The Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) and the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) are calling on the federal government to honour its promise to restore indexation of financial assistance grants in the May budget.

Moyne Shire Council has been hard hit since the government froze indexation on the grants three years ago.

In that time, the revenue to Moyne with no indexation on these grants has fallen by $1 million. 

At their March meeting in Mortlake this week, councillors passed a motion to write to member for Wannon Dan Tehan, calling for the restoration of the indexation.

In his support of the motion, Cr Daniel Meade pointed to the importance of council getting all the funding it was entitled to.

“A million dollars could go a long way in our rural communities,” Cr Meade said.

The ALGA and MAV  have launched a campaign, “End the Freeze”. They estimate local councils Australia-wide have lost $925 million in reveune to non-indexation over the past three years.   

Corangamite Shire mayor Jo Beard said the freeze must end to ensure federal grants to local government grow in line with population and the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Cr Beard said there were concerns the government would move away from its promise to restore indexation.

“Financial assistance grants are a vital source of funding for councils, helping to deliver local services and maintain community infrastructure,” Cr Beard said.

“They are even more important to large rural shires with limited alternative funding sources.

“For Corangamite Shire, it would mean a $140,000 hit to next year’s budget. That’s $140,000 that will not go into maintaining our roads or delivering services to our communities, purely because the federal government has reneged on its promise.”