After a long debate, councillors ultimately voted to push on with the rate increase from next year

For the first time in months, the council chamber was full - with all staff and councillors turning out for the big decision along with community members anxious to find out the future of their rates.

While nobody was thrilled about the prospect, councillors for the increase argued that the need for a financially sustainable council was paramount and that an SRV was the only way to achieve that, while councillors against it cited the impacts on Griffith's vulnerable.

Councillor Jenny Ellis pointed to issues within state and federal governments as the cause of the budget shortfall.

"The system is broke. I don't believe it's just a state government problem, it's also a national problem," she said.

"If the [Federal Assistance Grant] was back up to the one per cent that it has been in the past, we would have an extra $5.5 million dollars in our bank account."

Councillor Dino Zappacosta, on the other hand, leapt up to rally against the SRV, and accused the council of ignoring the submissions from community consultation.

"We've had five months of consultation with the community, and listening to some of the speakers tonight ... they may as well have saved their breath," he said.

"The message has not got across to councillors."

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Councillors Anne Napoli, Christine Stead, Dino Zappacosta, Melissa Marin and Simon Croce voted against the increase but were ultimately outvoted by councillors Doug Curran, Glen Andreazza, Laurie Testoni, Jenny Ellis, Shari Blumer, Manjit Singh Lally and Chris Sutton - passing the rate variation by 7-5.

Councillor Napoli was disappointed in the result.

"I did my best to bring forth the concerns of the community, I still hold hope that we can work through this and hopefully with the help of staff and councillors, we'll find other ways of savings," she said.

"I am disappointed with the outcome. I would have thought councillors would have taken all those submissions and concerns into consideration but that's how the vote went."

Councillor Curran encouraged community members to engage with the next steps of the process, when IPART does their community consultation.

"I think the important thing for the community is that there's still an opportunity. This just means we now apply to IPART, there's still community consultation from them."

The SRV still needs IPART's approval to move forward. IPART will conduct their own community consultation following the application before deciding whether to approve it or not.

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