It has been a busy year so far for the Australian Government in terms of its Local Government responsibilities. The following is an update on some of the work I have been overseeing recently.
2006-07 Financial Assistance Grants
The Australian Government will be providing Local Government with an estimated $1,684 million in financial assistance grants in 2006-07. The payment of the grants commenced on 15 August 2006. This is an increase of $65.7 million or 4.06 per cent over 2005-06 as a result of indexing in accordance with population growth and the CPI to maintain their value.
The annual amount of these grants has increased by around 45 per cent or $520 million since the Howard Government came to office in 1996. The financial assistance grants are equal to about eight per cent of total Local Government revenue, though for some small rural and remote councils these grants can make up more than 50 per cent of their annual revenue.
Detailed in the table below is the 2006-07 estimated financial assistance grant entitlement by jurisdiction.
