CHAIR – Minister, the Office of Local Government’s funding has decreased by $654,000 in this interim Budget, which equates to a reduction of $168,000, or 1.6 per cent over the next four years. Could you please provide an explanation of why this funding has been reduced?
It follows neatly on from Ms Dow’s questions because there’s a lot of local government reform to occur.
Mr VINCENT – Part of that is because we’re under a temporary increase at the moment for some of the work that we are doing, but the 2025‑26 expenditure Budget for output group 1.9 is $3 million, a $431,000 increase from the 2024‑25 of 2.6 per cent. The increase in Local Government output 1.9 in 2025‑26 reflects funding for the Office of Local Government’s compulsory voting initiative, provided for in the 2023‑24 Budget, and the Central Coast Council’s waterfront renewal program, which gives it a spike but I will ask Mr Healey to clarify any other points that may affect that budget.
Mr HEALEY – No, that’s right. there is some funding that we do receive from the Commonwealth for the administration of the recreational fishing and camping grants, but the base funding is steadily increasing, indexed as per normal. There is a slight anomaly I notice in 2026‑27, but I assume that’s from the 2027 pay issue that is showing up in a number of the Estimates.
CHAIR – In relation to a delayed start on recommendations from the Future of Local Government review, how is your government planning to go forward with the local government reforms given the tight budget and timeframe?
Mr VINCENT – We’ve discussed that and worked through it. We believe that we are able to work with what’s there at the moment. Should something change or needs to be addressed, we would certainly be very quick to put up a hand but at present we’re working within the constraints that are there and believe we have that under control.
Mr HEALEY – Through you, minister, we did reprofile a little bit of funding this financial year. Previously, we were planning on a bit of reform. Given that it’s a very compressed year and we have plenty on internally, we’ve reprofiled that so that there is a small amount of funding in 2026‑27 and 2027‑28 to progress the recommendations. A lot of the recommendations from the Future of Local Government are internal policy related issues, which we can reprioritise our internal resources to deliver on. Obviously, some of them, if there was a voluntary amalgamation for example, that couldn’t be accommodated within the funding envelope that’s here, but we would consider that on a case-by-case basis.
CHAIR – I can’t remember which councils – was it Kentish? The two councils up in the north‑west?
Mr VINCENT – Kentish and Latrobe, and then the three councils on the east coast were looking as well.
CHAIR – Are you able to give us an indication – Even though they want amalgamations, you can’t process those happening earlier, subject to the community wanting this? My understanding is that it does.
Mr VINCENT – There is some work that is still being done in that area, and we are still in consultation and there hasn’t been any great surges of community or council support to rush that through. They were looking to do a lot more community consultation, but having been through that process a few times before, there needs to be a maturity of conversation that they have themselves because the government can go along and spend a lot of money in initiating a certain level of conversation in those areas where nothing comes to bear. So, we need the communities to mature to the level that the conversation is much more pronounced towards being a workable proposition. The general managers certainly on the east coast councils have some sensible discussions about the service levels and everything like that, but it hasn’t progressed to a point that we’re satisfied that it would move quickly enough.
Mr HEALEY – Through you, minister, we have had a few preliminary discussions with the councils on the north-west coast; looking to the west coast and to Circular Head, Waratah, Wynyard, Burnie and King Island. We certainly think that there’s some opportunities there to strengthen the arrangements in the north-west. They were doing some work with the university on options for working more closely together, that hasn’t progressed very far. Similarly, on the east coast, we have had some discussions with them, but it hasn’t really progressed. In terms of Kentish and Latrobe, they already have a close working relationship. From our perspective, if we were to ask the government to invest a significant amount of money in structural reform, we would want to know that that reform is going to be of substantial benefit to the state.
CHAIR – And the communities, probably?
Mr HEALEY – And the communities, that’s what I meant. Absolutely.
CHAIR – Minister, that’s great. You and I have been involved with the southern Tasmanian councils authority and we know that Mr Jaensch has been involved with the Cradle Coast Authority. It’s a bit like going back to the future because doing those regional things and getting councils on board is a really important step. How are you going to fund those those approaches?
Mr VINCENT – Look, we don’t need to at this point in time. Most of them understand that they need to fund. There hasn’t been any request for any funds that I’m aware of towards any of those local associations.
CHAIR – So it’s a funding model where councils chip in?
Mr VINCENT – Yes, most of them do there and they all have different lines of understanding. Some of it’s come around because of the jobs hubs in regional areas that have created a cooperation between boundaries of municipalities, which has been very good and professional and sharing a few resources on a few projects like that. Everyone has their different focus, but the overall benefit of it is, they are talking about regions now instead of just their individual municipalities. That’s the professionalism, the maturing nature that we want to encourage.
Should there be a project-specific thing that they need assistance with, which was quite often the case with the STCA in yesteryear, I would be the first to come knocking on Mat or anybody else’s or the Treasurer’s door for a level of support on that.
