News · Waste levy · Hunter councils
Hunter councils put their waste levy contribution at $116 million, with $5.9 million back. Their own earlier numbers show the share returned has risen
The region’s ten councils planned two days at Parliament House, 15 and 22 October, asking among other things for more of the NSW waste levy to come home. That ask rests on one sentence of figures. Set beside the figures the same body published two years ago, the share returned has gone up, the dollar gap has widened, and the amount paid has risen far faster than the levy rate.
The short answer. The Hunter Joint Organisation, the regional body of the ten
Hunter councils, says in its
13 October release that
In 2024/25, Hunter councils contributed $116 million to consolidated revenue of the NSW Government through the NSW waste levy, with only $5.9 million returned to councils to invest back into waste initiatives.
That is 5.1 cents in the dollar. In its July 2024 submission to the state’s waste levy
review, the same body put the 2021/22 figures at $71.4 million collected and $2.17 million, or
3.04 per cent, returned. On its own numbers, the share coming back has risen, and so has the
amount.
What the councils are asking for
The release says the delegation will meet ministers, shadow ministers and crossbench members ahead of the 2027
NSW election. The release lists meetings with, among others, the Minister for the Hunter, Yasmin
Catley, the Minister for Planning, Paul Scully, and the Minister for Housing and Water, Rose
Jackson. The joint organisation’s chair, Singleton Mayor Sue Moore, says in the release that
The Hunter cannot afford to be an afterthought in the lead up to the 2027 election.
The waste levy is one ask among several. The biggest figure in the release is for enabling infrastructure: the councils say about $938 million in roads, water, sewer and stormwater could unlock around 61,000 new homes. The release also seeks support for tourism, freight and post-mining land use projects. On the levy, it asks for a greater share to be reinvested in local communities, and gives the $116 million and $5.9 million as the reason.
The joint organisation’s own series
Waste levy paid and returned, ten Hunter councils, as the joint organisation counts it
Its 2024 submission for the first three years, its 13 October 2026 release for the last. The share column is our division.
| Year | Levy paid or collected | Returned to councils | Share returned |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011/12 | $29.7m | $2.95m | 9.9% |
| 2021/22 | $71.4m | $2.17m | 3.04% |
| 2022/23 | around $70m | around $1.2m | about 1.7% |
| 2024/25 | $116m | $5.9m | 5.1% |
The 2024 submission made a trend argument: that the share returned to the region had been
falling for a decade. Its words were that
the proportion of waste levy funds returned to local communities (both in real and percentage terms) has been declining
.
On the 2011/12 to 2022/23 numbers, that held. The 2024/25 figure breaks it: $5.9 million is
nearly three times the 2021/22 return and about five times the 2022/23 one. The 13 October release
does not say what made up the $5.9 million, or which grant programs paid it.
None of this weakens the core point. Nineteen dollars in twenty still did not come back to the councils, by their count, and the dollar gap is wider than ever in this series: about $110 million in 2024/25 against about $69 million in 2021/22.
What the levy rate explains, and what it does not
The levy is charged per tonne of waste received at levied facilities, chiefly landfills. The Environment Protection Authority
publishes every year’s rate, and says the 2026-27 rates rose
In line with the Waste Regulation
by the Consumer Price Index. Five of the ten councils (Cessnock, Lake Macquarie, Maitland,
Newcastle and Port Stephens) are in the Metropolitan Levy Area, where the rate went from $147.10 a
tonne in 2021-22 to $170.10 in 2024-25. The other five (Dungog, MidCoast, Muswellbrook, Singleton
and Upper Hunter) are in the Regional Levy Area, where it went from $84.70 to $97.90. Both rose
about 16 per cent over those three years. In 2026-27 the rates are $180.20 and $103.80.
The joint organisation’s levy figure rose from $71.4 million to $116 million over the same
three years, about 62 per cent. A 16 per cent rate rise cannot account for that on its own. The
rest would have to come from more tonnes reaching levied facilities in the region, from the other
levies the EPA charges (on coal washery rejects and trackable liquid waste), or from the two
figures being counted differently. The 2024 submission gives its 2021/22 figure as levy collected
Across the ten Hunter JO Member Council areas
;
the release says Hunter councils contributed
.
Neither says whether the figure is levy on waste from those areas, levy the councils paid
themselves, or both. We have not asked the joint organisation, and will add its answer if it
publishes the working.
Where the money goes
The Auditor-General’s 2020 report on the levy put the destination plainly:
Revenue from the waste levy is placed into the state’s consolidated revenue.
The same report said about $750 million was collected statewide in 2019-20, and that the
government spends about a third of levy revenue on waste and environmental programs.
The levy’s settings are under review. The EPA consulted on an issues paper from 3 June
to 15 July 2024; its consultation page lists the review as “Under review” and has no
options paper or outcome posted as at 16 October 2026. The joint organisation’s 2024
submission to that review called for 100% hypothecation of waste levy funds back to the locations where they were raised
. The Hunter Ledger has covered the wider cost-shifting argument before:
Newcastle council is paying someone to count what the state costs it.
Our view
The councils’ ask is a fair one in direction. A levy whose stated purpose is to make landfill cost more, so that less waste goes there, has a better claim on being spent on the alternatives than on general revenue. But a regional body asking Parliament for money should publish the arithmetic behind its headline number. Its 2024/25 figure is 62 per cent above its 2021/22 one while the levy rate rose 16 per cent, and its return figure is well above the two earlier years in its series. Both may be right. Neither can be checked from what has been published. This view is ours, built on the documents cited below.
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