Proactive sector engagement remains an ongoing priority for my office, particularly in the lead up to the local council elections in October this year.
In recent months, this engagement has taken the form of council visits, presentations at local government events, joint presentations with the IBAC and meetings with our Councillor Conduct Framework Review External Stakeholder Working Group.
In the past five months, the LGI has visited eight local councils to enable better understanding of good governance including conflict of interest management, currency of council policy frameworks, election preparation and procurement.
My office is undertaking significant preparations ahead of the local council election period, which is almost upon us.
It seems timely to remind our stakeholders of the LGI’s role in elections:
As the dedicated integrity agency for councils, we oversight councils, councillors, candidates and voters pursuant to the electoral provisions of the Local Government Act 2020. We work with other government agencies to help ensure a fair and democratic election process.
Our responsibilities include:
- Monitoring candidate eligibility
- Providing advice to and monitoring the conduct of councils and candidates
- Receiving and assessing allegations
- Conducting investigations into potential offences under the Local Government Act (1989 and 2020 Acts)
With the anticipated increase in volume of complaints in the lead-up to the election period, implementing a new case management system (CMS) for our office has been a priority piece of work. Going forward, this new CMS will be of enormous support to our small team. Naturally, during this period, election related complaints will be the priority for our team – meaning there is an impact on the timing of us handling other non-election related complaints.
A full timeline of key election dates is included in this newsletter.
Michael Stefanovic AM
Chief Municipal Inspector
Updated