Aussies slapped with infuriating bin tax
- City of Yarra increasing their kerbside bin tax
- Critics say it is a way of getting around rate caps
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An Australian council is set to hike up its controversial ‘bin tax’ just a year after it was introduced.
The City of Yarra, in Melbourne, charges residents an extra $115 on top of their council rates for the privilege of collecting kerbside rubbish bins.
But this is set to rise by an average of another 30 per cent next year according to draft 2024-25 budget documents, leading some to accuse the Greens-led council of using the tax to side-step limits imposed on rate fees.
Under rate caps set by local government minister Melissa Horne, no council in Victoria can raise their rates by more than 2.75 per cent in a single year.
Independent councillor Stephen Jolly said he was surprised at the amount the bin tax was set to increase, especially with an election just a few months away in October.
An Australian council is set to hike up its controversial ‘bin tax’ just a year after it was introduced (stock image)
‘By separating the bin tax, you immediately aren’t subject to the rate cap, so they can jack it up exponentially,’ he told The Herald Sun.
Yarra City Council said the increase was linked to the costs associated with introducing a fourth kerbside collection bin to about 44,000 households.
The new lime green-lidded 120-litre bin to collect food and garden organic materials (FOGO) has been rolled out to residents this year with the first rubbish collection set for July 1.
‘The state government requires all councils to introduce a FOGO service by 2030,’ a council spokesperson said.
‘The council has worked hard to keep the cost of implementing and delivering the FOGO service as low as possible without compromising the quality or efficiency of the service.’
The council will raise the fee by 30 per cent in a blow for families already struggling with the cost-of-living crisis (stock image)
Other councils have also introduced waste levies, but their increases are small in comparison with the City of Port Philip, which increased theirs by 2.7 per cent and the City of Hobons Bay by 7.5 per cent.
According to a recent Council Watch investigation, more than half of Victoria’s 79 councils are adding ‘fake’ costs to their waste levies to prop up their bottom lines.
The funds are then used for other council services such as street sweeping, drain cleaning, graffiti removal and tree maintenance.
Guidleines were released by Ms Horne in December last year with the Minister saying some council weren’t using ‘best practice’ for the fees and that this ‘eroded public transparency and trust in local government’.
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