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Local Government Amendment Acts 2006 & 2007
Local Government Amendment Acts 2006 & 2007
 
Overview
The Local Government Amendment Bill 2006 was introduced into the Legislative Assembly in September 2006. The Bill passed through the Legislative Assembly without amendment. During the passage of the Bill in the Legislative Council, a motion was moved to split the Bill into two Bills referred to as the Local Government Amendment Bill 2006 and the Local Government Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2006.

These Bills have now passed through the Parliament and have become Acts, the Local Government Amendment Act 2006 and the Local Government Amendment Act 2007 respectively.

The Local Government Amendment Act 2006 passed through the Parliament in December 2006. This Act changes the date of local government ordinary elections from the 1st Saturday in May to the 3rd Saturday in October and will operate for the ordinary elections in 2007.

This provides the benefit of giving new council members more time in an election year to become familiar with the local government and the budget process prior to the adoption of the council budget. The amendments also enable the current terms of council members to be automatically extended to October 2007 for the next ordinary elections.

In addition, the legislation clarifies that a person must be 18 years of age or older in order to vote in local government elections. It corrects an anomaly whereby it was previously technically possible for a person aged 17 years of age to vote in a local government election.

The Local Government Amendment Act 2007 passed through the Parliament in June 2007. The Amendment Act will come into operation for the local government ordinary elections in October 2007.

The Amendment Act changes the first-past-the-post voting system in local government elections to the preferential voting system for single member vacancies and the proportional representation voting system for multi-member vacancies. These voting systems already apply for the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council respectively.

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Local Government Amendment Act 2006PDF 46.88Kb

Local Government Amendment Act 2007PDF 68.98Kb
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