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Community facilities | August 17, 2016

Local councils face the sack after Labor's incompetence

Daniel Andrews’ incompetent handling of legislative changes to local government has seen West Wimmera Shire Council face the sack.

On Tuesday, chief municipal inspector David Wolf found the West Wimmera Shire and 12 other councils failed to comply with recent changes to Local Government legislation and would be sacked, with administrators to be put in until council elections in October.

In an effort to fix its mess, the State Government said on Tuesday they would push through amendments to extend the deadline.

“Daniel Andrews’ gross incompetence has made a mess of this whole process,” Ms Kealy said.

“An administrative oversight has plunged councils into uncertainty and raises questions around the decisions these councils made while they were operating outside the code of conduct.

“All councillors at West Wimmera Shire signed the new code of conduct, but later discovered signatures were not correctly witnessed.

“The signed code of conduct has been sitting with the Labor Government now for over two months – it is a gross incompetence on their behalf that they have not picked up this error and are now pointing blame back at councils.

“The Labor Government is now seeking to rush through urgent amendments to the Local Government Act 1989 for the second time in 12 months.

"Daniel Andrews has really botched this one up. 

"This is not just about councils and councillors in Western Victoria. Clearly when 107 councillors around the state find themselves on the wrong side of the law, it is clear the Andrews Government has failed to properly communicate the change,” she said.