Source : the age
Claims that Brisbane residents are being slugged with higher rates bills than promised dominated a rowdy meeting at City Hall on Tuesday.
While Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner spruiked an average rate rise of 3.97 per cent for households when the budget was handed down in June, some homeowners have since been hit with significantly greater increases.
His office has since clarified that the 3.97 per cent “household” figure only applied to freestanding houses.
A similar caveat was provided for the widely promoted cap limiting increases to 7.5 per cent, which did not apply to owners paying the “minimum rates base”.
Suzanne Hall lives in her own unit in the inner-city suburb of Milton. Her rates and charges climbed just under 13 per cent between the June and September quarters, from $448.10 to $506.85.
“It’s just the misleading information that concerns me,” she said. “I do feel they’re not being transparent.
“Milton is apartment dense, so you can imagine that they’re getting a lot of money … ‘tall, not sprawl’ is pretty good for the council bank balance.”
“Tall, not sprawl” refers to the Schrinner council’s policy of promoting apartment construction in established suburbs to house the city’s growing population, rather than permitting further land clearing for new development on the fringes.
While it was not included in promotional material, the 351-page budget released in June contained a line item for owner-occupied units showing the minimum rates increasing from $998 to $1138 per annum – or about 14 per cent.
It also shows non-owner-occupied homes increasing by an average of 7.74 per cent.
Schrinner defended his council on Tuesday, saying Brisbane rates were lower than anywhere else in south-east Queensland and would have been higher under a Labor administration.
He added some residents had been affected by significant increases to their home’s value, with the Brisbane property market booming for much of the past 12 months.
“We’re conscious that cost of living is such an important thing, which is why we work so hard to keep rates low,” Schrinner told reporters.
Chris Walker has collated rates data for every council across the region, taking into account a multitude of factors.
He considers Somerset Regional Council to be the cheapest in south-east Queensland, but said Brisbane was more affordable for the average family in a house than surrounding areas, including Ipswich, the Gold and Sunshine coasts, and Redlands.
“It’s pretty cheap,” Walker told this masthead.
“[In Somerset] you get a lot less for your money … you don’t have King George Square and stuff like that.”
Labor opposition leader Jared Cassidy used council question time on Tuesday to accuse the lord mayor of being deceptive, prompting cheers from a packed public gallery.
“Why did you hide this increase from more than 180,000 unit and townhouse households in Brisbane?” Cassidy asked Schrinner.
“Are you ashamed about it, or are you just really, really sneaky?”
He said multiple people who approached Labor reported being caught off guard by the size of their rates increase.
In a protest against recent changes to the information councillors are allowed to access, independent Nicole Johnston sat beside a cardboard gravestone for much of the meeting.
It read: “This is Democracide – RIP Transparency.”
Under changes to state law backed by Schrinner and previously covered by this masthead, councillors can no longer access documents or information not directly related to their ward.
“This is a drastic attempt to stop scrutiny, accountability and transparency of this tired and out of touch LNP administration,” Johnston previously said.
Community group Tight Knit had earlier in the day brought a coffin to City Hall to protest over the same changes, with supporters then sitting through question time.
“It affects everything here in Brisbane,” organiser Tully Connor said.
“If you love the city … you should care, because what this is going to do is affect your safety with roads and buses and all sorts of things.
“It’s really important that you know what decisions they’re making, otherwise who are they serving?”
In separate business on Tuesday, council voted to sign off on finalised contracts for a range of services, including dead animal collection with Brisbane Livestock Control.
Last year, 6013 animals were collected, data released by the council showed. More than half were possums. Domestic pets, kangaroos and horses were also removed.
Coorparoo – also the city’s top suburb for bird-swooping – topped the list for the most animal collections, followed by Carindale and Rochedale.
The collection service generally operates free of charge from 6am to 4pm every day except Sundays.
“This is one of those council services most people never think about until they need it, but it’s been helping Brisbane residents for decades,” the lord mayor said in a statement.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
