Thursday, 5 February 2026

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:53): My constituency question is for the Minister for Environment, and it asks: Minister, why are you forcing Warrnambool ratepayers to foot a $200,000 per annum bill for the collection of waste and recycling from 165 waste management bins on state-owned Crown land? Last month the Minister for Local Government’s good practice guidelines were updated to stipulate that councils should not use revenue from service rates and charges to fund services other than those relating to waste, recycling and resource recovery. The guidelines also state that the revenue raised from these rates and charges should not exceed the costs associated with these services. While I support initiatives to constrain council spending on secondary issues like advocacy and events, a double standard certainly exists, with the Allan Labor government expecting councils – (Time expired)