Nick Dametto says Townsville rate rise is 'well below' other Qld councils

Townsville City Council has adopted its 2026-27 budget, with Mayor Nick Dametto saying the rise in rates is still "well below" some other Queensland councils.

The council set the rate in the dollar at 0.009706, up from 0.009054 in 2025-26, and said the average increase in rates, water and waste charges will be 6.8%.

That works out to about $5.48 a week for the average household.

Dametto said the council found $16 million in savings and efficiencies, which helped prevent a larger increase. He said that without those savings, the average rates-and-utilities rise would have been more than 11%.

Budget adopted

The budget was adopted on June 16, 2026, after Townsville council worked through a broader set of cost pressures, including inflation, fuel costs and supply-chain pressure.

Dametto said the council had aimed to balance service delivery and infrastructure spending against cost-of-living pressure while avoiding job cuts.

The council also said it would reintroduce tip vouchers, with two vouchers available per household.

Who pays more

Townsville has kept its 20% rate-increase cap for residential owner-occupied homes, a setting that still leaves some ratepayers facing the full increase.

About 2,300 properties rely on that cap, meaning some homeowners could still be hit with a 20% rise depending on land valuation changes.

That makes the budget a mixed outcome for households: the average increase is moderate by comparison with some other Queensland councils, but a subset of owners will still feel the sharpest impact.

Queensland comparison

Dametto used the budget to argue Townsville’s increase sits below some other council decisions in the state.

The Courier Mail compared Townsville’s rise with Gold Coast’s 4.7% increase and Sunshine Coast’s 10% increase, placing the Townsville budget somewhere in the middle of the current Queensland council cycle.

The local argument is not that rates are frozen, but that the council has avoided the bigger increases some communities are facing while keeping services and capital spending in place.

What comes next

Further detail is still expected once the full budget papers are published and the savings list is available.

That should show which line items delivered the $16 million in savings and whether any property classes or suburbs are more exposed to valuation-driven increases.

For now, the key takeaway is that Townsville has approved a budget that keeps the average rise below some comparable councils, but still pushes more costs onto households in 2026-27.