BY VANNESSA HEARMAN
MELBOURNE The Moreland City Council is proposing rate increases as high as 22%. The rate increases, which are scheduled for September, are the highest ever proposed in Victoria and are as high as seven times the inflation rate.
According to the Coburg Moreland Leader newspaper, annual rate hikes by the Moreland council averaged 5.2% between 1999 and 2001. The council claims the rates are justified by the increase in insurance premiums and a cut to its federal grant of almost $500,000. The council also claims that the cash received from the sale of its power utilities has been depleted. A 4.5% pay increase for council workers is one of the factors blamed for the rate rise.
Property prices in Brunswick and Coburg have increased in the last three years. The council has taken advantage of the increasing property value in the area to increase rates.
While many properties have been sold for high prices in the Moreland council area, its population remains primarily workers on low incomes, students, unemployed, pensioners and recently arrived migrants. The rate increases will push up rents as landlords pass them on to tenants.
There are also significant numbers of people mostly elderly who have lived in the area for many years, and whose properties have gone up in value on paper, but are not planning to sell their properties.
Geoffrey Hearman, a pensioner living in Coburg, condemned the move by council. His rates will increase by $100 a year, which represents a 25% increase. "The council said this was because my property value went up, but what good is that to me when I am not going to sell my house."
Hearman added that the rate rises come on top of increases in water and telephone service charges. He also queried how the $54 million from the privatisation of utilities in the Moreland area was spent and whether any of it was invested on behalf of the council for future use.
Hearman is interested in organising with other residents to stop the rate increases and is campaigning through local media to raise awareness about the council's proposals.
Alison Thorne, Socialist Alliance convenor for Wills, told Green Left Weekly that what was needed in working-class areas like Moreland is "fighting councils that can involve residents in campaigns for more funding from the government". Socialist Alliance ran two candidates in the council election in March. Judy McVeigh received more than 5% of the vote in Merri ward.
From Green Left Weekly, August 14, 2002.
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