FINANCING LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Fact Sheet 3 – Financing local government

Financial Assistance Grants (FAGs)

  • The 2018-19 Budget maintains the system of payments to support local government, through Financial Assistance Grants (FAGs). 
  • In the 2018-19 year, the Australian Government will allocate $1.229 billion in FAGs for local government services to the community.  It should be noted that $1.2B was also bought forward from 2018-19 into the 2017-18 financial year.
  • FAGs continue to comprise two components: general purpose assistance grants; and untied local roads grants.

Table 1: Commonwealth funding for local government 2018-19 ($m)

General Purpose Component

851.3

Local Road Component

377.7

 

 

TOTAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT FUNDING

1229.0

*Note $1.2B was brought forward into the 2017-18 financial year

 

Table 2 outlines total Financial Assistance Grants (FAGs) for the period 2016-17 to 2020-21.

Table 2: Total Financial Assistance Grants to local government 2017-18 to 2020-21 (cash)

 

 

2017-18

2018-19

2019-20

2020-21

2021-22

 

$m

$m

$m

$m

$m

General Purpose Component

1671.7

851.3

1772.9

1842.7

1918.9

Local Road Component

741.8

377.7

786.7

817.7

851.5

Total financial assistance

2413.4

1229.0

2559.6

2660.4

2770.3


  Table 3 Financial Grants – 2018-19

Table 3: Financial Assistance Grants to local government by jurisdiction 2018-19

Financial assistance grants

NSW
$m

VIC
$m

QLD
$m

WA
$m

SA
$m

TAS
$m

ACT
$m

NT
$m

TOTAL

$m

General Purpose Component

272.1

219.6

170.6

89.0

59.4

18.0

14.2

8.4

851.3

Local Road Component

 

109.6

77.9

70.8

57.8

20.8

20.0

12.1

8.8

377.7

TOTAL

381.7

297.5

241.4

146.7

80.1

38.0

26.3

17.3

1229.0

Note for the above tables – $1.2B was bought forward into the 2017-18 financial year