By Campbell Spence
On Wednesday 26 June 2024, Port Phillip Councillors voted against the interests of residents by supporting the bureaucrat’s recommendation to increase rates by 2.75%.
Voted For: Cr Baxter, Bond, Cunsolo, Crawford, and Martin
Voted Against: Cr Clark, Pearl and Sirakoff
In March, Cr Rhonda Clark and Cr Christina Sirakoff put up a motion to freeze rates for the upcoming financial year while ensuring the preservation of essential services' quality and accessibility.
A rates freeze would have required the CEO to find 1.6% of cost savings and efficiencies in approximately $223 million of expenditure. A task the CEO said was not feasible.
Regrettably, only three of the nine Councillors supported the rates freeze, thwarting hopes for immediate financial relief amidst the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
At the same meeting, Council voted to introduce significant financial penalties for owners of vacant and derelict shops and land, in a misguided attempt to force owners to find tenants for vacant shops and to construct buildings on vacant land.
Rates for derelict land and unactivated retail land will be charged at 400% and vacant land will be charged at 300% of the residential rate. The measure applies to about 70 properties and does not raise additional revenue.
Most residents would agree that Council must do more to revitalise our once vibrant and iconic high streets, but others are questioning the merit of introducing punitive and higher differential rates for vacant and derelict buildings and land.
Council Watch president Dean Hurlston said the City of Port Phillip was taking an “anti-business” approach to the problem of vacant properties and shops. “It’s using a blunt instrument, designed to penalise those already struggling with high costs of goods and high wages growth,” Hurlston said.
One councillor justified these anti-business measures based on a Have Your Say survey that suggested that more than 70% of responders were in favour of increased rates for vacant land, derelict land and inactivated retail property.
Residents of Port Phillip, Inc have been advocating for a rates freeze for five years because Port Phillip rates are excessive compared with neighbouring councils - see https://ropp.org.au/property-rates-calculator/
A resident of Port Melbourne lamented “the Council's failure to prioritize the community's interests, condemning the pervasive financial hardships inflicted by escalating living costs, inflation, and interest rate fluctuations. The plight faced by families, individuals, renters, ratepayers, and business owners underscores the pressing need for a rates freeze for all residents”.
