NSW Tourism Minister Adam Marshall watching Tamworth Regional Council special rate rise with interest

Council says the money it raises from special rate variation, which has to first be approved by IPART, will be used to bring more major events to Tamworth and its surrounding towns.

Adam Marshall said he’d never heard of anywhere else employing such a strategy.

“It’s certainly an original way of doing it – I’m not aware of anywhere else in the state that is going down this path,” Mr Marshall said.

“I’ll definitely be watching with interest.”

He said the state government, through Destination NSW, already did a similar thing at a state level.

If the levy does go ahead, he wants to make sure council and Destination NSW have a “coordinated approach”.

“I’d hate to see any duplication of services,” Mr Marshall said.

“I invite council to talk to Destination NSW to make sure they’re not cutting across what they’re doing, or deploying local resource to bid for an event that’s already locked in to go somewhere else.”

Mr Marshall said while rate increases were never welcomed, he understood where council was coming from. 

“You’ve got to make your locality more attractive and the best way to do that is reducing costs,” he said.

“Whether that is through travel and accommodation deals, or reducing and waving fees for the hiring of facilities. The state government does that on a larger level, leveraging our funding to get commercial arrangements for events.”

Council documents show by the third year, council would have $600,000 in additional revenue, with rates sitting at an average of $3954.

Mayor Col Murray has clarified that “none of the funds would be used for other purposes such as wages, administration or for existing events”.

TRC is about to begin a “extensive community consultation program to gauge support” for the rate rise.