Armidale Regional Council Mayor Simon Murray flew to Canberra to attend the Community Rebuilding Roundtable held for mayors of bushfire affected Local Government Areas and people from various Business Chambers from across Australia.
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He said he attended the roundtable with it in mind to push for rural rate relief as much as possible.
"Business Chamber Australia and the Seven Group were there, and also Sir Peter Cosgrove's panel," he said.
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"It was a fact finding meeting and was basically looking at how businesses were negatively impacted by the fires and in what way.
"There was a lot about tourism, for example the people from down at Bega and Batemans Bay, where fires have gone through and where all the tourists are not coming.
"There were issues about wine growing in South Australia and NSW. Some of those vines had been damaged, so it will be years before they will see an income."
Cr Murray said he pushed his case for rural rate relief across the board for those who need support.
"I raised the point that in reality, the drought's been the biggest driver for us. I said, as a council here we are trying to get rates from landholders who have nearly maxed out their available cash, but we as a council, still need those rates to provide services to our community.
"Peter Cosgrove at the end of summation made the point that states and federal governments can get taxes in various ways, but local councils get all their revenues from rates. He said that had to be looked into.
"The elephant in the room was the fact that the Constitution does not recognise Local Government. I'd love rate relief, but somebody's got to pay for that. I don't think the federal government can do that, it would have to go through the states."
Just as the problems were similar, Cr Murray said other mayors agreed there was a flow-on effect of capital cash movement throughout communities.
"There was another mayor from up in south-east Queensland, he was talking about fires devastating their tourism industry and about people not having the money to pay their rates with," he said.
"So, it's not only us, it's right across the board."
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