In late November and early December 2022, IPART held 7 workshops, 3 in-person in Wagga Wagga, Sydney, and Tamworth and 4 online. 253 participants attended across the 7 workshops.
A complete set of presentation slides, and a summary of the workshops can be accessed below:
Following publication of the workshop summary, we received feedback from some ratepayers about the extent to which the concerns they raised at the workshops had been reflected in the ‘workshop summary’ factsheet. These concerns included:
- if the NSW Local Government (State) Award is used to measure changes in labour costs this could reduce councils’ incentives to control labour costs as increases in labour costs would be passed through to ratepayers
- the inclusion of prison populations in the residential population when calculating population growth results in a higher rate peg and rating burden for ratepayers in council areas with prisons, particularly for council areas with new prisons
- the affordability of rates for ratepayers, noting some ratepayers are on a fixed income and would prefer rate increases to be more aligned with CPI
- the importance of incentivising council productivity to mitigate increases in costs and rates.
We have taken into account all feedback received in preparing our Draft Report.