Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In my 16 years in parliament I've seen some cynical things, but I think the cynicism reached a new level last week with the announcement by the government that it's launching a parliamentary inquiry into the financial sustainability of local government. This amounts to another broken promise by a government which is effectively trying to stall action on an important sector of our community.

The financial sustainability of our 537 local councils is a very important issue. But what the government did in announcing this inquiry last week was really code, to all of those councils right across Australia, for 'there will be nothing in this budget for you'. 'There will be nothing in this budget for you'—because submissions to the inquiry actually close on 3 May, a few days before the budget. So there's obviously nothing in the budget for local government, and this government is effectively kicking the can down a pothole road.

It's cynical because, prior to the election, the now Prime Minister said there would be fair increases for local government. The Australian Local Government Association warned only a few weeks ago that time was running out for the federal government to deliver on those pre-election promises of fair increases to the financial assistance grants. I say to local councils: please, make a submission. It's really time for local councils across Australia to deliver the truth bomb to this government, to tell the truth about how the deficit in infrastructure and services and cost shifting is having an impact on their ability to deliver liveable local committees right across our great nation.