2019-11-12 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                    12 NOVEMBER 2019


 Postal voting applications - A person wanting a postal vote must apply at least 12 days before
   polling day and ballots received before polling day can be processed early to enable them to
   be counted after the close of poll.
 Intervention powers –
     o    Minister for Local Government may take remedial action in the public interest.
     o    Powers of the Minister now include where the use of a power is in the public interest.


3.       Future regulatory amendments under consideration
Future regulatory amendments will need to be made to support the above new legislated
provisions. The DLGRMA states that the below regulatory changes are currently under
consideration.
 Real-time electoral financial disclosures - During the last seven days of an election, all
   expenditure and donations disclosed within 24 hours.
 Discretionary funds –
     o    Discretionary funds allocation to be advised by the councillor to the CEO within seven (7)
          business days and then published on the council website within seven (7) days.
     o    Councils capped at 0.01% of general rates for the amount of funds (excluding capital
          works by council) allocated as discretionary funds.
     o    Councillors may allocate funds only in the financial year in which budgeted (no roll-overs).
     o    Councillors prohibited from making new decisions to use discretionary funds from 1
          January in an election year.
 Budgets – Councils being required to consult with the community on their budgets (proposed
   to commence for 2021-22 budget year).


4.       Legislative reforms removed from Stage 2
Following the third reading of the Bill in Parliament, the subsequent reforms were removed4 from
the original Belcarra Stage 2 Reforms Bill5 and did not make it into the legislated provisions:
 Conflicts of Interest - remove conflict of interest and registers of interest provisions so that
   further work can be undertaken following recommendations made by the Crime and
   Corruption Commission (CCC) on 6 September 2019 in relation to how these matters are
   addressed at the State level. In particular, the CCC made a number of recommendations to
   improve Cabinet’s decision-making processes and for legislative reform to reduce corruption
   risks. Amendments to the Bill will remove the conflict of interest and registers of interest
   provisions so that further work can be undertaken in relation to these recommendations to
   determine whether they are appropriate to implement at local government level.
 Gift or loan source - remove new provisions which provide that councillors and election
   participants, including candidates, are deemed to have knowledge of the source of an
   electoral gift or loan for the purpose of a proceeding for an offence against the conflict of
   interest provisions or an offence relating to a gift or loan made to an election participant,
   respectively. This was removed because no similar provisions apply to members of State
   Parliament or participants in State elections.



4 Hon. Hinchliffe, Explanatory Notes, Local Government Electoral (Implementing Stage 2 of Belcarra) and Other
Legislation Amendment Bill 2019.
5 Local Government Electoral (Implementing Stage 2 of Belcarra) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2019.


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