Our Campaign
Every day, across Australia, councils are creating and maintaining the communities you, your family and your friends live, work and play in.
However, it is getting harder and harder to provide the services and facilities that so many take for granted because balancing the budget has never been more difficult.
A big part of the problem is that Commonwealth funding to your local council has been cut and cut again and again. The number one priority for the CMA Member councils is Financial Sustainability. How can they keep providing the services and facilities the community needs without the Commonwealth providing appropriate levels of funding?
Financial Sustainability
The NSW Auditor General in his 2025 Report on Local Government wrote the following about council financial sustainability:
Financial sustainability is the ability to meet current and future financial obligations without reducing essential services or borrowing money to fund successive operational deficits.
This is achieved by ensuring that over the medium and longer term, revenue is sufficient to cover expenses; cash flow and risks are well managed; long-term financial planning is effective; and sources of revenue are diverse. Seventeen councils reported operating losses this year. Continued operating losses may indicate financial sustainability risks.
A presentation on the issue The Growing Gap_Financial Sustainbility was given to CMA Members by CMA Deputy Chairman, Cr Russell Fitzpatrick, on 27 March 2026.
What is needed?
The Auditor General in his 2025 Report noted the value of the Commonwealth Financial Assistance Grants has declined from about one per cent of Commonwealth taxation revenue in the mid-1990s to approximately 0.5% today.
The NSW Auditor General summed up the problem in his 2024 report – revenue and expenses across the councils from 2014 to 2023 have been relatively consistent with inflation. However, expenses indexed by CPI are $0.2 billion higher than indexed revenue, indicating negative growth in real terms.
In 2023–24, total revenue, excluding capital grants and contributions, was $16.1 billion, which is lower than total expenses of $16.3 billion, an overall $0.2 billion shortfall.
The Financial Assistance Grants must be restored to 1% of total taxation revenue. The CMA supports the restoration of the Grants in increments over 3-4 years until the full 1% is reached.
How Can you Help?
Your Local council wants to provide your community with the services and facilities you, your family and friends need to live and work in the place you call home.
We are asking that you think about the facilities that you use that your council provides: playgrounds, parks, gardens and playing fields, local roads and footpaths, public pools, clean beaches and rivers, libraries, art galleries, theatres and museums. The vast majority are provided for free.
The services: planning, economic development, tourism, festivals and events, child care and aged care, community development, environmental activities, waste collection and recycling, water and waste water, youth services and activities for the elderly.
Councils work hard to create the communities we all live in – if you would like to support the campaign to restore Commonwealth Financial Assistance Grants to 1% of total tax revenue please write or contact your local Federal and State members of Parliament to show your support.
