Monthly Archives: December 2021

Local Government Act: Law Reform or Decline?

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22 January 2022: LGEMA will hold a workshop on LG Minister’s proposed amendments the Local Government Act, details and venue TBA.

The Constitution Act 1889 (WA) Part 111B s.52(1) gives all  local government powers including but not limited to executive, legislative and administrative to the local governing body. The elected governing body is a group of elected persons that have the authority to govern the locality. Constitutionally, local government powers cannot be given to other than to or through the elected governing body. Governance encompasses the system by which an organisation is controlled and operates, and the mechanisms by which it, and its people, are held to account. Ethics, risk management, compliance and administration are governance elements.

Parliament implements these constitutional obligations by enacting a Local Government Act, which creates a local government, a Council and an administration none of which are required by the Constitution. Elected Members, who ARE the only local government constitutional requirements have no support or protection by the current Local Government Act, and no improvement in this parlous state of affairs is observed from the current reform proposals.
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Cr Email is a Local Government Resource

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Councillors need to be wary of using their Local Government generated Councillor and group Councillor email address noting some Local Governments blind copy employees into all Councillor emails.

Elected Member Local Government email address can be “resource” for Conduct Regulations in two senses:

  • text comprising the email address
  • dedicated email service provided by LG.

Local Government email address is Local Government ‘resource’ for the purposes of the conduct Regulations
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