General News
25 June, 2025
Ratepayers feel the cost of state's water, waste fees
Mount Isa ratepayers are being stung by tariffs that are not enforced on other councils in the North West.
Mount Isa ratepayers would save several hundred dollars per year if the state government cut unnecessary fees and charges on the city for water and waste.
Mayor Peta MacRae said it was unfair that Mount Isa was subjected to the waste levy – the only Queensland council west of the Great Dividing Range that is being stung – and has called on Environment Minister Andrew Powell to remedy the situation.
She is also trying to work on a solution with government-owned corporation Sunwater on reducing the levy imposed for the right to pump water from Lake Julius if Mount Isa finds itself in a drought.
Ratepayers will pay more than $1 million to Sunwater as “insurance”, even though no water has been pumped from Julius to Lake Moondarra in a decade.
Mount Isa City Council is the only local government body in the North West to be forced to pay such a fee.
Rates could also be reduced if the government returned the full dividend of profits from the Mount Isa Water Board.
As it stands, the government collects all of the profit made by Mount Isa water users, then decides how much it will return to the council.
At the moment, that figure is about half.
“We wouldn’t have needed a rate rise without (these costs),” Cr MacRae said after Mount Isa City Council passed its 2025-26 budget, which included a 3.4 per cent general rates increase.
“The state government indexes the waste levy each year, currently at a 3.4 per cent increase. For 2025-26 the levy for Category 1 waste will be $133 per tonne.
“In next year’s budget, the waste levy will be $2.4 million and we estimate receiving just over 1 million from the state to partly offset this.”
The mayor said the council had resolved to pass a budget with a $2.3 million operational deficit in the hope that efficiencies and grant opportunities would emerge with two new directors at the helm.
“No one is happy to receive a rate rise. That’s just a reality. But obviously things just keep going up, that’s just a fact of life,” Cr MacRae said.
“So if we’re going to cover our costs and continue the services we currently have, we also need to go up with CPI.
“If we didn’t pass a budget with a $2.3 million deficit, the rates could have been an extra five per cent more.
“We were really keen to avoid that because of the uncertainty around the copper mine closure and the smelter ... with our new directors, we’ve tasked them to try and recover that $2 million within the next 12 months through cost-cutting measures.
“So yeah, we feel really happy with the budget and we’ve done the best we possibly can for the community to keep the principal place of residence rates as low as we possibly can.”
Cr MacRae told North West Weekly it was frustrating that Mount Isa’s rates were being impacted by factors outside of the council’s control.
“We try to create the best value for our ratepayers, but we’re hamstrung by government policy,” she said.
“Money is made from the water used by our residents, and we feel that it should be returned to us.
“I’ve written to both the Minister (for Water) Ann Leahy and the Treasurer (David Janetzki) in relation to this and we do have a meeting with Minister Leahy in relation to this next month.
“We haven’t given up on the fight towards getting that.
“When we benchmark our rates against all other places in Queensland, we sit pretty much smack bang in the middle, which is a good result in itself because to pay our staff we have to compete with the mines and other people that are able to pay higher wages than we do.
“Everyone knows it’s just a little bit more expensive out here.
“So, to sit mid-range is a great result. But, what cruels us is the state government's influences.”