Intro
The Government of Western Australia acknowledges the traditional custodians of this land. We pay tribute and our respects to Elders past and present.
The Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (DLGSC) brings together a diverse set of portfolios that are all centred around one thing — our vision of creating a vibrant, inclusive and connected WA community.
Local governments play an important role in achieving this vision. They deliver critical services such as waste collection and management, infrastructure maintenance, food inspections, and planning and building approvals. Local governments are integral to building social cohesion and supporting the cultural identity of communities. When local governments have the right capabilities and resources, and receive appropriate support, they can create and make real change for the communities they serve.
Our regulatory approach outlines the DLGSC’s approach and strategy for supporting and enforcing effective regulation of the local government sector within WA. It also provides clarity over how our regulatory activities fit within the broader local government environment, the specific functions DLGSC will undertake, and the role that peak bodies will play in supporting local governments.
Local governments are autonomous entities and ultimately responsible for their operations through democratic processes. DLGSC is committed to working in collaboration with local governments. We will support local governments to comply with legislation, empower them to facilitate positive community outcomes, but also enforce compliance when required, as mandated by our regulatory requirements.
We will deliver on this through the 9 functions detailed within this document. Our regulatory approach is informed by good practices in regulation and grounded in preventing non-compliance, intervening early, focusing on the greatest level of risks, and encouraging greater transparency within the sector.
The resulting approach is a contemporary document that will guide the regulation of local governments and future reforms.
DLGSC recognises that we cannot achieve this on our own and will partner with local governments, WA Local Government Association (WALGA) and Local Government Professionals (LG Pro).
We look forward to collectively working together to enable our vision of a vibrant, inclusive, and connected WA community.
Lanie ChoppingDirector General
The Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries (DLGSC) works collaboratively with government, community organisations, peak bodies and other stakeholders to achieve our vision of creating a vibrant, inclusive and connected WA community.
Create a vibrant, inclusive and connected WA community.
The local government portfolio area contributes to our vision by supporting and enabling a robust local government sector to achieve positive outcomes for communities in WA.
These strategic priorities will be achieved through a number of initiatives detailed within our Local Government Plan on a Page.
Local governments are independent entities who administer local laws and deliver a range of essential and non-essential services that directly impact communities. They are responsible for their own conduct and have the power to deliver a broad range of services outlined in legislation.
The Local Government Act 1995 is the principal Act that details the responsibilities and powers of local governments. In addition to this, local government services, such as transportation, public works and emergency medical services, are guided by relevant legislation.
Due to the broad environment in which local governments operate, they work with a range of organisations that ensure service quality and legislative compliance. These organisations have varying levels of formal and informal regulatory responsibility over local government services.
Stakeholders in the local government regulatory environment are striving to support local councils to achieve the best outcomes for their communities. They acknowledge that local governments are rarely purposefully non-compliant. Many local governments are experiencing rising community expectations, as significant changes to the way we work and live has highlighted the importance of community, and the role local government can play in delivering solutions. Local governments that are struggling usually need support to manage these new and complex challenges.
Figure 1 illustrates the regulatory environment that local governments operate in and the key organisations that work within this environment. DLGSC is one of the state regulatory bodies that have a high involvement and regulatory responsibility supporting local governments. Peak bodies, and other state government agencies, also play an important role in supporting local governments to be accountable to the WA community. Local governments are formally accountable to local residents, rate payers, and eligible body corporates within local government districts, and they are also responsible for other members of the community such as children, adolescents and visitors to the community.
Figure 1: Local government regulatory environment
Long description for figure 1: a layered hexagonal diagram beginning with the Minister for Local Government reporting to WA Parliament on the outer most hexagon, then other state agencies that interact with local governments, integrity agencies (Office of Auditor general, Corruption and Crime Commission, Ombudsman WA), State regulatory bodies (Public Sector Commission, DLGSC, WA Electoral Commission), peak bodies (Local Government Professionals WA, WA Local Government Association), local government (local government elected members and local government employees pointing to local government accountable to the WA community).
Within this regulatory environment, DLGSC plays an important role supporting good governance within the local government sector, providing effective regulation and strengthening the capability of the sector to meet community expectations. As a statutory authority, we are responsible for administering our regulatory requirements set out in relevant local government legislation.
Our regulatory responsibilities can be thought of in 2 ways:
We have regulatory oversight of several Acts including the:1
A selection of key activities DLGSC has a level of regulatory oversight over is detailed in figure 2.
Figure 2: Local government activities DLGSC has a level of oversight over
Long description for figure 2: a diagram listing 4 areas of financial management (long-term financial planning, rates and services charges, financial reporting and procurement), governance (strategic planning, elections and polls, conflicts of interest and decision-making processes), conduct (minor, recurrent and serious breaches, councillors, committee members and candidates, and CEO) and operations (community engagement).
