Charge reform for TRC

Councillor calls government’s transparency changes ‘mixed bag’

THE Toowoomba Regional Council’s planning and development chair has called the State Government’s transparency reforms around infrastructure charges “a mixed bag”.

Planning Minister Cameron Dick last week announced all councils would be required to publish how much money from infrastructure charges they make, and how that revenue was spent on their communities.

Currently, infrastructure charges move into consolidated revenue and are spent as part of the council’s overall budget.

The move was made to improve transparency for the public and show what the community was earning from the investment by developers.

Cr Chris Tait said while he was not opposed to the change, he said it would require the council to add additional accountancy measures to cater for the new level of disclosure.

“It’s a bit of a mixed bag. I think it is going to create more accounting requirements on council to localise where that infrastructure money is coming from and being spent, but it’s not insurmountable,” he said.

“From a transparency point of view, it’s probably good.

“I can see why the government is doing it and that it shows that developers are paying their way.”

Cr Tait pointed out that there used to be laws around spending requirements for infrastructure charges, but were abolished in the 1990s by the Labor Government.

“If you go back 20 years, there used to be a requirement that the charges had to spend in a certain radius from where the money was raised,” he said.

“The areas that benefited greatly were the new development fronts, as a result.”

The State Government consulted with key stakeholders like the Local Government Association of Queensland, the Property Council of Australia and the Urban Development Institute of Australia.