Local Government Reform

REFORM IT OR DUMP IT: RESTORING DEMOCRACY TO LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Local government in South Australia is broken.

Councils face elections every four years. In accordance with the long-established principles of Australian democracy, elected representatives of the people must be free to speak on behalf of their constituents about the issues which matter to them, must be free to demand accountability and transparency, and must be free to publicly oppose council policies or criticise the views or conduct of other elected members without fear of sanction or bureaucratic retribution. It happens in parliaments, so it should happen in councils.

It’s not happening in councils. Apart from council elections, local governments are practically unaccountable and council decisions and policies are driven by administrations: unelected bureaucrats who answer to virtually no-one. Individual councillors who oppose majority decisions on behalf of the ratepayers who elect them are gagged, unable to oppose them in public thanks to provisions in the Local Government Act 1999 that are effectively weaponised against them to silence any dissent.

Key meetings and decisions involving expenditure of ratepayers money are too often taken behind closed doors under the excuse of commercial confidentiality. Community consultation is a joke; a mere box-ticking exercise to which council administrations pay no actual heed.

Councils are reducing or neglecting their essential municipal responsibilities. Rubbish collection services, for example, have been significantly reduced; general rubbish which used to be collected weekly is now collected fortnightly by many councils. In the meantime, large amounts of ratepayer money is spent on non-essential matters – or on matters that are the province of higher tiers of government – that most ratepayers do not support. Rates across South Australia have skyrocketed, compounding an already difficult cost-of-living crisis for many families and businesses.

One Nation is making local government reform a priority at the 2026 South Australian election. Councils must be put back in their place.

OUR POLICIES

Restoring democracy

One Nation’s first order of business will be the introduction of a Local Government Amendment (Restoring Democracy to Councils) Bill. This legislation will amend the Local Government Act 1999 to enshrine the right of elected councillors to speak freely in opposition to council directions, decisions and policies; and to publicly criticise their council administrations and other elected members’ votes and positions without fear of sanction or penalty.

Keeping rates low

One Nation will seek to introduce two measures aimed at keeping council rates lower.

We will move to cap annual rate increases in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Recently, annual rate increases imposed by South Australian councils have been far above the CPI, exacerbating Labor’s cost-of-living crisis. One Nation considers that while this crisis prevails, councils have a moral obligation to keep rate increases as low as possible.

One Nation will also explore the introduction of a two-tiered rates system which will give ratepayers a choice on whether to pay only for non-negotiable essential council services like road maintenance and rubbish collection, or to pay a higher level of rates to fund non-essential items proposed by councils. The aim is to encourage councils to prioritise the essential functions they’ve been neglecting, and to keep rates as low as possible for as many South Australian households and businesses as possible.

Better and more representative local government

One Nation will seek resources to formally establish a body providing elected members of councils with advice on developing and introducing motions or by-laws, and dealing with the anti-democratic provisions of the Local Government Act 1999 when those provisions are applied against them. This body would be completely separate from and independent of the Local Government Association of SA and council administrations. We will also advocate for a comprehensive review of all statutory bodies that advise councils and elected members – such as audit risk committees – for conflicts of interest and to ensure complete independence and objectivity.

One Nation also plans to explore the introduction of a provision in the Act for mid-term performance reviews of elected councillors by ratepayers. The intention is to ensure that elected councillors are upholding Australian democratic principles, meaningfully consulting ratepayers on a regular basis and representing ratepayers’ interests by voting on motions and by-laws according to the expressed views of ratepayers.

One Nation will also seek community feedback on a proposal to limit the maximum number of terms an individual may serve as a councillor or mayor. Too many individuals now serving as elected members of South Australian councils have been captured by an anti-democratic system that uses them as willing rubber stamps on matters that do not meet majority community approval.

One Nation will also explore amendments to legislation which will require council expenditure on any measure, project or non-operational cost to be contingent on meaningful and objective consultation with ratepayers; where consultation clearly indicates majority ratepayer disapproval of the proposed expenditure, councils will not be able to spend it. This initiative is partly in response to the incident in August 2023 when Mitcham City Council – with no community consultation whatsoever – decided to donate $40,000 of ratepayers’ money to the ‘yes’ campaign during the voice to Parliament referendum.