zero_gravitas
@zero_gravitas@aussie.zone
- Comment on Podcast Community on AZ? 1 day ago:
I’m generally supportive.
I do wonder if an Aus/Oceania-specific comm might struggle for activity and be better off staying rolled in with !onthetelly@aussie.zone.
The existing podcast comms have quite a lot of subscribers (the hexbear one has 20k). I wonder, if the aim is to get an active general podcast comm, if we’re not better off putting our efforts into reactivating those existing comms? Perhaps with some strategic cross-posting to !onthetelly where applicable? Unless, I suppose, there’s some issues with those comms, e.g. dodgy mods, or the host instance has been defederated by other instances.
- Submitted 1 day ago to australianpolitics@aussie.zone | 0 comments
- Caught in the crossfire? Sweeping crackdown on Rising Tide raises questions [FULL TEXT IN POST]www.newcastleherald.com.au ↗Submitted 1 day ago to australianpolitics@aussie.zone | 0 comments
- Submitted 5 days ago to worldnews@aussie.zone | 1 comment
- Submitted 5 days ago to worldnews@aussie.zone | 7 comments
- Submitted 1 week ago to australianpolitics@aussie.zone | 1 comment
- Submitted 1 week ago to worldnews@aussie.zone | 2 comments
- Submitted 1 week ago to news@aussie.zone | 0 comments
- Submitted 1 week ago to worldnews@aussie.zone | 0 comments
- Doctors fear Catholic takeover of NSW hospitals will usher in ‘religious doctrine’ [FULL TEXT IN POST]www.smh.com.au ↗Submitted 1 week ago to australianpolitics@aussie.zone | 8 comments
- Comment on Why ABC why?! 1 week ago:
The ‘mid-term’ elections are on in the US on Tuesday 3rd of November, so that’s a little box group of three stories regarding the US elections. A couple of days ago the box had a couple of stories about the Israeli elections: Image
(Wayback snapshot: web.archive.org/web/…/www.abc.net.au/)A week and a half before that it was 4 links regarding Helen Haines: Image
(Wayback snapshot: web.archive.org/web/…/www.abc.net.au/)So it’s just a group of articles regarding a prominent news story at the point in time.
- Some NSW police are now armed with military-style rifles. And they could be deployed to protestswww.theguardian.com ↗Submitted 1 week ago to australianpolitics@aussie.zone | 2 comments
- The battle for Palestinian-Israeli votes could decide Israel's political future | Laura Tinglewww.abc.net.au ↗Submitted 1 week ago to worldnews@aussie.zone | 0 comments
- More unions down tools in Labor’s Victorian election campaign as ‘trust broken’www.theguardian.com ↗Submitted 1 week ago to australianpolitics@aussie.zone | 8 comments
- Submitted 1 week ago to worldnews@aussie.zone | 0 comments
- Submitted 1 week ago to australianpolitics@aussie.zone | 5 comments
- Comment on Two key unions turn on Labor, running attack ads and pulling campaign funds a month out from Victorian election 2 weeks ago:
I’m so confused.
I think I can help!
Council Rates are calculated based on the value of the property.
This is already a major increase, since property values have skyrocketed in the last five years.
It’s not laid out in a way that makes it particularly clear but the key point of clarification is that council rates don’t grow with property values.
Allow me to explain…
First, the council first determines the total amount they will raise through council rates for a given year. The annual cap is a restriction on the growth of that total amount.
Secondly, they divide that total amount by the worth of all properties in the area.
That is to say, the ‘rate in the dollar’ is calculated each year only so that the council rates can be charged proportionally to each property. It is not a fixed rate such that council rates would grow in line with house prices.
This is outlined on the page you linked, just above the bit you quoted:
How is a ‘rate in the dollar’ calculated?
For a council using only a general rate (some use special rates for particular projects or needs), the rate in the dollar is calculated as in the following example:
- A council plans to raise total rate revenue of $10 million.
- The total Capital Improved Value of all rateable properties in the municipality is $2.38 billion (Capital Improved Value means the value of the land, the building and any capital improvements made to the property)
- The rate in the dollar is calculated by dividing $10 million by $2.38 billion to obtain a rate in the dollar of 0.42 cents.
The ‘rate in the dollar’ has trended downwards over the last few decades precisely because property values have increased faster than local councils have increased their rates. You can find the full list of residential ‘rate in the dollar’ figures for 2000-2027 for the City of Melbourne on this page, but in summary, it was 6.4 in 2000/2001, and it’s 3.98 in 2026/2027.
