The first phase of local government reforms impacting local councils in Western Australia has been introduced into parliament.
On Thursday, the Local Government Amendment Bill 2023 came before the parliament. It will be considered for key changes to electoral laws to be implemented ahead of ordinary elections later this year in October.
Among some of the new measures will be the option of preferential voting to bring local voting in line with state and federal election processes, making the public election of a mayor/president for larger councils, and doing away with wards for smaller local governments.
The legislation is part of what the WA government has described as the “most extensive local government reforms” in a quarter of a century.
Local government minister John Carey issued a statement thanking those who had been involved in consultations to date.
“I would like to recognise and thank all the local governments who have been working to complete ward and representation reviews and changing the size or structure of their council in a proactive manner.
“We are strengthening the transparency, accountability and efficiency of local governments, and this set of electoral reforms will enable fairer local democracy and community engagement,” Carey said.
A total of eleven action items in the first tranche of reforms are being proposed to boost transparency and accountability at WA’s local council level.
They include setting state-wide caretaker periods during ordinary council elections; establishing mandatory communications between council members and the local government administration; and requiring local councils to disclose information about local government leases, grants, and goods and services contracts via an online register.
Other changes propose allowing council sizes to be proportionate to the population of their local government area; introducing standardised council meeting procedures; compulsory streaming and recording of meetings as they happen; as well as new requirements for all local government CEOs to publish results against performance indicators.
Work on the second phase of the reforms and consultations with local government stakeholders continue on the establishment of a new Local Government Inspector and the introduction of monitors for early intervention in local government matters.
“We will continue to engage with the sector on all aspects of the reforms to get the details right before implementing these significant changes,” Carey said.
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