The department will be closed from Monday 23 December 2024 and will reopen on Thursday 2 January 2025. We will respond to queries in the new year. Best wishes for a safe and happy festive season.
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:
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, the Local Government Amendment Act 2024, 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 to introduce communications agreements and clarify the roles of the council, mayors and presidents, councillors and CEOs.
Reforms for publishing CEO performance indicators and sharing CEOs between local governments.
Reforms to introduce the Local Government Inspector and monitors.
Reforms to introduce adjudicators to decide complaints and changes to support CEOs in handling unreasonable complaints.
Reforms to require livestreaming and recording council meetings and standardised meeting procedures.
Reforms for compliance exemptions and local government reporting through online registers.
Reforms related to financial management, including audit, risk and improvement committees, rates and revenue policy, and building upgrade finance.
Reforms related to conducting elections, backfilling extraordinary vacancies, and the constitution of local governments.
Reforms to council planning as part of integrated planning and reporting, including community engagement charters and surveys.
Reforms to enable council member superannuation, parental leave, and training and development.
Reforms to support the formation of regional subsidiaries and reduce red tape in their operation.
Reforms to streamline the making and reviewing of local laws, as well as approvals for residential crossovers and alfresco dining.
Past local government reforms.
Timeline of when reforms come into effect and a list of recent amendments.
Current and past consultation opportunities for the local government reforms.
The regulations for local government long service leave have been replaced after 46 years.
The State Government’s new Local Government (Long Service Leave) Regulations 2024 will take effect from 1 September 2024, providing the sector with lead in time to prepare for the changes.
The new regulations will improve the operation of the local government long service leave portability scheme, which is an integral part of local government employment conditions. This means that when staff change employment from one local government to another, all their service in the local government sector counts towards their accrual of long service leave.
The new regulations introduce a raft of changes intended to strengthen the system of long service leave entitlements for local government employees, including:
More information about the new long service leave regulations is available on the DLGSC website.
Please join us for a local government reform webinar explaining the new local government long service leave regulations and what they mean for the local government sector.
When: Tuesday 30 April 2024
Time: 1:00pm to 2:30pm AWST
Our regular reform webinar series allows sector stakeholders to hear more about the progress of local government reforms.
The presentation will include the following topics:
We encourage local government Chief Executive Officers, Human Resource Managers and Payroll Officers to attend.
The presentation will include an update on key local government reforms and be followed by a Q&A where you will have the opportunity to ask questions.
If you have any queries please contact DLGSC’s local government reform team at actreview@dlgsc.wa.gov.au
The department holds regular webinars to explain reforms and update the local government sector on progress.
Register for LG Alerts to be notified of future webinars.
Previous local government webinars are available to view.
If you have questions about local government reform email us at actreview@dlgsc.wa.gov.au