2019-08-06 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                   6 AUGUST 2019


This report deals with items 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the notice of motion together with paragraph C
above.

1.    Introduction
In 2018, the State government introduced a range of reforms for local government focusing on
the outcomes of the Crime and Corruption Commission’s (CCC) Belcarra report and also the
inquiry into local government elections and another inquiry into complaints against
Councillors. The 2018 reforms were primarily around how Councillors dealt with conflicts of
interest plus associated issues (bans on developer donations to Councillors, establishing the
Office of the Independent Assessor etc). Councillors will recall that this first round of legislative
reform was reported to the Council in December 2018. The two new pieces of legislation at that
time were the Local Government Electoral (Implementing Stage 1 of Belcarra) and Other
Legislative Amendment Act 2018 and the Local Government (Councillor Complaints) and Other
Legislative Amendment Act 2018.

At that time, Council:
    Repealed Council’s existing Code of Conduct on the basis that a mandated State wide
      Code of Conduct for Councillors now applies to all Councillors in Queensland. Councillors
      also agreed to each sign a declaration to abide by the new Councillor Code of Conduct at
      all times which Councillors have subsequently done;
    Adopted the State Government “Model Meeting Procedures” which were mandated
      provisions for all Queensland Councils to manage unsuitable conduct at Council meetings.
      Despite the name of the document, “model meeting procedures” are not to be confused
      with Standing Orders and are primarily focused on unsuitable conduct at Council meetings;
    Also made minor amendments to our existing Standing Orders to remove minor
      inconsistencies with the above procedures;
    Noted that the CEO will undertake a comprehensive review of the model meeting
      procedures and Noosa Shire Council Standing Orders in early 2019 (this is the subject of a
      separate report to Council in this round of meetings); and
    Adopted an Investigation Policy which was a new requirement to make provision as to how
      Council would investigate any complaints about Councillors which were referred back to
      our organisation from the Office of the Independent Assessor. To date, we have not had
      any such referrals.
To assist in the transition to these new legislative requirements in 2018, Councillors were
provided with formal training by the Department of Local Government and also information
sessions from the CEO. Our governance arrangements now reflect compliance with that
legislation.

2.    Further Local Government Reforms

Early this year, the Minister for Local Government announced a further series of proposed
reforms for local government. Colloquially called “Belcarra Stage 2”, these reforms in fact
proposed a range of issues that were beyond the original Belcarra Report by the CCC. They
also proposed electoral reform to the system of local government. The Minister sought public
feedback on the proposed reforms and there was widespread feedback to the State government
which resulted in a number of changes to their original proposal.

Eventually, the government introduced a Bill into Parliament on 1 May 2019 called - Local
Government Electoral (Implementing Stage 2 of Belcarra) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill
2019. That Bill has now been through the State Parliament Committee process (Economic and
Governance Committee) and is expected to be debated in Parliament in the coming weeks.
A     copy    of    the     current  223    page     Bill   can    be     found   here    –
https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Documents/TableOffice/TabledPapers/2019/5619T670.pdf

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