PROPOSED amendments to the Local Government Act should concern anyone interested in the delivery of open and transparent council.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Red Tape Reduction Bill 2014 may carry an enticing name for anyone who has ever been thwarted by government bureaucracy but, as always, the devil is in the detail.
Among the proposals is an end to the legislated requirement for councils to advertise items such as tenders and development applications in their local newspaper.
Rather, councils would be able to select whatever method they believed was best for communicating with their communities, most likely the council website.
The bill has already passed through the lower house and is awaiting the stamp of approval from the upper house. But just what is at stake here for local communities?
The real worry is that unscrupulous councils might use the new legislation to keep residents even more in the dark about what is happening within the chamber.
Councils know that very few residents regularly visit their website – in stark contrast to the thousands who read their local newspaper each day.
So when a contentious DA is advertised in the newspaper, all interested parties have the chance to make submissions to ensure their views are heard. If that DA is only advertised on the council website, then only those few committed council watchers who went looking would ever find it.
That is no way to ensure open government, and no way to ensure the best outcomes are reached. We should always be wary of any proposal that seeks to put more distance between a region’s residents and its decision-makers.
The best councils would never contemplate taking advantage of a new loophole, but those aren’t the councils the state government should be worried about. The government must worry about the actions of the lesser councils, and certainly not give them any leeway to deceive.