What are we getting for Christmas? A Community Engagement Charter!
More than five years after the concept was first introduced into Parliament as part of the omnibus reforms contained within then-Statutes Amendment (Local Government Review) Bill 2020, the Minister for Local Government has now made the Community Engagement Charter (the Charter) provided for pursuant to Section 50 of the Local Government Act 1999 (the Act).
The making of the Charter accompanies the commencement of related amendments to the Local Government Act 1999 to facilitate this important change to how councils engage with their communities.
Under transitional regulations made by the Governor, councils will have a period of 9 months from 11 December 2025 to adopt a community engagement policy pursuant to Section 50A of the Act.
Until such time as that occurs, councils’ public consultation policies as in force on 11 December 2025 continue to apply. The transitional regulations also provide capacity for councils to continue to utilise their former public consultation polices for a period of three months after adoption of the new community engagement policy.
A community engagement policy adopted by a council must be consistent with and comply with the requirements specified by the Charter, which sets out 5 different categories of decision and 12 different mandatory consultation requirements, which variously apply to 19 types of statutory decision set out in the Charter.
In preparing their policies, councils will need to consider which mandatory requirements apply to each statutory decision type, and how they will meet these requirements with respect to each statutory decision. Some Charter requirements are directory (i.e. that a public meeting must be held in certain circumstances) and others require consideration by councils as to how they will meet the requirements (i.e. consider appropriate forms of notifications to the council area).
We understand that the Local Government Association will be preparing guidance/supporting materials for councils to assist in the implementation of these new requirements as part of its LG Equip program.
Please contact Felice D’Agostino on fdagostino@normans.com.au or Dale Mazzachi on dmazzachi@normans.com.au with any queries regarding the implementation of these new consultation obligations.
