Gold Coast rates to rise 4.7pc in 'compassionate' budget

Gold Coast average general rates up 4.7pc, debt to rise beyond $1b as budget adopted Mon 15 Jun 2026 at 4:45pm In short: The Gold Coast will see an average general rate increase of 4.7 per cent under this year's budget. The council will retain a 10 per cent discount for early rates payments. What's next? The mayor has described as the budget as "compassionate" but says council debt is set to exceed $1 billion. Rates for Gold Coast residents will rise but a 10 per cent discount for early payments will remain, following the delivery of a budget the mayor has described as "compassionate". Councillors met this morning to adopt the $2.7 billion budget, which contained an average general rate increase of 4.7 per cent, up from 2.7 per cent in 2025. Ratepayers had been facing an increase of 5.7 per cent, but councillors backed down, instead linking rate increases to Brisbane's CPI as council has done for more than a decade. The council will also retain a 10 per cent discount for early rates payments after scrapping plans to replace it with a flat rate discount. Mayor Tom Tate said some small and medium businesses would have seen rate increases of up to $150,000 if the discount was abandoned. "Consistency gives certainty which builds confidence, confidence attracts investment, and investment creates jobs," he said. "Jobs means future generations can remain on the Gold Coast. That's keeping family together and there's nothing more compassionate than that." Councillor Peter Young said many "fairly low socio-economic" residents would have been "better off" with the flat rate discount. But Deputy Mayor Mark Hammel said the impact on business would have been "catastrophic". "What it showed was, that for some ratepayers to have received a very modest amount of extra money in their back pocket with the other proposal, that others in the city would have seen huge increases to cover the cost of that," he said. Waste dominates infrastructure spend The council will spend $543 million on infrastructure and transport. This includes $101 million for the Advanced Resource Recovery Centre (ARRC) — a $1.6 billion recycling precinct that would include Queensland's first waste-to-energy facility. The project has not yet secured federal and state approvals and the split between public and private funding is yet to be determined. But with the Gold Coast's landfill storage set to be depleted over the next decade, Cr Tate said he was confident the major project would stand up. "To the state government there's no other solution, really, to handle waste for south-east Queensland," he said. A $5 gate fee at the city's rubbish tips will be introduced on July 1. Council's debt will rise from $810 million as of June 2025, to $1.2 billion by the end of the 2026-27 financial year. Each rateable property will be charged $5 each to upgrade State Emergency Service facilities, while $10 will be charged to create $2.8 million fund for natural disaster recovery. 'Uncertainty' underlines budget The budget also included $25 million for a new music hall in Surfers Paradise, $18 million for Pizzey Park upgrades and $6 million to upgrade the outdoor stage at the Home of the Arts (HOTA). Cr Hammel said "uncertainty" around global fuel prices and federal budget tax reforms meant non-critical projects, such as construction of a new library in Ormeau, "had to be pulled back". "When you see a $50-a-tonne increase in asphalt overnight because oil prices have gone up, that means you are resurfacing a lot less roads for the same amount of money," he said. "[But] the critical stuff that must be done is funded is this budget." The council has introduced special quarterly budget meetings for updates on how global economic conditions are impacting council operations. "We're not backflipping on any decision. We're refining it," Cr Tate said. $89 million on 'controlled entities' Three council-controlled entities focused on attracting investment and growing the city’s tourism sector — Invest Gold Coast, Experience Gold Coast and Brand Gold Coast — received $89 million in the budget. They are made up of 26 board directors, including Cr Tate and council chief executive Tim Baker, who received a total of $1.04 million in remuneration, according to their 2025 financial statements. Earlier this month councillor Brooke Patterson said funding for Invest Gold Coast should be reduced and the entities merged under one board to improve their efficiency. "I expressed particular concern for the costs vs benefit of our entity Invest GC," she posted on social media. "Of all the entities, this is the one, ironically, displaying the least return on investment. I appreciate it is very early days, but I feel structural issues, already apparent, require attention." She said an independent audit report into council's oversight of these entities is expected in July. But Cr Tate said changes to those entities were "off the table". "When it comes to top quality directors, the amount we pay for their expertise is minuscule," he said. Cr Tate said funding levels and performance standards for the entities had previously been agreed upon by a majority of councillors.