Audit report highlights cost shift impact

Published: 29th January 2024

The Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) Chief Executive Officer Alison Smith said the audit office has found 48 of Queensland’s 77 councils are financially unsustainable, up from 46 last year and 45 in the 2021 report.

“This audit office report comes just weeks after the LGAQ released a report into cost-shifting that found a staggering $360 million gap every single year between what councils were being paid to provide and what they were having to spend to support critical community needs,” Ms Smith said.

“It is no surprise that when councils are having to step in because the State and Federal governments and the private sector have pulled the pin on services that so many are falling into the red.

“Queensland councils have reached a tipping point where they and their communities cannot continue to fund the services and infrastructure that are properly the responsibility of State and Federal governments and the private sector.”

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