That is the demand made in Parliament last week by Federal Member for Farrer David Farley, who insisted the amount is a “mathematical floor, not a wish list”.
Mr Farley warned that without the increase, regional councils would continue to struggle to maintain critical infrastructure amid rising costs and shrinking revenue bases.
He said the challenges facing councils across his electorate reflected the broader pressures confronting regional Australia.
“Farrer spans 126,000 square kilometres and is home to 160,000 citizens across 14 shires and more than 200 suburbs, towns, and rural localities.”
“We are the people who grow the food, mine the minerals, and move the freight that underwrites the national economy.
“Median personal income is $810 nett per week. House prices sit between $250,000 and $600,000.
“Meanwhile, (some) shires are being forced to consider annual rate increases of 50 per cent to 85 per cent - not from bureaucratic excess, but because the cost of keeping roads open, towns functional, and halls standing has been inflated by forces originating not in our towns, but in this Parliament.
“A household earning $810 a week nett cannot absorb an 85 per cent rate hike. It is mathematically impossible.”
The Edward River and Murray River Councils have so far avoided the need for special rates variations, but have long warned it may be required if the grant amount is not addressed.
Mr Farley argued that all councils, regardless of the need for a rate variation or not, are being squeezed by inflationary pressures beyond their control.
He blamed rising council costs on a range of factors, including government cost shifting, energy prices, wages, insurance premiums and construction materials.
He also linked the pressures back to the weakening of local economies because of flawed water policy like the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, and said most of the inflationary pressure is “manufactured from within this parliament”.
Mr Farley called on the Federal Government to turn it around, starting with lifting Financial Assistance Grants from the current level of $3.6 billion nationally to at least $6.6 billion.
Financial Assistance Grants currently sit at 0.49 per cent of taxation revenue, but councils have been campaigning to have it increased after it dropped from one per cent in 1996.
In July this year, Federal Labor committed to a Local Government Federation Compact which would look at increased ongoing regular funding for the sector to be used on roads, infrastructure and community services.
The compact is a five year agreement, but Mr Farley said the progress has to be quicker.
He said at the current level of investment, the grant is “running in reverse to inflation”.
“Its formulas and algorithms were built for a different Australia and do not reflect the true cost environment regional councils now face.
“Our post-war memorial swimming pools are cracking. Town halls and community halls are decaying.
“Roads and bridges carry freight they were never engineered for.
“A shire with a shrinking grant and an exhausted ratepayer base cannot fund these renewals alone.
“We ask not for charity, but fairness.
“This Parliament can fund the shires, or watch them fail.”
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