Councils and local government claim they were not contacted by the government ahead of the release of a draft bill and public consultation paper proposing a major reform that could lead to significant rate rises for some residents and businesses.
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Local governments presently collect from ratepayers the fire levy used to fund fire and emergency services, and the government is planning to overhaul the system in a major change set to be implemented next year.
Many Tasmanian farmers, businesses and residents in rural and regional areas will see their rates significantly increased as a result of the proposed reforms.
Consultation Lacking
Dion Lester, chief executive officer of the Local Government Association of Tasmania, said the government had poorly handled the reform by not contacting local government ahead of the release of the draft bill, and giving them just five weeks to respond to the options paper.
"Our principal concern with how this is rolled out is the lack of consultation immediately leading up to this which, based on some of the early modelling will have some really significant impacts on individual ratepayers," he said.
"The government hasn't spoken to us recently about these reforms, and they haven't allowed sufficient time for councils or business or the community to really get their head around what in some cases are really significant changes.
"So to release a discussion paper and bill with such significant changes with so little prior consultation and time to consider it has been a really poor process."
Mayors around the state echoed his concerns.
"This has been in the works for nearly six years, and then they come out and want to give you five weeks to put in a submission and call it consultation," Break O'Day Council Mayor Mick Tucker said.
Councils would need to meet and vote on taking a formal position and participating in the submission process, he said.
But given that councils generally met once per month, responding during the five-week submission window would be difficult, Mr Tucker said.
"It's quite disappointing, it's quite disgraceful actually that they think we can be involved."
Mary Knowles, Mayor of the Northern Midlands Council, said the first news she received about the reform was an online forum after the draft bill and consultation had been released.
"There was zero consultation," she said.
She was also concerned that councils would bear the brunt of community anger at the rate increases if the changes went ahead.
"The increases in costs are going to be phenomenal for a huge number of residents, and councils are going to be in the firing line, it will be just be seen as councillors putting up rates by an outrageous amount."
Significant Impacts
Based on what is known about the reforms, commercial landowners will be most impacted by the reforms.
In analysis done by Kentish Council, commercial property owners could see fire levy increases of up to 700 per cent under both reform options being considered by the state government.
Farmers could see increases of up to 600 per cent under the government's first option, and up to 285 per cent under the second option.
Rural and regional residents in the council area would see fire levy increases of around 250 per cent under both options.
"Based on the early modelling, there's some really significant impacts on individual ratepayers, and the government hasn't spoken to us recently about this," Mr Lester said.
