Is it time for private schools like Shore and Redlands to pay council rates?

Private schools in New South Wales are currently exempt from paying rates on the land they own under the Local Government Act 1993. Mayor Zoë Baker, of North Sydney, thinks it’s time they pay up.

Late last year, North Sydney Council invited private schools to make voluntary contributions in lieu of the rates they are exempted from. 

However, all schools declined, citing a clause in the Education Act 1990 which states that if a private school uses its money or assets for “any purpose other than for the operation of the school” it will not be eligible to receive funding from the government. This includes donating funds to local government. 

Nevertheless, Mayor Baker will use her mayoral minute next Monday evening to once again push for privately operated schools in the North Sydney area to begin chipping in for the infrastructure and services the local government provides, this time by recommending the council call on the NSW government to amend the clause. 

Significantly, Baker is also pushing for a review of rate exemptions as a whole. 

According to Baker, private schools own approximately 152,566 square metres of land in the North Sydney local government area. “If that were rated as a business”, she states, “it would result in additional rate revenue of over $1 million.”

Image Credit: North Sydney Council, The Sydney Church of England Grammar School