Local Government Reform

The State Government is reforming the Local Government Act 1995.

These are the most significant reforms to the Local Government Act 1995 (the Act) in 25 years and aim to ensure local governments better serve residents and ratepayers.

Reforms have been crafted in consultation with the local government sector and are based on 6 themes:

Earlier intervention, effective regulation and stronger penalties
Reducing red tape, increasing consistency and simplicity
Greater transparency and accountability
Stronger local democracy and community engagement
Clearer roles and responsibilities
Improved financial management and reporting.

Full Reform Proposals provides an overview of the reform themes and all reforms topics consulted on.

To ensure that key election related reforms were in place before the 2023 local government elections, the amendments to the Act were divided into 2 tranches. The first tranche, the Local Government Amendment Act 2023, focused on electoral reform.

The second tranche focuses on introducing the new Local Government Inspector and monitors for early intervention and resolution of issues, as well as a range of other important reforms to the local government sector.

Reforms explained

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Roles and responsibilities

Reforms to introduce communications agreements and clarify the roles of the council, mayors and presidents, councillors and CEOs.

A woman woirking at a desk with a laptop and writing pad.

Chief executive officers

Reforms for publishing CEO performance indicators and sharing CEOs between local governments.

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Local Government Inspector and monitors

Reforms to introduce the Local Government Inspector and monitors.

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Complaints

Reforms to introduce adjudicators to decide complaints and changes to support CEOs in handling unreasonable complaints.

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Council and committee meetings

Reforms to require livestreaming and recording council meetings and standardised meeting procedures.

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Compliance and reporting

Reforms for compliance exemptions and local government reporting through online registers.

Person working at a computer with a spreadsheet of numbers on the screen

Financial management

Reforms related to financial management, including audit, risk and improvement committees, rates and revenue policy, and building upgrade finance.

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Elections and representation

Reforms related to conducting elections, backfilling extraordinary vacancies, and the constitution of local governments.

6 workers in an office stand over papers and documents on a table in a meeting room.

Council planning

Reforms to council planning as part of integrated planning and reporting, including community engagement charters and surveys.

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Council member entitlements

Reforms to enable council member superannuation, parental leave, and training and development.

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Regional subsidiaries

Reforms to support the formation of regional subsidiaries and reduce red tape in their operation.

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Local laws and approvals

Reforms to streamline the making and reviewing of local laws, as well as approvals for residential crossovers and alfresco dining.

Resources

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History of reform

Past local government reforms.

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Implementation

Timeline of when reforms come into effect and a list of recent amendments.

Consultation

Current and past consultation opportunities for the local government reforms.

News