Town &
8th June 2023
Y! L K E E W E F RE
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TV Guide inside! p.25 Footy Tipping Comp. p.16 Weather outlook p.6 p.5 p.6 p.28
Cheers to the official launch of Jumpers and Jazz.
It's a milky moustache for Walter. But why?
What are these golfing ladies smiling about?
Budget public consultation open Jonathan O’Neill oneill.jonathan1@outlook.com
S
outhern Downs Regional Council opened public consultation today, June 8, on the 2023/24 budget. From 8am, the community will be given the opportunity to provide feedback and make submissions on the 2023/24 Draft Budget. A report issued by Council said the budgetary process com-
menced in late January, considering various market factors, flood restoration works, and business unit delivery and returns, such as water, sewerage, waste and the Saleyards. The report indicates that the Council’s cost index has been assessed at 6.9% with the annual consumer price index at 7.4%. Market volatility, interest rate hikes and land valuations significantly impacted this. But the big question is how this budget will affect property rates. It is unclear at the time of writ-
ing the exact figure of the rate change however, the Draft Budget report suggests a 5.15% increase in total income from general rates and a 9.51% increase from utility charges. This represents a total income increase for Council from $66.226 million to $70.966 million, or 7.16%, with nearly $37.6 million coming from general rates. How this increase will be divided amongst the 22,000 ratepayers throughout the Southern Downs is yet to be seen. At a Connecting with Council
Medical crisis Kim Hanson-Ross kimberley.hansonross@icloud.com
O
ver sixty GPs have shut down across Australia, and Regional Queensland is struggling to cope with the bulk-billing crisis as more children are admitted to the emergency department. Children under the age of 14 being admitted for “imminent” or “potentially life-threatening” conditions across regional Queensland hospitals have
meeting held in Dalveen in May, Mayor Vic Pennisi said that land valuations do not directly correlate to rate rises. “I’ve been in local government for almost 20 years, and there hasn’t been one year where there’s been zero percent rate rises, for the simple fact it’s the only place we get money," Cr Pennisi said. “The rate rise will be somewhere in line with CPI, but if you’ve got a 300 per cent increase, which some people did in their valuation, there won’t be a 300 per cent rate rise.
surged, with Mackay Hospital Health Services acting chief executive, Dr Charles Pain, stating that their hospital has received “more acutely unwell people". “For many, a trip to the Emergency Department is the first time they have seen a doctor in a long time, and they are often more unwell than they would have been if they had earlier intervention and diagnosis,” Dr Pain explained. “We believe one reason for this is that some people may be reluctant to see a general practitioner because they can’t find a bulk billing practice within our region," he continued.
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“Our officers have gone over and got the valuation and said if we were sending out the rates, last year’s rates bill on this valuation, what would the rate in the dollar be, and they’ve worked that out, and they’ve got it to under one percent. “It’s actually around 0.4 percent of what it was last year, and from there, they’ll work out what the rate rise will be on this lot of valuations, based on the pie that was collected from the last rates”.
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