ALGA points to two decades of relative decline in value of Financial Assistance Grants
As transporters continue to complain about road access difficulties, local government is raising the issue of a resources shortfall for infrastructure, particularly bridges.
Councils have used the Australian Local Government Association’s (ALGA) release of the 2018 National State of the Assets: Roads and Community Infrastructure Report to call for the federal Bridges Renewal Program to be permanent.
This would “help fix the roughly one in five local timber bridges that are in poor condition”, ALGA states today at the National Local Roads and Transport Congress in Alice Springs.
ALGA’s president, mayor David O’Loughlin, says that despite increased investment to renew bridges and the continued effort of councils to extend the life of their ageing assets, the backlog of bridges in poor condition remains largely unchanged.
“Councils are doing their best to bring these bridges up to a reasonable condition but this report shows that the scale of the problem is beyond the current resources and revenue streams available to councils,” O’Loughlin continues.
“The Bridges Renewal Program has proved to be a very successful and important partnership between the Commonwealth and councils to improve road safety and freight productivity; more than 205 local bridges have been fixed using around $120 million of Commonwealth funding.
“Councils are keen to continue this partnership to deliver this important work and are calling for the program to be made permanent.”
Along with the uncertainty of the Bridges Renewal Program, ALGA states that further pressure has been placed on council budgets with the core Commonwealth funding to local government.
It states that Financial Assistance Grants (FAGs) have being in steady decline over the past 20 years, falling from 1 per cent of Commonwealth Taxation Revenue (CTR) in 1996 to just 0.55 per cent now.
“The fall in this funding has been swept under the rug for too long and the impact has been most acutely felt in regional and remote councils throughout Australia,” O’Loughlin says.
“The Bridges Renewal program helps tackle the backlog in fixing bridges, but a fairer share of Commonwealth taxes is vital to restoring sustainable levels of funding in the longer term, particularly for our regional and remote communities.
“That is why we are also calling for a restoration of the FAGs funding levels back to at least 1 per cent of CTR to ensure our councils are adequately resourced to provide, maintain and renew the infrastructure and services our communities deserve.”
In response, the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) says it “works closely with local governments to provide information about heavy vehicle impact on bridges and road infrastructure”.
“We will also continue to advocate on behalf of local governments for better road infrastructure that can support modern heavy vehicles and increased freight movements.”
The full report can be found here.