wimmeramalleenews_au23d ago
WITH ballooning state debt and an election looming later this year, Victorian Treasurer, Jaclyn Symes, delivered the 2026 State Budget on Tuesday, May 5, calling it “disciplined” and highlighting the “first operating surplus in seven years" at more than $700 million for 2025-26. But Hindmarsh Shire called it "deeply disappointing" and questioned the priorities of the State Government in its response. In a lengthy statement, the Hindmarsh Shire Council mayor Ron Ismay, said there was no meaningful recognition of the scale of the assets rural councils manage or of the economic contribution they make to Victoria. "Once again, rural councils have been overlooked," he said. "There is no targeted funding response for councils that maintain vast infrastructure networks with very small populations and highly constrained rate bases." Cr Ismay said funding continued to be allocated primarily on population-based measures, ignoring the reality rural councils are responsible for significantly larger asset portfolios per resident. "In Hindmarsh Shire, the infrastructure burden sits at more than $51,000 per resident, compared with around $9800 per resident in metropolitan councils," he said. "Yet funding models fail to recognise this gap." Hindmarsh Shire is among the largest councils geographically in Victoria and has one of the largest local road networks, yet receives bottom-quartile Financial Assistance Grant funding, highlighting a clear structural inequity in how funding is distributed. "Our communities depend on safe roads, bridges, and essential infrastructure to support agriculture, freight, emergency response and regional connectivity," Mr Ismay said. "These assets are critical to Victoria's economy, yet the Budget shows no recognition of the economic output generated from rural and regional Victoria." Cr Ismay also highlighted the growing impact of cost shifting from other levels of government, particularly in areas such as emergency management, public health, libraries, compliance, and infrastructure standards, which places additional pressure on small rural councils with limited revenue-raising capacity. "Rural Councils are being asked to do more, maintain more, and manage greater risk, with fewer funding tools," he said. "This is not the result of poor financial management; it is a structural mismatch between responsibilities and funding." "This is compounded by a one‐size‐fits‐all approach to State legislation, with policies such as the four‐bin system failing to recognise the vast distances, dispersed housing and high collection costs faced by rural communities, costs that ultimately fall on residents through higher service charges. "Rural Victoria simply cannot be treated the same as metropolitan Melbourne when geography, service delivery and financial sustainability realities are so different. "Without reform to funding models that properly account for asset scale, service delivery costs and economic contribution, rural councils will continue to fall behind on renewal despite strong governance and prudent financial planning." Cr Ismay said that, with funding driven almost solely by population, the gap between metropolitan and rural councils would only widen. "The State Budget is a missed opportunity to recognise that strong regional infrastructure underpins Victoria's prosperity as a whole."
