The Hon. Anne Webster, Shadow Minister for Local Government, Media Release, 11 November 2025
The Coalition has attacked the lack of urgency in addressing financial sustainability for Australia’s 537 local governments, as the Albanese Labor government quietly reinstated a sustainability inquiry – something the Coalition has been calling for since early June.
Shadow Minister for Local Government Dr Anne Webster MP told the Australian Local Government Association national conference in June that her first action as Shadow Minister was to call for the Albanese Labor Government to reinstate the stalled Standing Committee on Regional Development, Infrastructure and Transport inquiry on local government sustainability.
“It’s now been 19 months since Minister Catherine King said local government sustainability issues were ‘pressing’, and Labor have finally resumed the inquiry with submissions closing next February,” Dr Webster said.
“The Committee’s interim report in February 2025 had zero interim recommendations, and the new submission timeline means there’s no likelihood the Albanese Government will fund relief for councils in May’s 2026/7 budget – or even the 2027/8 budget at the pace they’re setting.”
“The Coalition-era Local Roads and Community Infrastructure program is incredibly popular with councils, giving untied, unmatched funding to shires to spend on their infrastructure needs. LRCI runs out of funding on 30 June, yet Labor is happy to starve the local government of the means to fix potholes, make roads safer and improve other community infrastructure.”
“Instead, right now Labor has the gall to propose slashing default regional speed limits from 100 kilometres per hour to as low as 70 kilometres per hour, crushing regional productivity, increasing the risk of driver fatigue and making daily country life more difficult.”
The Sustainability inquiry during the 47th Parliament received 287 submissions and had 15 days of public hearings, including in West Perth, Launceston, Wallan, Cairns and Beaudesert.
Related story: Government welcomes parliamentary inquiry into local government sustainability: McBain
