Last month, the Victorian Ombudsman published an updated version of the 'Councils and Complaints – A Good Practice Guide' (Version 2) (Practice Guide). The Practice Guide incorporates important changes to enable Councils to comp...

As part of the extensive overhaul of the Local Government Act 1989 (old Act), stage 4 of the  Local Government Act 2020 (new Act) is set to commence on 1 July 2021. This stage will see several more changes to the rules governing ...

Our earlier article on the Supreme Court judgment that ordered the reinstatement of Warrnambool's CEO after he was dismissed by a majority of Councillors has generated a lot of comments and questions, especially after our Managing...

A recent Victorian Supreme Court decision serves as a warning for Councils to ensure that they provide procedural fairness to CEOs if they wish to dismiss them prior to the expiry of their contracted term, in order to ensure that ...

With the annual season for formal adoption of next year’s council budget upon us, we are receiving regular enquiries from councils on how best to deal with questions of councillor conflicts of interest. The definition of Gene...

The Local Government Act 2020 (new Act) has implemented a long awaited overhaul of the Local Government Act 1989 (old Act). While the new Act received Royal Assent early last year, such an ambitious reform of the local government ...