Local government reforms aim to right council dramas

With a few months left before local government elections in October, 56 councillors have quit and 12 councils, or one in every six, have been appointed municipal monitors to oversee governance.

One of those 12 was suspended, while Moira Shire's council was sacked after a commission of inquiry uncovered a toxic work environment and leadership failures in the lead-up to the murder of senior council employee Rick Devlin by council worker Andrew Paterson in 2021.

At the end of June, the Allan Labor government passed a suite of reforms to the Local Government Act to lift standards across Victoria's 79 councils.

The reforms aim to improve council accountability, governance and standards of behaviour across Victoria as new councillors take office.

They will establish a model code of conduct, mandatory and ongoing training for councillors and mayors, tougher sanctions for misconduct and new powers for the local government minister to dismiss councillors.

Opposition MP Bev McArthur accused the government of weaponising the complaints process against conservative councillors and lampooned the new changes in the legislative council.

"With the passage of Tuesday's local government Bill, we're making (the complaints process) an even more potent weapon for bullies," Ms McCarthur told state parliament in June.

The ministerial power was softened to allow parliament to overturn a dismissal and checks such as councillor access to the state's administrative tribunal have been maintained.

"The prospect of one level of government having the power to dismiss a democratically elected councillor was troubling," Victorian Local Governance Association acting chief executive Rhys Thomas told AAP.

"We have been pleased to see the introduction of a provision to enable parliament to disallow a decision by the minister to dismiss a councillor."

The peak body is part of a round table helping the state government to shape regulations, the model code of conduct and training under the new reforms.

Municipal Association of Victoria president and Pyrenees Shire mayor, David Clark, believes the code needs to consider the variety of Victoria's councils and be rooted in existing areas of law.

"You're better off if you don't develop a perfect code that's just for us and unique for us (councillors)," Mr Clark told AAP.

He said it should reflect the structure of councils, which were similar to a board of directors.

"Everything the CEO does is bound by workplace law and, if you're on the board of BHP or NAB, whatever you do in the boardroom is also governed by workplace law, but we're not," Mr Clark said.

"We don't understand why we're not."

A universal code could also provide consistency in resolving governance and councillor conduct issues.

"When you look at the reports from different councils where they've been in conciliation or arbitration processes, it's hard to see some consistency of how they work things through," Mr Clark said.

Chief municipal inspector Michael Stefanovic is expected to report on a way forward for the code later this month.

Mr Clark noted the current term, which straddled the pandemic and new legislation, would not be taken as "normal", and the appointment of monitors did not need to be a source of panic.

"The use of monitors is a really good aid to democracy, pretty much all the councils that have had a monitor appointed have ... been able to get a better level of decision-making and process and (the monitor) leave again," he said.

Law firm Maddocks' local government leader for Victoria, Kate Oliver, agreed.

"Historically ... 10 to 15 years ago the appointment of a monitor was sort of the first step to a council being dismissed," Ms Oliver told AAP.

"I don't think that's true anymore."

Ms Oliver said providing support to councillors and officers could be useful, while ongoing training, including for mayors, would help councils stay on track.

"Sometimes it can be taken for granted that if you've been elected as a councillor, you know immediately what to do as mayor ... and all of the things that go with that role," she said.

"Being able to support them to fulfil that role in a more informed and meaningful way, I think, is a really useful approach."

The lawyer was unconvinced the reforms opened the floodgates for political dismissals.

"I can't see, in these reforms alone, that there is an increased or different prospect of suspension compared to what we have had over this term of council," she said.

Findings of misconduct can lead to suspensions, but they are relatively short-lived.

The longest suspension of a councillor in the current term was four months and the matter was still before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

"A lot of this is quite sensible and it'll be interesting to see what our new group of councillors do with it, and how that runs," Ms Oliver said.

Victoria's local council elections will take place in October, except in Moira Shire which goes to the polls in 2028.

Australian Associated Press