| THE FRAMEWORK OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT |
| Councils 1 operate within the legislative framework laid down by the state government. Powers
of council The powers and responsibilities of councils derive mainly from the Local Government Act 1993. 2 This Act has a charter which each council must pursue in carrying out its functions. These include:
A number of other acts, such as the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act, the Roads Act and the Bush Fire Act also confer responsibilities and obligations on councils. The Local Government Act (and the regulations made under the Act, such as the Uniform Building Code) serve as an administrative and structural blueprint for councils. The Act details how councils should be administered, how their finances should be organised, what councils' formal legal powers are, what procedures should be adopted for levying and collecting rates, what rules apply for holding elections, how council meetings should be conducted and many more things. The Act comes under the administration of the Minister for Local Government through the Department of Local Government. 3 The department is largely advisory in capacity, although it does have the authority to override certain local decisions. The minister has a number of discretionary powers, including the power to dismiss a council and appoint an administrator in its place after a public inquiry has been held. The minister also has the power to make decisions on boundaries, amalgamations and some other issues. Several other state authorities also influence the workings of local councils, notably, the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning 4 and the Roads and Traffic Authority.5 At times the actions of these state authorities in relation to specific issues become a matter of some controversy. For example, the Minister for Planning has wide powers in relation to land-use and development control, and may intervene to overrule some council planning decisions. However, within the constraints imposed by the Local Government Act and associated regulations, councils have wide authority to control and direct their own activities and to determine local policy. Local councils can be made up of a group of suburbs, a town, a town and the surrounding countryside or a rural area. Councils which are very large or are responsible for a major town are called city councils. Most councils which look after an area which is partly rural are usually called shire councils. Each local council is governed by a group of people called councillors. Each councillor is elected by the people who live in the area every four years. Sometimes the council area is divided up into a number of parts, and a number of councillors are elected from each of them. Each part is called a ward. The leader of the councillors is called the mayor. In Sydney, Parramatta, Newcastle and Wollongong the leader of a council is called the lord mayor. The council meets in the council chambers or the town hall on a regular basis to discuss local issues and to make decisions on behalf of the local community. In most cases local
residents are allowed to come along and attend the council proceedings. County councils and regional organisations Some jobs are too big for an individual local council to do, but not so big that they have to be done by the state government or the national government. Councils join together to get the job done forming a county council. County councils have specific jobs to do, for example, flood control or water supply or weed control. They cannot do any job except what they were formed to do. The leader of a county council is called a chairperson. The people who make the decisions on a county council are elected from the local councils. Sometimes councils join a regional organisation of councils (a ROC). These are different to county councils because they do not have any special power - a ROC is a good way for local councils to get together and discuss issues which affect more than one council, for example, job creation or regional planning or air pollution. It is important for councils to get together so that they can say the same thing to the state government or the national government, just like a sports team. If you work together, you can achieve more. References: "Councils
at Work" Education Kit for Local Government Studies Local Government
Association and Shires Association
http://www.lgov.org.au/site/ |
| ____________________________________________ Local
Government Local
Government Act 1993 Department
of Local Government Department
of Urban Affairs and Planning Roads
and Traffic Authority |