Gippsland councils join national push to make fossil fuel companies pay for severe weather damage
Local governments are tasked with maintaining a third of the nation's infrastructure, which makes footing the bill for climate damage increasingly difficult.
Jacob Wallace
June 30, 2026
From Phillip Island to Lakes Entrance along Gippsland's coast, local councils are having to spend an increasing amount of ratepayer money on repairing the damages that severe weather events are causing.
Bass Coast Shire councilor Mat Morgan told the Monitor the council is juggling multiple problems as a result of floods and water inundation.
“We've had to move our surf life-saving club. We've got properties in Silverleaves that are being held up by a rock bag wall, but these are not long-term solutions. We don't know how much land we're going to lose.”
The sandbag wall protecting Inverloch’s surf life saving club.
But this problem isn’t unique to Gippsland - local governments around the country are feeling the pinch, and last week they voted to demand fossil fuel companies help foot the bill.
What happened: The Australian Local Government Association (ALGA), which represents the country’s 537 councils, voted to request the federal government establish a Climate Compensation Fund to help pay for the growing cost of climate change damage.
ALGA requested a parliamentary inquiry be set up to investigate levies and taxes on the coal, oil and gas corporations to finance the fund.
Councils converge on Canberra
Bass Coast Shire councillor Mat Morgan attended the ALGA’s National General Assembly in Canberra.
He told the Monitor the assembly covered everything from deer control, travel support, and “really serious issues like climate support for local governments”.
The Climate Compensation Fund and levy motion was put forward by Sydney Council at the general assembly and received unanimous support from all 537 of Australia’s local governments.
“The support signifies that local governments are in crisis right now,” Morgan said. “The motion was supported by regional councils around Victoria like Bass Coast but also Mount Alexander Shire Council, who are still suffering as a result of the bushfires.”
Morgan noted Bass Coast Shire had independently voted to request the federal government for fossil fuel levy in April.
The growing costs of disasters
Across Australia fires, floods and cyclones cost $38 billion per year, which is equivalent to $3,800 per household. This is predicted to rise to $73 billion by 2060, according to research from Deloitte Access Economics.
As the cost of climate disasters increase, ALGA argues a disproportionate percentage is lumped onto local governments because councils are tasked with maintaining a third of the nation's infrastructure, including 75 percent of roads.
This means local governments are forced to spend more of their budget each year on repairing damage from severe weather events.
Morgan said Bass Coast Shire consistently receives requests from the community “campaigning for all sorts of climate mitigation measures from a local government that has a $100 million [annual] budget”.
The rock bag wall protecting the Phillip Island community of Silverleaves.
Big bucks: The insured costs of climate-related disasters are now twelve times higher than twenty years ago, while local government revenue has grown three times over the same period, according to research from the Australia Institute.
A receding coast
Australia’s National Climate Risk Assessment, released in September last year, warned that there are 1.5 million people in low-lying coastal communities at high risk of coastal flooding and erosion by 2050.
“We have every coastal council across Australia screaming out about stranded assets as the coastline recedes,” Morgan said.
The Monitor contacted federal MP for Monash Mary Aldred and Darren Chester for comment but did not receive a response prior to publication.