Workshops on the rate peg methodology review - March and April 2023

In late March and April 2023, IPART held 4 additional workshops to discuss and seek feedback on options for the rate peg methodology

Given the scope of issues raised by stakeholders at our workshops in November and December 2022, and through submissions to our Issues Paper, we held further consultation with stakeholders to inform our Draft Report. The Office of Local Government granted an extension to the review to allow more time for consultation to ensure the options we are considering are discussed and carefully considered.

We held 4 technical workshops to discuss options for our rate peg methodology. We held 1 ratepayer workshop online to be more accessible to ratepayers across NSW and 3 workshops for the local government sector (1 online. 2 in-person in Sydney and in a regional area of NSW, Queanbeyan).

We separated the workshops for ratepayers and the local government sector to allow all stakeholders greater opportunity to express their views, and flexibility to focus the discussion on issues that participants are most interested in. These workshops were invite-only to allow for a more targeted discussion of technical elements of the rate peg methodology.

All stakeholders now have the opportunity to provide feedback by making a submission on our Draft Report by 4 July 2023 and to attend our online public hearing scheduled for 18 July 2023.

112 participants attended our workshops

22 participants attended our ratepayer workshop and 90 attended our industry workshops (excluding IPART staff). We thank all stakeholders who participated at our workshops for their time and feedback.

Summaries of the workshops are found below.  

Workshop summaries and materials

• Workshop summaries
  • Ratepayer workshop feedback summary
  • Local government sector workshop feedback summary 
    
     
• Online local government sector workshop materials - 30 March 2023
  • Agenda
  • Presentation slides
  • Information paper 
    
     
• In-person Queanbeyan local government sector workshop materials - 31 March 2023
  • Agenda
  • Presentation slides
  • Information paper 
    
     
• Online ratepayer workshop materials - 6 April 2023
  • Agenda
  • Presentation slides
  • Information paper 
    
     
• In-person Sydney local government sector workshop materials - 17 April 2023
  • Agenda
  • Presentation slides
  • Information paper 

We have considered all the feedback we received from stakeholders that is relevant to this review, including in preparing our Draft Report. Where feedback provided is relevant to our other functions, we have considered it in the exercise of those functions.Following the workshops, we held in March and April, some stakeholders contacted us to provide IPART with feedback and information:

• Some ratepayers had technical issues and were unable to contribute on the day of the workshop.
• Some ratepayers and some stakeholders from the local government sector were unable to attend the workshop and asked to provide us with their feedback outside of the set times.
• Some stakeholders felt more comfortable providing us with their feedback individually rather than in front of the rest of the participants.
• Some stakeholders provided us additional supporting material such as charts and figures to complement the comments they made during the workshop.