(In case you missed it)
Whereas Minister for Local Govt, Tony Simpson, has been fairly moderate in his announcements about intentions to try to control rate rises, Premier Colin Barnett today was not:
Local government? Yeah, they’re on notice. Right now. The rate increases householders faced, in my view, were excessive… many of these local govts are grossly overstaffed, they pay themselves too much…. we have CEOs in metropolitan Perth who get paid well above what the Premier gets paid…. there has been a culture of increasing rates with a lack of accountability… and [you, the councils] are going to be more accountable and your costs, your staffing, your rate increases are going to be public and people are going to be able to compare across councils….there needs to be efficiencies in local govt [and now] Big Brother is going to be looking over their shoulder
6PR, Gary Adshead’s morning show, Interview with Premier 6 August 2015 (available for one month)
Image created by geralt https://pixabay.com/en/users/geralt-9301/. Sourced from Pixabay at https://pixabay.com/en/users/geralt-9301/. License CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)
Canning Accountability 
Diana
While I am as opposed to rate hikes as anyone, I see Colin’s approach as being very unhelpful – just like the Premier’s last tone-deaf efforts regarding local government.
I am sure the Premier understands that it would be hypocritical to criticise Councils for the same thing done by the State Government so I look forward to the Premier’s commitment to the people of WA to keep STATE tax increases to CPI or below.
However, this must be a new development as the last State Budget saw power and water charges up 4.5% and the Emergency Services Levy increase by 10.5% – all while CPI was sitting around 1.5%.
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Hey Blair
Well, one aspect of what the Premier promises I like – that of ensuring more transparency as to what ratepayers’ monies actually go on. Canning’s “employee costs”, for example, isn’t just about wages, so why is it so high? Also, although it is much less acknowledged, WA Labor is looking to keep rates down to CPI + (maybe) 2% – they are hoping to emulate some of the winning aspects of Labor’s surprise win in Victoria (apparently it was a huge vote winner!).
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