GOVERNMENT COST SHIFTING IS COSTING OUR RATEPAYERS

Published on 10 July 2025

The latest Cost Shifting Report released by Local Government NSW has demonstrated that NSW councils had $1.5 billion of cost shifting imposed on them in 2023-2024. This equates to almost $500 per ratepayer per year.

Mayor of Lachlan Shire, Cr John Medcalf OAM, is concerned by the continued increase of cost shifting to local councils. “Between cost shifting, rate pegging and insufficient distribution of state and federal funding, councils are having a hard time making ends meet. This situation is eroding the financial sustainability of local government and its capacity to deliver essential services to communities” he said.

The NSW Parliamentary inquiry into financial sustainability recognised this problem in its November 2024 report. The inquiry recommended that the NSW Government identify opportunities to reduce cost shifting to Local Government.

“While there are been some positive development recently, we still have a way to go.

"Lachlan Shire will continue to advocate to the NSW Government to address this matter and stop shifting its costs on to councils” Mayor Medcalf concluded.

Community members who are interested in finding out how cost shifting diverts local government resources toward state-imposed costs can access a copy of the report, Cost Shifting 2025: How State Costs Eat Council Rates, or the Report Summary below.  

Cost_Shifting_Report_2025.pdf(PDF, 2MB)

Cost_Shifting_2025_summary_report.pdf(PDF, 525KB)