Status: Bill introduced
Commencement: To be confirmed
As part of the reforms to introduce the Inspector and support earlier intervention, the Local Government Standards Panel is proposed to be replaced with adjudicators. Adjudicators are to be legal practitioners who are not council members.
Adjudicators are proposed to be responsible for hearing allegations of conduct breaches. Conduct breach complaints are proposed to be made by any person submitting a form to the Inspector.
By using an adjudicator who is a legal practitioner and who is specifically assigned to a complaint, there is the potential for decisions to be made quicker.
Read more about adjudicators.
This reform proposes to enable a local government CEO to declare a complaint unreasonable. The CEO can do so if the complainant has been unreasonably persistent with a complaint that has already been handled. A person can be restricted from communicating with the local government about their complaint or the related subject matter.
This process for unreasonable complaints does prevent a person from exercising other rights or entitlements under the law such as lodging applications, participating in elections or inspecting documents. It is also proposed that the person may apply to the Inspector if they wish for the CEO's decision to be reviewed.
These reforms aim to support local governments in focusing their resources on relevant matters.