To support and regulate WA local governments using a capability building and risk-based approach where oversight, support and intervention efforts are targeted based on analysis of greatest risks, and informed by relevant legislation and an understanding of the challenges local governments experience.
The regulatory approach recognises that local governments are responsible for their operations and for complying with legislative requirements. It also embraces themes regarding early intervention, effective regulation, greater transparency and accountability, and clear roles and responsibilities.
Our regulatory approach is in line with our vision to create a vibrant, inclusive and connected WA community.
To achieve on our regulatory mission, we will work to deliver on the following outcomes:
This document is underpinned by our regulatory approach which guides all regulatory activities. Figure 3 provides an overview of how key enablers and regulatory functions lead to regulatory outcomes, long-term outcomes and a lasting impact.
Figure 3: Our local government regulatory theory of change
Long description for figure 3: Situation: local government play a critical role in people’s lives. They are autonomous bodies responsible to fulfil legislative obligations and meeting the needs of their communities. Not all local governments have the same level of resources, capacity or capability to comply with these obligations, and may need additional support.
DLGSC enablers: partnerships, ICT, workforce.
DLGSC functions: standard setting, capacity building, compliance guidance, intelligence gathering and analysis, compliance reviews and audits, consultation and support, targeted assistance, investigation and enforcement.
Regulatory outcomes: local governments exercise their autonomy in meeting their legislative requirements and community needs, local governments comply with their legislative and other requirements, DLGSC regulatory activities support local governments to develop capacity needed to comply with their legislative requirements and DLGSC regulatory activities empower local governments to facilitate positive community outcomes.
Long term outcomes: More efficient and effective government (greater accountability of local governments to their commitments, better decision making by local governments and greater community participation).
Impact: a robust and innovative local government sector that achieves positive outcomes for communities in Western Australia.
Our regulatory approach toward local government is underpinned by 6 principles which guide our regulatory activities.
To achieve a risk-based approach that is grounded in our 6 principles, DLGSC, in collaboration with other agencies and peak bodies, undertakes 9 functions. These functions are critical to effective regulation and represent the key activities required to monitor compliance and support good governance within the local government sector.
The 9 functions will be delivered in cohesion and do not represent a scale of increasing involvement.
A high-level outline of the 9 functions can be found in figure 4.
Our approach to each function is detailed in figure 6.
Fostering best practice, understanding performance and ensuring compliance wraps around the 9 functions. They reflect our desire to continuously encourage innovation within the sector, deeply understand local governments and deliver support. To ensure long-term success, we will periodically evaluate and improve our approach to ensure it is aligned with best practice, and effectively identifies and responds to emerging risks.
Figure 4: Our key regulatory functions
Long description for figure 4: how we regulate surrounded by 3 areas including fostering best practice (capacity building, compliance guidance and standard setting), understanding performance (intelligence gathering and analysis, compliance reviews and audits, and consultation and support) and ensuring compliance (enforcement, targeted assistance and investigation).
We work to deliver these functions with a graduated approach, where the intensity of our response is proportionate and appropriate to the situation, and relative to our available tools and resources. This encourages local governments to adopt self-regulation and voluntary compliance.
Our Local Government Risk Assessment Policy sets out DLGSC’s approach to monitoring and compliance, which targets resources towards the greatest risks.
Our approach to situations escalate relative to compliance attitudes and the level of risk, utilising formal compliance tools only when prior options are exhausted or do not adequately mitigate the risk.
Attitudes to compliance are important when considering the risk of non-compliance. We promote voluntary and proactive compliance through capacity building and education. Poor attitudes toward compliance, such as opportunistic and intentional non-compliance, are high risk so our response begins with understanding performance and providing consultation and support to adjust attitudes and non-compliance behaviours. However, if these activities are unsuccessful, our approach will graduate to ensuring compliance through investigations or enforcement.
Figure 5: Our graduated response appropriate to risk
Long description for figure 5: a scale from low risk to high risk. Attitude to compliance (from low to high risk) includes voluntary compliance, accidental non-compliance, opportunistic non-compliance and intentional non-compliance. DLGSC response from low to high risk: fostering best practice (standard setting, capability building and compliance guidance), understanding performance (intelligence gathering and analysis, compliance review and audits and consultation and support) and ensuring compliance (targeted assistance, investigation and enforcement).
We focus our compliance guidance, monitoring, and targeted assistance efforts towards addressing these risks. Our approach to delivering each of our functions is detailed in figure 6 below.
Figure 6: Our approach to each function
Successful implementation of a capability building and risk-based regulation will require a well-resourced workforce, partnerships with both local governments and peak bodies, and effective Information and Communications Technology. On overview of these enablers are detailed below:
We will hold ourselves accountable with appropriate measures of success. We will regularly monitor our performance against these measures while being adaptive and responsive to changes in the local government sector.
We will know our approach is on track if we have: