Rodney Stevens

Clarence Valley councillors have voted to make a submission to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal’s IPART review of the rate peg methodology draft report which, if adopted, would see the population of prisoners at the Clarence Correctional Centre not factored into rate calculations.

In November 2022, the Clarence Valley Independent published a story about the Gaol population of 1100 prisoners being factored into the third-highest rate increase in NSW of 5.4 per-cent for the 2023-24 financial year for Clarence Valley ratepayers.

At the June 27 CVC meeting, Cr Jeff Smith moved the council officer’s recommendation ‘that Council makes a submission to IPART’s review of the rate peg methodology draft report including the matters detailed in the report’, which was seconded by Cr Debrah Novak.

This submission follows council’s decision at its October 2022 meeting to make a submission into IPART’s initial review of the Rate Peg Methodology, which resulted in the draft report being prepared.

Cr Smith said he was interested to read that as part of the review, the population of the Clarence Correctional Centre will be excluded from future rate calculations.

“This has been an ongoing issue for months and months, and in fact the end result is that we’ve got a rate rise of 5.4 per-cent,” he said.

“It’s interesting that all the way through IPART were saying there’s nothing to see here, and yet now here we have a draft decision that says they are going to remove prison populations from their calculations in the future.

“The 5.4 per-cent is based on false figures…anyway it’s great to see that its being fixed.”

Other changes recommended by IPART in the draft report include improving how changes in council’s base costs are measured, adjusting the Emergency Services Levy, improving how external costs beyond council’s control are treated and reviewing the Rate Peg Methodology every five years.

Councillors voted unanimously to support Cr Smith’s motion.