The rate cap amounts since 2016/2017 can be found on this page.
I haven’t read it in full, but this report gives at least some indications that the cap hasn’t kept up with inflation:
The fall in capped rates revenue per property is largely due to: • Difference between inflation and the rate cap: in 2022–23, inflation was around 7 per cent while the rate cap was set at 1.75 per cent; in 2023–24, inflation was 4 per cent and the rate cap was 3.5 per cent
Obviously if a major revenue stream doesn’t keep up with inflation, then there’s eventually going to be a squeeze on expenditures, including wages.
From an article in ‘Council’ magazine:
The union said council employees have experienced a decline in real wages in recent years, attributing part of the issue to rate capping arrangements that limit councils’ ability to increase revenue.
According to the ASU, the average Victorian council worker earns approximately $70,000 a year and has experienced a real wage decline of up to 12 per cent since 2021.
I’m sure the ASU is aware that increasing council rates is unlikely to be popular. This is evident when they specify “modest reform to the rate cap” in that ‘Council’ article. Also, their members are themselves rate-payers, of course. If they thought there was another way to secure a decent deal for workers, they’d be pushing for that instead.
- Comment on Website reporting on crime in Victoria staffed by Philippines workers 2 weeks ago:
Details here if anyone’s interested: www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-06/…/106844364
- Two key unions turn on Labor, running attack ads and pulling campaign funds a month out from Victorian electionwww.theguardian.com ↗Submitted 2 weeks ago to australianpolitics@aussie.zone | 7 comments
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to australianpolitics@aussie.zone | 0 comments
- Comment on Politicians telling us to ‘turn the temperature down’ is peak hypocrisy – Amy Remeikis 2 weeks ago:
So, after years of stirring up outrage, while providing limited information and zero solutions, we get journalists saying ‘We are fire alarm; not the fuel’.
Horseshit. You are absolutely a part of the problem, if not a major contributing factor to it.
I don’t think the article is a defence of the media or journalists. The only mentions of media and journalists are critical of them.
Remeikis, it seems to me, is defending protesters and dissent movements.
In the minutes after the news broke of the alleged (someone has now been charged, and so language must change with it) attack, blame was ascribed by commentators, and later the broader political class, to people who had protested a genocide, those who wanted more climate action, and the Left in general.
We’ve normalised police bashing peaceful protesters.*
We are a nation who will tone police people protesting racism, but not the racists.
A group of protesters sitting outside an MP’s office, demanding higher standards of their leaders, is not the same as death threats and violence. But in criticising the legitimate threats, the political and media classes will point to democratic dissent as an example.
- Politicians telling us to ‘turn the temperature down’ is peak hypocrisy – Amy Remeikiswww.deepcutnews.com ↗Submitted 2 weeks ago to australianpolitics@aussie.zone | 3 comments
- Comment on It’s Not Just Cornell: ‘Decades’ of sexual assault at the University of Sydney – Honi Soit 2 weeks ago:
‘It’s Not Just Cornell’ in the title is reference to a specific news story that has been prominent recently: en.wikipedia.org/…/2024_Cornell_University_rape_a…
- Submitted 2 weeks ago to worldnews@aussie.zone | 0 comments
- Comment on Why are people protesting across Europe? 3 weeks ago:
The Guardian has an Australian site, but this article seems to be from the original UK version, co-written by a UK-based and Spain-based journalist.
Fair point, I’ll check for Australian authors before posting Guardian articles from now on.
Did it have some other particular relevance
“unaffordable housing and the cost of living” seem to me to be pretty relevant to the Australian context.
- Submitted 3 weeks ago to australianpolitics@aussie.zone | 0 comments
- New footage of police and protester clashes at Sydney Town Hall demonstration seen in courtwww.abc.net.au ↗Submitted 3 weeks ago to australianpolitics@aussie.zone | 0 comments
- ‘Limited evidence’ of protester violence at Sydney demonstration against Israeli president Isaac Herzog visitwww.theguardian.com ↗Submitted 3 weeks ago to australianpolitics@aussie.zone | 2 comments
- Submitted 3 weeks ago to worldnews@aussie.zone | 4 comments
- Comment on Hunter Valley wedding crash survivors call for change three years after ‘bus trip from hell’ 3 weeks ago:
It’s an article version of the Australian Story episode, so that’s why it’s not ‘pyramid’ structure. Their ‘feature’ style articles don’t have a summary box at the top because they’re not pure information-delivery.
