This report outlines the findings of an investigation into whether Cairns Regional Council (council) and its councillors comply with relevant legislative and policy requirements and act reasonably in relation to the disclosure and management of councillors’ conflicts of interest.
Some of the issues considered are unique to councils which have a group of councillors operating within it, as Cairns does with respect to the Unity Team1. The Unity Team in Cairns is a ‘group of candidates’ for the purposes of the Local Government Electoral Act 2011. The other issues discussed are relevant to all councils and councillors throughout Queensland.
This report includes discussion regarding the following:
- the background to the investigation (Chapter 1)
- how conflicts of interest are dealt with in council generally (Chapter 2)
- relevant issues when dealing with conflicts of interest as a group (Chapter 3)
- issues regarding transparency and accountability generally and with regard to the management of conflicts of interest (Chapter 4)
- the Register of Interests of councillors (Chapter 5)
- overall conclusions and observations arising from the investigation (Chapter 6).
The investigation did not identify wilful non-compliance with any legislative requirements by council or councillors, and observed that councillors went to some effort to comply. It did identify, however, a lack of understanding of a number of requirements and a sense of complacency by some councillors in respect of matters which were their own personal responsibility.
The investigation found that:
- the current practice of councillors declaring conflicts of interest as a group does not comply with the requirements of s.173(5) of the Local Government Act 2009 (LGA)
- the practice of all Unity Team members using s.173(7) of the LGA to stay in a meeting to maintain a quorum, in circumstances where it is not necessary for all members to stay to maintain a quorum, does not comply with s.173(7) of the LGA
- it is not always possible to determine from the minutes of a meeting how a councillor who has declared a conflict of interest voted and, in this respect, council does not always comply with s.173(8)(d) of the LGA
- a number of councillors did not comply with s.171B of the LGA in that their Register of Interests did not contain all gifts required to be included.
Other matters identified for consideration and/or monitoring by council/councillors included:
- the correct quorum for the Planning and Environment Committee and the correct process to effectively delegate council’s powers to a committee of council
- whether the pre-meeting meeting2 (the meeting held on the Monday before each council and committee meeting) attended by councillors and the Executive Manager3, Office of the Mayor, Cairns Regional Council complies with the local government principle of ‘transparent and effective processes, and decision-making in the public interest’.
In considering the legislative requirements around conflict of interest declarations, I noted that s.173(4) and s.173(8) of the LGA do not complement each other in fulfilling the local
government principles as they relate to transparent decision-making. The investigation found that s.173(4) and s.173(8) create uncertainty in terms of what is expected of councillors when making conflict of interest declarations during meetings.
I referred this issue to the Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning (the department) for its consideration. The department considered the findings and recommendations contained in my proposed report as part of its analysis feeding into the preparation of the Local Government Electoral (Implementing Belcarra) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017.