Council rejects Minister’s misleading claims It appears Murrindindi Shire Council’s advocacy efforts aimed at securing funding assistance to the tune of $1.76 million per annum to meet the costs of new and gifted assets continue to grab the attention of the State Government. An interview with Council’s General Manager for Corporate and Community Services Michael Chesworth about Council’s funding situation was aired on WIN TV on 4 September 2014. Minister for Local Government the Hon. Tim Bull was also interviewed by phone about the support the Government had provided to Council. Minister Bull said that the Murrindindi Shire Council’s Mayor and CEO had “signed off” on a $1 million grant from the State Government for the new and gifted assets, suggesting Council had agreed that this grant was the end of State Government assistance to Council in support of the new and gifted assets. Margaret Abbey, CEO of Murrindindi Shire Council said the Minister’s comments did not reflect what actually happened. “Two things in particular need to be corrected – one is that the grant wasn’t a one-off payment of $1 million – it was two tranches of $550,000 and $370,000 over the two financial years of 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, totaling $920,000. “The other is the important question of what was agreed between Council and the State Government at that time. The Minister’s suggestion that Council “signed off” on assistance as final is factually incorrect. I have a very clear recollection of an animated discussion with the then CEO of State Government’s Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority when the State budget was announced, where I made it very clear that the offer of $920,000 had to be seen as the start of support to Council and not the end of the support. “This claim also makes little sense given Council has not stopped advocating for additional funding at any time since that meeting. This is acknowledged by the fact that Minister Bull wrote to me in June this year stating that the State Government would not be providing further funding assistance in support of the new and gifted assets. He would have had no requirement to do so if Council had signed off on the previous grant as final,” said Ms Abbey. Council will continue to lobby the State Government to provide funding assistance to cover the $1.76 million cost to Council of the State Government’s decision to transfer responsibility to Council of the new and gifted assets. This is particularly important to avoid transferring the burden of these additional costs to the community of Murrindindi Shire. For those interested in reading more about the situation and to find out how the community can help, please have a look at our website at murrindindi.vic.gov.au/fundingadvocacy . Council has recently added a list of the new and gifted assets to that page to show the extent and range of additional cost burden to Council.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 07:43:09 +0000
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