Member for Parkes Mark Coulton believes the federal government and local councils do work well together.
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“I think the federal government has a good relationship with all the councils in my electorate,” he said.
“I do acknowledge there is an argument to reconfigure the Financial Assistance Grants (FAG), but city councils do get money they don’t need, sometimes parking fines earn them more than FAG.
“Also, local government is under the control of the state government and we can’t let them off the hook when it comes to funding local government. But we do put extra funds into councils that are not part of FAGs and they have been constitutionality challenged, the Roads to Recovery program, money for the drought and through the Building Better Regions fund we’ve put money into Dubbo airport, the sale-yards and other services in town.
“A lot of federal funds do go to the Dubbo council and they shouldn't lose sight of that.”