The Victorian Independent Remuneration Tribunal has recently made a determination, setting the values of the allowances for Council members in all 79 Councils in Victoria.
Swan Hill Rural City Council’s acting CEO, Rosanne Kava said that the Determination made by this independent body, in accordance with the new Local Government Act (2020), sets a base allowance for each Council member.
“The value of the base allowance payable to a Council member varies depending on the role (Mayor, Deputy Mayor or Councillor) and the Council allowance category assigned to the Council, as specified in the Determination,” she said.
Ms Kava said that the Victorian Independent Remuneration Tribunal had taken into consideration the substantial change in the roles, responsibilities and workload of council members since their allowances were last reviewed.
“This provides for further scheduled annual increases to allowance values until 18 December 2025. The next increase will take effect on 18 December 2022.
“The Determination also sets a remote area travel allowance for Council members and provides and an eligibility criteria for claiming it. This is of particular importance due to our municipality’s location.
“Ahead of the Tribunal’s decision, interested persons or bodies were invited to make submissions to ensure those that wanted to have input were had the opportunity.” Ms Kava added.
The new allowance comes in retrospectively, from 18 December 2021.
