Five Years of Rate Hikes:
Where is Our Money Actually Going?
Kwinana Rates: Why Are We Paying More to Get Less?
While local families stretch every dollar, the City of Kwinana continues to jack up our rates faster than inflation year after year.
Council claim these price hikes are “necessary.”
But take a look around. Look at your street. Look at our neighborhoods.
Do you really feel like you’re getting your money’s worth?
We are paying far more, only to get far less in return.
The Spin vs. The Reality: The Waste Management Myth
The council calls this new waste system an “upgrade,” yet they still haven’t disclosed its total cost to Kwinana ratepayers.
Let’s look at the actual math.
We used to have a streamlined system where trucks moved systematically through an entire suburb, clearing all verge waste in a matter of days. The council replaced that with an “on-call” model limited to just two individual pickups per household each year.
To see how absurd this is, imagine driving to the shops for a single carton of milk, driving all the way home, and then immediately heading back just to buy bread—and doing it a third time for fruit. It makes no sense.
Instead of one truck efficiently clearing a whole street at once, heavy, high-emissions trucks are now making hundreds of separate, ad-hoc trips to random houses across Kwinana all year round.
It is a logistical nightmare that increases traffic, burns unnecessary fuel, and requires more trucks and staff to operate.
By any reasonable measure, this is less efficient, worse for the environment, and a huge step backward from the effective former verge pickup system.
Kwinana Rates: Why Are We Paying More to Get Less?
While local families stretch every dollar, the City of Kwinana continues to jack up our rates faster than inflation year after year.
They claim these price hikes are “necessary.”
But take a look around. Look at your street. Look at our neighborhoods.
Do you really feel like you’re getting your money’s worth?
We are paying far more, only to get far less in return.
The Spin vs. The Reality: The Waste Management Myth
The council calls this new waste system an “upgrade,” yet they still haven’t disclosed its total cost to Kwinana ratepayers.
Let’s look at the actual math.
We used to have a streamlined system where trucks moved systematically through an entire suburb, clearing all verge waste in a matter of days. The council replaced that with an “on-call” model limited to just two individual pickups per household each year.
To see how absurd this is, imagine driving to the shops for a single carton of milk, driving all the way home, and then immediately heading back just to buy bread—and doing it a third time for fruit. It makes no sense.
Instead of one truck efficiently clearing a whole street at once, heavy, high-emissions trucks are now making hundreds of separate, ad-hoc trips to random houses across Kwinana all year round.
It is a logistical nightmare that increases traffic, burns unnecessary fuel, and requires more trucks and staff to operate.
By any reasonable measure, this is less efficient, worse for the environment, and a huge step backward from the effective former verge pickup system.
Kwinana Council: A 5-Year Masterclass in Financial Mismanagement
While local families count every cent, Kwinana Council keeps digging deeper into your pockets. Residents are being slugged with a 4.5% rate hike this year alone, while our neighbors in Rockingham and Cockburn have managed to keep their increases significantly lower.
Take a look at how Kwinana compares over the last five years:
*Note: Neighboring councils froze rates during economic uncertainty while Kwinana pushed ahead with increases.
The Reality Check
Over the last five years, Kwinana’s cumulative rate increases have outpaced our neighbors by nearly 8%.
Kwinana Council claims these relentless hikes are necessary for “core services.” Yet, cities like Rockingham are delivering major infrastructure—like the Baldivis Sporting Complex and extensive coastal protections—with far lower annual rate increases.
So, where is all our money actually going? Asking that simple question has become a total no-go zone at council chambers.
Hidden Costs & Broken Promises
The ALWM Group has repeatedly demanded clear financial breakdowns for specific council initiatives, but council keeps ratepayers completely in the dark.
- Where is the transparency? What is the exact price tag for funding committees like Aboriginal Boola Maara? While they focus heavily on symbolic actions and renaming local facilities—like pushing for Indigenous acknowledgements at the Koorliny Arts Centre—our actual community infrastructure is being left unfunded.
- Refusing FOI Requests: If the council is so proud of these initiatives, why won’t they show us the cost? Even formal Freedom of Information (FOI) requests have been refused.
- Hidden Executive Pay: While council is quick to demand more from your household budget, the full breakdown of executive and director salaries, allowances, and bonuses remains buried behind bureaucratic jargon.
You pay their wages. You deserve complete transparency—not excuses, hidden figures, and cover-ups.
Highest Rates, Lowest Return: The Kwinana Loop Trail
When you compare Kwinana to our neighbours in Rockingham and Cockburn, we are hit with some of the highest rate charges.
Yet, the council claims there is no money available to complete vital community assets like the Kwinana Loop Trail , fixing cracked footpaths and bikeways .
Imagine if that 21km trail through Kwinana’s beautiful bushlands was actually finished.Local families, cyclists, and dog-walkers would have a safe, world-class recreational space.Instead, it sits incomplete.Is this incompetence, financial mismanagement, or sheer arrogance?
Why is a premier family trail ignored while administrative costs soar?
More Staff, Bigger Salaries, and Consultant Waste
Over the last six years, executive and staffing costs at the City of Kwinana have climbed higher and higher.
- Lumped-Sum Reporting: Instead of showing the community a clear, simple list of who gets paid what, these massive numbers are lumped together in confusing financial reports. Why make it so hard for a normal resident to do the math?
- The Consultant Gravy Train: Thousands of your hard-earned dollars are being handed over to outside corporate “consultants” and fancy committees. We need that money spent on fixing our roads, maintaining our parks, and looking after our suburbs—not on expensive, glossy corporate reports that sit on shelves gathering dust.
Decisions Made Behind Closed Doors: No Vote, No Say
Big, culture-shifting changes—like renaming local community buildings or funding aboriginal committees—are being pushed through without anyone genuinely asking the community what they actually want.You pay the bills.
You fund this city.
Why weren’t you asked if these projects were your priority?
The money spent on “celebration days” , “indigenous acknowledgements” and “committee fees” is buried deep inside massive, hundred-page budget reports.
If the Council believes this is what the community wants, why isn’t this spending clearly and proudly listed on the front page of their website? What are they trying to hide?
Kwinana Residents Are Not a Cash Cow
Kwinana families are not ATM machines for the local government.
We deserve to know exactly how many cents of every single rate dollar are actually being spent on our streets, and how much is getting swallowed up by office bureaucracy and political agendas.
This is why Alwmgroup was form to give individual residents a voice.
Email your concerns with councillors
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