Cairns leads way on rates

Charges lower than similar council areas

CAIRNS Regional Council has reported the lowest median residential rates charges of any Queensland local government with a population of more than 100,000 people.

An annual benchmarking exercise pitting 12 councils against each other found that the combined total property related charges and average water usage fees was lower for the median valued home in Cairns than it was in any other comparable local government area.

The council said everything was on track to maintain rate rises at or below CPI for the foreseeable future.

“We have kept rates at a good level over the last four years and anticipate being able to continue this in the long term,” Mayor Bob Manning said.

“Given the size of our region and what we deliver, our charges are extremely competitive.”

Cr Manning said that the self-assessment process gave the council an important insight into how ratepayers’ money was being spent.

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there,” he said.

“In terms of where we want to operate as a council, I think this is a good measure. It shows we are where we want to be.”

A suite of three other variations around property value were tested to see how Cairns matched up.

“Even when we apply the Cairns median across other rate structures, we still come up second only to Brisbane,” Cr Manning said. “When we look at the minimum rates amount on both residential and strata land, Cairns features as the lowest again.”

Cairns was one of only two regions without any extra charges on top of standard rates, water access and usage and sewerage cleansing.