Posted on April 11, 2013 by Megan Hawley

New State Government Powers to Suspend Councils

The Local Government Amendment (Early Intervention) Bill 2013 (Bill) was introduced into the Legislative Assembly on 26 February 2013 to give the State government more power to suspend and appoint administrators to councils to address ‘dysfunction and poor performance in local councils and to drive improvement’.

The second reading speech for the Bill raises several issues with the current provisions of the Local Government Act 1993 (LG Act)  dealing with poor performance of councils:

• that the current powers are limited and unwieldy;
• the whole process of public inquiries can take years while ratepayers have to put up with suboptimal services; and
• the Government needs power to act sooner to bring about improvement in councils.

The Bill proposes to amend the LG Act:

• to enable the issuing of performance improvement orders to a council;
• to deal with situations when actions of councillors regularly prevent the formation of a quorum;
• to allow for the temporary suspension of councils; and
• to deal with public inquiries into councils.

Performance improvement orders are proposed to be orders issued by the Minister if he or she reasonably considers that action must be taken to improve the performance of the council.

The actions that the Minister may require in an order include any actions the Minister considers necessary to improve or restore the proper or effective functioning of the council, and the order may direct that the action be taken by the council, by individual councillors or both.

The Minister will generally be required to give councils notice of the proposed order, and an opportunity to make submissions before a performance improvement order is issued.

It is proposed that a performance improvement order may direct that a quorum of the council is as specified in the order, rather than the majority of councillors holding office. This is to address the concern that groups of councillors can frustrate the business of a council by not attending or walking out of meetings.

The Bill also proposes to give the Minister the power to suspend a council and appoint an interim administrator for a period of up to 3 months (which can be extended up to 6 months)  if the Minister reasonably believes that the appointment of an interim administrator is necessary to improve or restore the proper or effective functioning of the council. Notice must be given to council of the proposed suspension, and the council may have only 14 days to make submissions.

The Bill also proposes to give the Minister the power to suspend a council if a public inquiry is to be held into the council.

The Bill also contains new requirements in respect of reporting, particularly in respect of compliance with a performance improvement order.

We will monitor the progress of the Bill and report on its terms once enacted.