COOKE CALLS FOR TRANSPARENCY ON PROPOSED COUNCIL FUNDING OVERHAUL
Monday, 12 October 2026
Member for Cootamundra, Steph Cooke, is calling on the NSW Local Government Grants Commission to release the council-by-council calculations underpinning proposed changes to local government funding.
Financial Assistance Grants provide councils with funding to help deliver and maintain local services and infrastructure.
The NSW Local Government Grants Commission is responsible for determining how Financial Assistance Grants are distributed between councils across New South Wales.
However, under the commission's new proposed methodology, many councils across the Cootamundra electorate are expected to receive less general-purpose funding.
The Commission did not provide local government leaders with council-by-council calculations during the consultation period, leaving them unable to properly assess the impacts of the proposed methodology before submissions closed on 9 October.
The issue became a major talking point at last week's Cootamundra Mayoral Summit, where mayors and general managers from the electorate's nine councils united in calling for greater transparency.
This has led Ms Cooke to call on the NSW Local Government Grants Commission to pause making any further decisions until it realises its council-by-council calculations.
“We have some councils going ahead millions of dollars, and the nearby council going backwards by the same millions of dollars,” Ms Cooke said.
“It is incumbent upon the Government to show full transparency. How have they calculated this methodology as it relates to each individual council?"
“What we also need to see from this Government is a guarantee that no council in rural, regional and remote New South Wales will go backwards in either their general-purpose fund or their roads funding allocation."
The electorate’s nine councils have put aside individual interests to advocate for a fair outcome across regional New South Wales.
Ms Cooke said the lack of council-by-council modelling had left significant questions unanswered.
"There is no doubt in my mind that councils in the south have been targeted through this process,” she said.
"This is a very divisive issue, but at the end of the day, the mayors of the Cootamundra electorate have resolved to stay together on this.
“They want to see that no council in this area is left worse off by this process, and the only way that can be guaranteed is for the Government to come clean on how they have calculated their outcomes for each individual council."
