The Retirement Living Council (RLC) is calling on Cairns Regional Council to abandon its “cash grab plan” to increase rates for retirement village residents during the cost-of-living crisis, with fixed income pensioners the worst hit if the move goes ahead.
Cairns Council is proposing to hike rates for residents for “equity and fairness” purposes to “ensure that every dwelling makes a fair and reasonable contribution towards the infrastructure and services that Council deliver”.
For Oak Tree Retirement Village Cairns, this means an 800% rates increase, as The Weekly SOURCE reported on 7 April. Calculations show a pensioner living on approximately $1,100 per fortnight will be hit with an increase of up to $75 per month. 90% of ratepayers in the village receive the AgePension.
Cairns Regional Council on 14 April announced the increase will be staged over a two-year period, halving the proposed rate increases for the 2025/26 financial year, and then charging the full proposed rates for the 2026/27 financial year, as The SOURCE reported.
The proposal has caused fear and anxiety in the community, with the RLC currently surveying residents who have described the rates hike as “immoral” and “unjust”.
As it stands, retirement villages in Cairns are a single parcel of land from which rates are calculated. Cairns Council is proposing to break up that parcel of land and charge each individual resident rates for their unit within a retirement village.
RLC Executive Director Daniel Gannon said Cairns Regional Council should be ashamed.
“Cairns Council is now flagging its intention to spread out this cash grab over two years instead of one as originally proposed, and they think residents should be grateful for this so-called generosity,” he said.
"Whether it hits you all at once or in two blows, a massive rates increase is still a knockout,” said Daniel.
“As far as public policy goes, this is unacceptable and unconscionable. Council isn’t easing the impact of these shocking rate increases – they’re making it worse and stretching it out.
“Older Australians are already struggling to meet rising prices, even for the non-negotiables in life. We fear these rate increases will force residents to go without groceries, medication, or cooling.”
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