LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Energy) (14:22): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Last week, I was asked to address the Local Government Association Annual General Meeting. At that time, I outlined a plan to improve transparency and accountability in local government and increase public confidence in this sector.

I am committed to working with the LGA and councils to advance our state and strengthen our communities. This plan involves a range of measures that will address recent concerns that have been raised about local government accountability and good governance. These measures include a new legislative requirement that each council auditor must give a formal opinion about whether a council's internal controls are sufficient to provide a reasonable assurance that the financial activities of the council have been conducted properly and administered lawfully.

Currently, auditors are required to ensure that the finances of the council are appropriately acquitted, but this new requirement will go further and require consideration of whether financial transactions have been administered in accordance with the relevant legislation.

I also propose that, if council auditors discover an irregularity or have concerns that it should be reported in the public interest, they must report the matter to the Minister for State/Local Government Relations. At the moment, auditors are required to report serious financial irregularities, failure by council to rectify any irregularity within a reasonable period of time or significant breaches of the act. The new requirement I propose will also place an onus on the auditor to report matters that should be reported in the public interest; in other words, a public interest test will be applied.

In addition to these changes around audit requirements, I propose that a power be given to the minister responsible for the Local Government Act to compel councils to provide information to the minister if the minister is considering whether an investigation under the act is warranted. Currently, most councils supply this information on request; however, currently there is no legal requirement that they do so. The ability to compel this information will ensure that the minister is able to determine whether a formal investigation needs to proceed.

Once the decision to undertake an investigation under the Local Government Act has been made, the current legislation could be read as confining the scope of that investigation to the specific matter that triggered it. I will propose amendments that will make it clear in the act that, once a ministerial investigation is launched, it can be expanded to cover any other matters that may arise from that investigation.

I will also work with the Local Government Association to develop a consistent and clear code of behavioural conduct for council members. This code will then be made into regulations mandating the minimum provisions that codes of conduct must include.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: I do not think that members opposite support codes of conduct, which is most surprising, given that most councils already have them.

It is also my intention to improve the visibility and accessibility of council grievance procedures to ensure that they actually comply with the appropriate administrative law standards. For example, I will work with the LGA to define criteria that should trigger a review of certain decisions as well as ensure that decisions are reviewed by someone other than the original decision maker and the reasons for decisions are actually supplied.

In developing these reforms, I will continue to consult with the acting ombudsman regarding any mechanisms that he feels would improve council administration and further instil public confidence. I have been discussing the reform package with the LGA, and a formal consultation process with all councils via the LGA will be undertaken over the next few months.