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.
LG Alert
Significant reforms to local government move forward with the introduction of the Local Government Amendment Bill 2024 today.
The first stage of establishing the proposed new local government inspector and monitors will get underway, with the State Government allocating $702,000 in the State Budget to begin planning and establishing this new office that will prevent and address dysfunction in local government in WA.
New Local Government (Long Service Leave) Regulations 2024 now replace the Local Government (Long Service Leave) Regulations of 1977.
Please join us for our first local government reform webinar for this year.
Local governments must organise for new council members to undertake mandatory training.
Please join us for our monthly reform webinar.
The State Government has brought in the next set of local government regulation amendments with the Local Government Regulation Amendment Regulations (No. 3) 2023.
The next edition of the popular local government reform webinars is scheduled for 3 August and will feature an introduction from the new Minister for Local Government, David Michael.
A community awareness campaign is underway to inform voters about upcoming changes that will be in effect for local government elections in October.
There are several electoral reforms that will be in place for the local government elections in October and it is essential that the community is aware of these changes.
The State Government has introduced priority regulation amendments for local government elections and made the final set of orders for council representation changes for the implementation reforms ahead of the 2023 elections.
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