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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 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.
These amendments are an important element of the most significant reform of the Local Government Act 1995 in 25 years and will strengthen local democracy and provide greater transparency and accountability.
The Regulations amend the following to implement the priority reforms:
Following the recent passage of the Local Government Amendment Act 2023, the Regulations include the following reforms ahead of the 2023 local government elections:
In addition, the Regulations prescribe what is a “significant act” to restrict what local governments may do during the caretaker period, with these new statewide requirements to be in effect for the subsequent 2025 local government elections.
Details about the Regulations can be found on our website.
The Governor has made the final set of orders changing the wards and representation of 44 local governments in Gazette No. 88 and 89 of 2023.
Details of the changes for each local government are available on our website.
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