge loss in particular for Queensland councils. Under the historical model, the federal government picked up approximately 64 per cent, capping out at 75 per cent, of the major infrastructure costs. Shifting to a fifty-fifty model strips millions out of disaster recovery budgets and pushes the financial burden directly onto the state and the local ratepayers—just another example of 'when Labor runs out of their money, they come after yours'.

This disaster funding cut represents a massive betrayal of Queensland, where 74 out of the 77 local government areas were formally disaster declared following recent cyclones. For every natural disaster event, a small regional council is now required to pay $130,000 upfront. That is not fair, and it needs to change.