Sitting councillors are reminded that section 304 of the Local Government Act 2020 clearly states that a councillor or member of council staff must not use council resources in a way that is intended to, or likely to, affect the result of an election.
Council resources include a council email address, council provided mobile phone number, mobile phone, council logo, images owned by council, council photocopiers / paper and the like.
The Act also prohibits the use of council resources to intentionally or recklessly print, publish, authorise or permit the distribution of any electoral material purporting to be on behalf of council (unless it is about the election process).
The penalty for breaching these provisions is some 60 penalty units, or just under $12,000.
Your council’s Election Period Policy, contained within the Governance Rules, will provide you with more information.
Can you use your ‘Mayor/Councillor’ title?
A sitting councillor is still able to use their ‘councillor’ title until 6am on Election Day (when they are officially out of office) when discharging their current councillor duties.
Although not a breach of the Act, we recommend that sitting councillors do not use their Mayor/Deputy Mayor/Councillor title in electoral material because it could be argued that it provides them with an advantage over non-councillor candidates.
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