See article in The Australian ‘Cost of public services balloons, analysis finds‘ by David Uren the Economics Editor.
“Deutsche Group analysis of inflation data shows the problem is much more widespread than electricity. Over the past five years, private-sector goods and services have risen in price by just 5 per cent, while prices set or influenced by the public sector have soared by 27 per cent.”
“If the government wants to ease cost-of-living pressures on households, these numbers would suggest it should look at the impact of government decisions on the whole range of prices that consumers pay.”
While businesses and households are cutting spending Governments are increasing spending.
The City of Stirling is a classic example. They are increasing their operational expenditure by 10% which is about $21M, while their income has decreased about $20M. There is no excuse for this.
See the 2017/2018 Municipal Fund Budget that was approved at the July 4th Council Meeting. The item starts on page 462 of the Meeting Minutes (download here).
Note $14.6M for Governance! It seems the more they spend on Governance the less transparent and well governed they become;
Despite the down turn and economic hardship being experience by many households in the City of Stirling have raised rates by 1.75% and increased the penalties for late payment to 9%. In the mean time they are building $180K fenced dog enclosures which are very expensive to maintain. They are also spending millions of $ on very expensive and unnecessary recreation facilities like the proposed development in the Princess Wallington Reserve in Balga (see page 477).
The reality is the City of Stirling has a lot of extra fat. They could reduce rates and not sack anyone.
The Director of Corporate Services, Ed Hern, left around November 2016. He was conspicuous in his absence at the Annual Electors General Meeting. They finally found a replacement recently, Clinton Booth, but he only stayed for about a month? It would be very interesting to know what happened with these two finance directors? But all top secret of course, and staff have to sign a confidentially clause in their contracts to make sure they never breath a word about any goings-on when they leave. The “cone of bloody silence” as one resident put it at a council meeting last year.
The City has been receiving questions around their high levels of staff turn over. It is also happening at the senior level. Never a good sign.
