Australia: Canegrowers rate council rates as top issue

Canegrowers chairman Owen Menkens says his group will be focusing on council rating systems this year. Picture: Supplied The lobby group for Queensland's canegrowers has flagged local government rating policies as a big issue, leading up to the two elections to be held in the state in 2024. In his welcome message to readers, Canegrowers president Owen Menkens told them that over recent years, the rates bills that appear in their mailboxes as farmers had become an ever-increasing hit to their bottom line. "There is no doubt that our councils need to raise the necessary funds to deliver the local services our communities need, but many of our members experience bill shocks whenever a rates notice appears, with significant increases year-on-year," he told them. While agreeing that council rating practices helped local government incomes, he described the process by which they determine rates as "something of a dark art, which he said often delivered perverse outcomes. As well as ...