On Wednesday 25 June 2024, the Local Government Amendment (Governance and Integrity) Act 2024 (the Amendment Act) was given Royal Assent. The Amendment Act includes reforms to strengthen council leadership, capability and councillor conduct, improve early intervention and effective dispute resolution and strengthen oversight mechanisms.
The Amendment Act makes a range of changes to the Local Government Act 2020.
The following changes came into operation on 26 June 2024:
- The close of the roll for the October 2024 council elections has been brought forward to provide more time for councils and the VEC to compile voters’ rolls, and to accommodate other timeline changes through amendment regulations
- The Governor in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister, has the power to suspend an individual councillor or disqualify a person who has been dismissed from taking office if they have been found by a municipal monitor or Commission of Inquiry to have created a serious risk to health and safety or prevented the council from performing its functions.
- The Chief Municipal Inspector will have new powers, including the power to table reports in Parliament and issue infringements for minor offences.
The following changes will come into operation on 26 October 2024:
- ongoing mandated training for mayors and councillors will be introduced to expand the existing induction training requirements for councillors
- improvements to the councillor conduct framework including the power to establish in regulations a model councillor code of conduct and increased severity of sanctions available for councillor misconduct, and
- improve the operation of provisions relating to the councillor conduct framework.
The Amendment Act is available on the Victorian Legislation website:
Local Government Amendment (Governance and Integrity) Act 2024
A Fact Sheet detailing the reforms is available here:
Fact Sheet - Local Government Amendment (Governance & Integrity) Bill 2024 [PDF]
Fact Sheet - Local Government Amendment (Governance & Integrity) Bill 2024 [Doc]
Implementation – Local Government (Governance and Integrity) Amendment Regulations 2024
In order to implement these legislative reforms, it necessitated the development of the Local Government (Governance and Integrity) Amendment Regulations 2024 (Amendment Regulations).
The Amendment Regulations, which were made on 22 October 2024 and will come into operation on the 26 October 2024, will amend the Local Government (Governance and Integrity) Regulations 2020 to:
- prescribe the matters that must be covered in the Mayoral training and Councillor professional development training
- introduce a new Model Councillor Code of Conduct (Model Code of Conduct)
- specify the procedures that councils must implement and adopt for dealing with alleged breaches of the Model Code of Conduct
- revise the matters that must be addressed in councillor induction training (to account for the new ongoing mandatory training requirements for councillors)
- prescribe further matters that must be included in an application for an internal arbitration process
- make other minor and technical amendments to improve the operation of the regulations.
The Regulations also prescribe the new Internal Resolution Procedure to be implemented by councils for dealing with alleged breaches of the Model Code of Conduct. Councils will have until 1 July 2025 to develop and adopt the new Internal Resolution Procedure. In the interim, councils may continue to apply any existing internal processes previously adopted by the council (for example, any processes incorporated in the council’s previous Councillor Code of Conduct).
Guidance resources regarding the Model Code of Conduct and the Councillor Mandatory Training are available on the Governance Resources page section of this website.
The Local Government (Governance and Integrity) Amendment Regulations 2024 are available on the Victorian Legislation website: https://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/as-made/statutory-rules/local-government-governance-and-integrity-amendment-regulations-2024
Election timelines
The Local Government (Electoral) Amendment Regulations 2024 and City of Melbourne (Electoral) Amendment Regulations 2024 were made on 25 June 2024. These regulations bring into effect changes to key dates relating to the conduct of elections, including the nomination day and the lodgement date for candidate statements and questionnaires.
With these regulations confirmed, the election period for the 2024 general elections will begin at 12 noon on Tuesday, 17 September 2024 and end at 6.00pm on Saturday, 26 October 2024.
Previous Consultation
The reforms have been informed by independent reports and recommendations and will give effect to a number of recommendations in the IBAC Operation Sandon Special Report to strengthen council governance.
The reforms have also been informed by the Local Government Culture Project through which broad consultation with the sector and community demonstrated the need for stronger processes and powers to resolve conduct issues and the capacity of councillors to be strengthened.
In January 2024, further consultations were carried out with councils and peak bodies to get feedback on the proposed reforms during the development of the Bill.
The feedback received during this consultation period informed the finalisations of the reforms and has been captured in a consultation feedback report.
Consultation feedback report [PDF]
Consultation feedback report [Doc]
Local Government Victoria also consulted extensively with the local government sector and community in developing the mandatory training, Model Code of Conduct and Internal Resolution Procedures in the regulations, and the associated guidelines.
This work was guided by a local government steering committee with representatives from peak bodies and council groups.
Consultations occurred over two stages and were open to councils, councillors, council staff and community members.
There was valuable input and overall, a strong level of support from the submissions received.
Consultation report outlining the feedback:
Model Code of Conduct Consultation Stage Two Report [PDF]
Model Code of Conduct Consultation Stage Two Report [Doc]