- Date:
- 4 Feb 2025
Message from the Chief Municipal Inspector
Welcome to the summer edition of our quarterly newsletter.
It has been a couple of months now since Victoria’s local government elections were declared and we have seen new and returning councillors formally inducted to their elected roles. I would like to congratulate the 2024-2028 councillors and wish them a successful term.
Election complaints, and the work required around navigating these, continues for our office well after the election. The Inspectorate received 1,077 election complaints during the election period, a significant increase from last election’s total of 848 complaints. To put this into perspective, the Inspectorate received in excess of 1,600 complaints between 2021 and 2024 – a three-year period – so the volume of election-related complaints in 2024 and the workload for our staff is significant.
The Inspectorate continues to investigate a further hundred election complaints together with a large quantity of complaints relating to other matters.
Authorisation of materials, misleading and deceptive materials and harassment, discrimination and poor behaviour emerged as key themes for election-related complaints. These could be attributed to the ongoing uptake of social media as a candidate platform as well as general unawareness of authorisation requirements among candidates.
Further details around complaint volume and related analysis will be published in the Inspectorate’s post-election report in the coming months.
As mentioned earlier, the new year brings a new term, with the 2020-2024 councillor term concluding at the end of October. The 2020-2024 term saw the most complaints to the Inspectorate for any previous term to date. During the term, 12 councils had a monitor/monitors appointed by the Minister for Local Government; four of whom had monitors appointed twice. Unfortunately, this term also saw a lot of misconduct, Councillor resignations and CEO turnover.
Reflecting on this past term, I would say there is still plenty of opportunity for improvement across the sector. Going forward, I would encourage all elected councillors to familiarise themselves with all the resources available to them to ensure that they are fulfilling their legislated obligations.
Resources are available on LGI’s website here: Fact sheets and report summaries | lgi.vic.gov.au(opens in a new window)
Michael Stefanovic AM
Chief Municipal Inspector
Election Period Policy review
Ahead of the local government elections in October 2024, the Inspectorate conducted an audit of Election Period Policy (EPP) across local councils.
Sector engagement continues with induction presentations
Proactive sector engagement and presentations continued throughout the summer months, with Inspectorate staff visiting several councils in the lead up to Christmas and January.
Swearing in the 2024 Councillor group
The first step that Councillors Elect must take after an election is the taking of an oath or affirmation of office.
Councillor misconduct or serious misconduct complaints process - reminder
The Inspectorate often receives complaints about alleged Councillor misconduct and wishes to remind Council staff that we do not have any powers to deal with these types of issues.
Resourcing and structure of the Local Government Inspectorate
While the Inspectorate does the very best it can, it does have limited resources and so sometimes it can take a while for matters to be investigated, once it has been determined there is a possible breach of the Act or a governance issue arising from a complaint.
Councillor induction training declarations approaching
The Inspectorate wishes to remind Councillors Elect that as per the Local Government Act 2020, Councillors must complete Councillor induction training within four (4) months after the day the Councillor takes the oath or affirmation of office.
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