Financial Assistance Grants essential for Council business

Like everyone, Wollongong City Council is faced with the challenge of making our dollars go further than ever before.

Our community, rightly, expects a lot from us and we have worked hard to manage our finances prudently and deliver the services and infrastructure they require.

Which is why a proposed $16 million cut to Wollongong’s grant by the NSW Local Government Grants Commission has us reeling.

Under the indicative modelling released as part of the consultation process, it’s suggested that Wollongong City Council’s annual Financial Assistance Grant allocation would be reduced by 67.5 per cent.

That’s a significant drop from $23.8 million to $7.7 million. To put that into perspective, this isn't a small adjustment. It's a significant reduction in funding that supports the infrastructure, facilities and services our community relies on every day.

We cannot underestimate the impact that would have on Council in terms of support of local infrastructure, road maintenance, community facilities, recreational assets and essential services.

These grants are essential to what we do and help to reduce any potential rate rises on our rate payers.

We have already consulted with our community and adopted the Delivery Program 2025-2029 and Operational Plan 2026-2027, which outline our agreed strategic priorities, actions and resource commitments for the current term and beyond. These are now all in jeopardy if $16 million is to be cut from our budget.

While I agree that the methodology for how these grants are shared needs consideration, clearly something has gone wrong in this process.

Last week, I was at NSW Parliament House as part of my focus on advocating for opportunities within our city in the lead up to the 2027 NSW state election.

While we were having conversations about the regional collaboration and strategic partnership of LG8, Cruise Wollongong and other opportunities for our city, have no doubt, when I saw Premier Chris Minns, I shared my concerns about the impact this $16 million cut would have on our community.

Premier Minns listened and encouraged Wollongong City Council to put in a submission to the NSW Local Government Grants Commission by 9 October 2026, which is the next step in the process.

I, and my fellow Councillors, plan to do just that. At Monday’s Council Meeting, we agreed to hold an Extraordinary Council Meeting on 8 October 2026 to consider Council’s report to the NSW Local Government Commission.

I want to be clear, right now we’re not talking about changes to the business of Council and the services we provide in any way shape or form.

That would be putting the cart well before the horse.

We are, however, clearly and loudly speaking up on behalf of our community. We are saying no, this isn’t right for Wollongong, and the Commission needs to take a good, hard look at the severe impact on Wollongong and the other major regional cities who do much of the heavy lifting for the State.

Over the years, our city has built a strong reputation for careful planning and responsible financial management. We've delivered major community infrastructure, supported national events, maintained thousands of community assets and continued to invest in projects that improve quality of life across our city.

We are a growing regional city that supports more than 220,000 residents, serves as the economic heart of the Illawarra and continues to attract people who want to live, work, study and raise a family here.

And why we will continue to fight for our fair share of funding so we can continue to deliver for our community.