{"id":26062,"date":"2026-06-06T15:51:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/26062\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T15:51:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T15:51:41","slug":"adelaide-city-council-rate-rise-hit-by-business-revolt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/26062\/","title":{"rendered":"Adelaide City Council rate rise hit by business revolt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prominent business associations are asking Adelaide City Council to urgently reconsider a proposed rate hike that could hurt CBD traders already struggling to survive amid growing economic pressures.<\/p>\n

In a show of unity, Property Council SA, Australian Hotels Association (AHA) SA and the SA Business Chamber called on the council to rethink its proposed 5.6 per cent average rate rise, which sits above Australia\u2019s 4.2 per cent inflation rate as of April.<\/p>\n

The trio\u2019s statements, given exclusively to The Advertiser, were rejected by Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith, who said the proposed increase demonstrated \u201crestraint\u201d.<\/p>\n

Oliver Brown, a co-owner of four CBD hospitality venues including The Stag and Tarantino\u2019s, said: \u201cIt\u2019s wild to raise the rates so far above inflation when inflation\u2019s already high.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the CBD\u2019s 15.5 per cent retail vacancy rate<\/a> as of January, according to CBRE data, suggested the council should focus on attracting more ratepayers instead of raising rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like the council is completely out of touch with what\u2019s actually happening on the ground and in the city. They talk about activating and revitalising, and then they take actions like this that are completely contrary to that,\u201d Mr Brown said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis start of a new financial year is one of the worst we\u2019ve seen as far as changes that impact costs. We\u2019ve got people passing on petrol levies from the fuel crisis. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got the RBA reducing the ability to pass on surcharges come October, and then the award rates have gone up above inflation again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all this stuff accumulating at exactly the same moment in time when profitability was already so low.\u201d <\/p>\n

Property Council SA executive director Bruce Djite said: \u201cIt is staggering that considering the state government has taken huge investment liabilities off the hands of the City of Adelaide in the Aquatic Centre and The North Adelaide Golf Course, that they continue to slug business well above the rate of inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Lomax-Smith said the council\u2019s draft budget was \u201cframed in a period of global economic uncertainty that is driving up the cost of doing business for councils \u2013 just as it is for business\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat seems to have been lost on the Property Council, the AHA and the SA Business Chamber,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is after nine years of previous councils freezing the rate in the dollar at the behest of the business lobby, we have had to focus on budget repair during our whole four-year term.\u201d<\/p>\n

Referring to an Advertiser story<\/a> showing the 5.6 per cent increase was one of the state\u2019s five highest among metropolitan councils, Dr Lomax-Smith said: \u201cOur place in that list shows that we have acted with restraint.\u201d <\/p>\n

AHA SA chief executive Anna Moeller said: \u201cThese continuing rate hikes place a handbrake on both business and the likelihood of an increase in residential living within the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

SA Business Chamber chief executive Andrew Kay said traders did \u201cnot need another hit to margins that are already being squeezed to breaking point\u201d, with business confidence dropping to pandemic levels and profitability at a 20-year low. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prominent business associations are asking Adelaide City Council to urgently reconsider a proposed rate hike that could hurt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[395,5639,24286,24292,24296,23,133,24301,21812,24280,24287,18384,24276,24279,24282,565,24295,18918,24299,24277,1933,24270,1859,24291,4309,24275,8749,24300,24272,24271,24284,5684,24281,120,24298,24283,24297,18110,24289,7455,24285,24278,24293,121,24294,5703,24274,24290,24288,10851,15128,24273],"class_list":["post-26062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-adelaide","tag-adelaide-city-council","tag-alex-bennett","tag-andrew-kay","tag-anna-moeller","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-australian-hotels-association","tag-award-rates","tag-bianca-de-marchi","tag-big-easy-group","tag-brown","tag-bruce-djite","tag-budget-repair","tag-business-associations","tag-chief-executive","tag-chief-executive-anna","tag-city-council","tag-continuing-rate-hikes","tag-council-rates","tag-executive-director","tag-executive-director-bruce","tag-fuel-crisis","tag-hospitality-traders","tag-hospitality-venues","tag-impact-costs","tag-inflation-rate","tag-investment-liabilities","tag-jane-lomax-smith","tag-kicker-text-words","tag-mayor-jane","tag-messenger-subscription-box","tag-names-smash","tag-oceania","tag-oliver","tag-petrol-levies","tag-prominent-business-associations","tag-property-council","tag-property-council-sa","tag-rate-rise","tag-rates-hike","tag-rejects-call","tag-retail-vacancy-rate","tag-south-australia","tag-stag-public-house","tag-subscription-box-version","tag-sunset-drone-image","tag-the-stag-public-house","tag-tim-joy","tag-tom-huntley","tag-university-of-adelaide","tag-vibrant-capital-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}