Council
22 October, 2026
It’s the rate rise we have to have: Council
Council has voted in favour of applying to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) for a Special Rate Variation (SRV) that could potentially see rates increase by a cumulative 34.4 per cent over three years from 2027/28.
It’s the rate rise we have to have according to Wingecarribee Shire councillors.
Council has voted in favour of applying to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) for a Special Rate Variation (SRV) that could potentially see rates increase by a cumulative 34.4 per cent over three years from 2027/28.
There will be potential rate increases of 11.9 per cent in 2027/28 and 2028/29 followed by 7.35 per cent in 2029/30 as council struggles to get back on track financially.
IPART will have the final decision and will conduct its own consultation before handing down a determination.
The decision at Wednesday’s meeting came despite councillors hearing the majority of Wingecarribee ratepayers were opposed to a rate increase.
Mayor Erin Foley, deputy mayor David Kent and councillors Nicole Smith, Jesse Fitzpatrick, James Farrell, Heather Champion and Tess Duffy all agreed it was the only realistic option facing council.
Cr Rachel Russell voted against the decision while Cr Sara Moylan was sensationally expelled from the meeting before a vote was taken.
Cr Moylan refused to apologise after saying that she stood for council to improve people’s lives – not to waste their money.
The comment was ruled an ‘act of disorder’ and Mayor Foley asked Cr Moylan to retract, withdraw or unreservedly apologise for what she had said.
Cr Moylan refused and was subsequently expelled.
Debate on the motion was constantly interrupted by points of order and at one stage Cr Russell looked like she would follow Cr Moylan out the door after accusing councillors of failing to keep management to account.
Her comment and subsequent apology were also ruled ‘acts of disorder’ but a second apology was accepted by the mayor as chair of the meeting.
Cr Foley said the decision to apply for an SRV was one of the most significant decisions council would have to make.
She pointed out that council’s application would be independently tested and assessed by IPART before any decision was made.
Cr Foley said she “genuinely acknowledged” the cost-of-living crisis facing many local families but needed to weigh it up against financial reality.
“Our responsibility is to make responsible decisions with future generations in mind,” she said.
Cr Russell moved an amendment that council defer any decision to apply for an SRV until it had completed a review of its own services.
She said council needed to respect the community in its decision.
“No means no,” she said in reference to results from telephone and online surveys conducted as part of the consultation process.
Cr Moylan (before being ejected from the chamber) commended Cr Russell on her amendment because it focused on cost containment.
She said there was no reason the decision couldn’t be deferred and it was important that council look at structural change.
Cr Kent described it as a “poor amendment”.
“There are councillors in this chamber not comfortable with making difficult decisions,” Cr Kent said.
Cr Moylan said she had been motivated to stand for a council by a desire to improve people’s lives.
In terms of the SRV decision that included Moss Vales residents whose homes had been devalued by the Repoly application, residents who had lost their homes in the Black Summer bushfires, pensioners struggling to pay off their rates a little at a time and small businesses across the region struggling to cope with increasing wage and energy costs and decreased demand.
She said she stood for factory workers who got up early every morning to go to work in local factories.
Cr Moylan was expelled from the meeting shortly afterwards and council took a 10-minute break.
Cr Duffy said councillors needed to make long-term, strategic decisions – not popular ones.
She suggested that if Cr Moylan wanted to help people she could volunteer for a local organisation.
Cr Duffy said council was no longer in a position to neglect what had been neglected for so long.
Cr Champion described the decision as “horrible” but said a rate rise couldn’t be avoided.
She said she was “furious” and “absolutely disgusted” with the State and Federal Governments for cost-shifting and for failing to provide local government with sufficient funding.
Cr Champion said it was “gross hypocrisy” that come councillors would campaign for council on a platform of improving local infrastructure and then oppose “the only mechanism to do so”.
She said councillors voting against the SRV application would be ‘betraying’ their election promises and the residents of Wingecarribee Shire and “leaving a mess for someone else to clean up”.
“I’m angry about it but we have no choice,” she said.
Cr Russell said council should allow the new finance committee to “do its job” before asking ratepayers for more money.
“We haven’t exhausted all of our options,” she said.
She council was slipping into a ‘poverty mentality’ and looking at external sources of funding as the only solution when it should be looking at its own operations.
Cr Kent said he had moved for the matter to be deferred at council’s June meeting but in the meantime had done his due diligence and now believes “this is the right thing to do”.
He said a rate increase wasn’t good news but in this case was a “responsible decision to make”.
Cr Kent said some councillors would never make the decisions needed to ensure the shire’s long-term viability because it wasn’t popular to do so.
Cr Smith said the decision to apply for an SRV wasn’t a decision that anyone wanted to make.
But, she said, councillors were elected “to do what is right and not what is popular”.
Cr Smith said it was not only the responsible thing to do but the “best and only way” to deliver on council’s vision to make the Wingecarribee Shire the most liveable community in NSW by 2035.
In her closing remarks Cr Foley said it was important for council not to “kick the can down the road”.
She said if council failed to address its financial problems now, it would face even bigger problems in the not-to-distant future.
“We were elected to make good decisions, not easy ones,” she said.
Neither Crs Farrell nor Fitzpatrick spoke during the debate.
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