Yass Valley Business Chamber President Jack Walker comes from a long standing local family wishing to see the Yass area do well.
The Yass Valley Business Chamber (YVBC) has responded to the Councils Financial Sustainability Roadmap for 2025-2029. Firstly the YVBC has acknowledged the significant challenges facing Council in maintaining essential services, managing infrastructure renewal, and restoring long-term financial health. YVBC supports the principle of financial sustainability but holds concerns that the current Roadmap is overly internally focused and does not sufficiently address the broader strategic levers required to grow Council’s revenue base, enable economic activity, and strengthen community confidence.
Local businesses are already under sustained pressure due to a combination of macroeconomic conditions and government-imposed constraints, including: The prolonged impacts of COVID-19, High inflation and market volatility and Rising operational, compliance, and input costs.
The YVBC has received reports from members that ‘waste transfer’ fees are “astronomical” with one member reporting a 275% increase. Over recent years, Council has placed considerable focus on strategic and commercial initiatives that have not always delivered clear or broad community benefit. This has, at times, come at the cost of core service delivery, infrastructure planning, and economic development. The current financial position is not solely the result of external forces such as cost shifting or natural disaster relief it also reflects a need for stronger planning, prioritisation, and bal-ance.
Moving forward, a credible Roadmap must demonstrate a more integrated approach that realigns Council’s focus with long-term community and economic outcomes that promote prosperity in Yass Valley.
YVBC maintains that genuine financial sustainability cannot be achieved through internal cost recovery and rate increases alone. A credible Roadmap must address both sides of the ledger: Cost and service reform (internal levers), and Economic growth, strategic land use planning, and business confidence (external levers). The current draft Roadmap is weighted almost entirely toward internal financial and management controls. Without a dedicated Economic Development Strategy (EDS), integrated land planning, and visible support for business and tourism, the Roadmap risks worsening local conditions by failing to activate the very economic growth needed to expand Council’s rates base and reduce long-term community burden.
In its current form, the Roadmap lacks the strategic balance required to justify adoption. It appears designed to lay the groundwork for a future Special Rate Variation (SRV), while offering only broad commitments to cost containment, asset and financial management, grant-seeking, and reduced borrowings. This is not sufficient. Council must first commit to Developing a more comprehensive and balanced Roadmap one that aligns cost/service reform with strategic planning and economic growth before allocating further resources to planning or pursuing an SRV.
Secondly Council should commit to Defining operational periods where Council explicitly focuses on internal and external levers under its control or strong influence, before SRV consideration is introduced.
A key question arises: Is Yass Valley Council accounting for the financial benefits of accelerated urban growth at Parkwood in its forward estimates and financial projections? Parkwood is a well-documented cross-border development forming part of the broader Ginninderry project, which is already underway within the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The Parkwood precinct within Yass Valley is planned to deliver 5,000 dwellings, originally scheduled to commence subdivision around 2032.
Historically, in Yass Valley, developers are required to fund infrastructure delivery at no cost to Council a standard condition applied under Council’s Development Consent framework. Given that the ACT Government, via the Suburban Land Agency, is a joint venture partner in the Ginninderry and Parkwood development, the ACT is well placed to deliver and service the development without financial burden to Yass Valley Council.
What is important is retaining Parkwood within the Yass Valley local government area is essential to maintaining and strengthening the business case for economic growth, infrastructure investment, and service support from the NSW Government. This is particularly relevant given the current concerns raised by the State Government regarding Yass Valley Council’s long-term financial sustainability.
The Estimated Financial Benefit to Yass Valley Council will be an Annual Revenue: $5,000,000 to $7,500,000 This figure demonstrates the substantial and ongoing financial benefit that Parkwood offers to the Yass Valley Council’s short-and-long-term fiscal outlook. At a time when Council is developing a Financial Sustainability Roadmap potentially involving higher rates, reduced services, or Special Rate Variations (SRVs) it would be strategically negligent to exclude Parkwood from Council’s financial modelling.
From a negotiation stand-point, inclusion of Parkwood strengthens Council’s position with State and regional partners. Conversely, removal or exclusion of Parkwood directly undermines Yass Valley’s capacity to reverse the current trajectory towards financial unsustainability a position largely resulting from its own prior decisions. Before adopting the Roadmap, Council must commit to preparing a detailed and transparent model of the financial benefit of Parkwood to Yass Valley Council.
The model should include idealised assumptions given the strategic strength of Yass Valley Council’s position and incorporate these figures into Council’s forward estimates and projected financial model.
In conclusion, economic development and growth are not threats to be feared, nor should they be defined as externalities that place financial strain on Council’s position. Rather, they are essential levers for delivering long-term, sustainable prosperity across the entire Yass Valley Local Government Area just as reducing rural lot sizes from 80 to 40 hectares did nearly a decade ago.
Similarly, retaining Parkwood within Yass Valley should not be viewed as a burden or avoided. Through the completion of Strategic Planning including land use planning, Yass Valley-wide master planning, and a dedicated Economic Development Strategy Council can and must balance growth at Parkwood with that arising from the NSW Government identified strategic investigation area spanning Yass to Murrumbateman.
Ratepayers, like investors, should drive Council’s decision-making not the other way around. This principle was overlooked by the former CEO and should not be forgotten by the current leadership. It is particularly relevant now, as Council accelerates efforts to increase fees and pursue a Special Rate Variation (SRV) without first completing the necessary management, operational, and service reforms, or unlocking the economic potential required to build genuine prosperity.
– Liam Stuart
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