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Local government is the third level ofgovernment inAustralia, administered with limitedautonomy under thestates and territories, and in turn beneath thefederal government.[1] Local government is not mentioned in theConstitution of Australia, and tworeferendums in1974 and1988 to alter the Constitution relating tolocal government were unsuccessful.[2] Every state and territory government recognises local government in itsown respective constitution.[3] Unlike the two-tier local government system inCanada or theUnited States, there is (largely) only one tier of local government in each Australian state/territory, with no distinction betweencounties andcities.
Local government in Australia is generally run by an electedcouncil, and the area itadministers is referred to by theAustralian Bureau of Statistics as alocal government area orLGA, each of which encompasses multiplesuburbs and/or localities (roughly equivalent to neighbourhoods), often of differentpostcodes. LGAs are variously styled using terms such as "city", "town", "district", "municipality", "borough", "region" or "shire". These usually have geographic or historical significance, and there is rarely any legal distinction between them. For instance,cities andmunicipalities tend to apply to councils in urban and metropolitan areas, whereasdistricts andshires are found primarily in rural and regional areas. A local government area is also commonly known as a "city council", "local council", or simply a "council". Council members are generally known ascouncillors, and the head of a council is called themayor,chairman or shire president. Some of Australia’s largest cities, such asSydney,Melbourne,Brisbane,Perth andAdelaide, use the historical title oflord mayor. Councillors are usually elected fromsingle-member districts known asdivisions orwards, whilst the mayor or president is directly elected by all the voters within that council area. However, the mayor is often entitled to style themselves as a councillor, and is considered anex officio member of the council. As of August 2016, there were 547 local councils in Australia.[4]
Despite the (largely) single tier of local governance in Australia, there are a number of vast, sparsely populated regions that are not part of any established LGA. Functions of local government in theseunincorporated areas may be exercised by special-purposegoverning bodies established outside of local legislation, as withVictoria'salpine resorts, or directly administered by state or territory governments, such as the entirety of theAustralian Capital Territory. The administrative areas covered by local government bodies in Australia range from as small as 1.5 km2 (0.58 sq mi) for theShire of Peppermint Grove in thePerth metropolitan region, to as large as 372,571 km2 (143,850 sq mi) for theShire of East Pilbara inWestern Australia'sPilbara region.
As an exception to the generalisation that Australian local government has only a single tier, New South Wales hascounty councils, which are special-purpose local authorities governing county districts composed of two or more LGAs, and are variously responsible for water supply, flood mitigation and weed management. Formerly, they also played a significant role in urban planning, electricity distribution, and some also operated abattoirs. By the 21st century, only a handful remain, with the majority of New South Wales LGAs no longer belonging to any county council. These councils are not to be confused with cadastral divisions also known ascounties, which are largely obsolete but continue to exist by statute.
Local governments are subdivisions of thesix federated states as well as theNorthern Territory. The term "local government area" (LGA) is used by the ABS to collectively refer to all local government administrative zones regardless of the varying designations.TheAustralian Capital Territory has no separate local government, and municipal functions inCanberra and the surrounding regions (normally performed by local governments in other states) are performed by the ACT territorial government.
Local government authorities across the country have similar functions and powers,[citation needed] but have different official designations in different states, which may vary based on whether the LGA is regional or for historical reasons. Below is a table that lists the various designations per state.
| State/territory | LGA status |
|---|---|
| New South Wales | Cities Areas |
| Northern Territory | Cities Towns Municipalities Shires |
| Queensland | Cities Shires Towns Regional councils Aboriginal shires |
| South Australia | Cities Rural cities Municipalities/municipal councils District councils Regional councils Towns Aboriginal councils |
| Tasmania | Cities Municipalities |
| Victoria | Cities Rural cities Boroughs Shires |
| Western Australia | Cities Towns Shires |
Most urban municipalities in all states are "cities".[5] Many in Western Australia are officially "towns", even within the Perth metropolitan area.[5] Many rural areas in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia are "shires", while rural areas in South Australia have "district councils", and those in Tasmania officially use the title "municipality".[5] Due to the Australian Capital Territory's small size it has no local government and is instead overseen by theACT Legislative Assembly.[5]
Sometimes designations other than "city" or "shire" are used in the names of LGAs, and today the stylised titles of "town", "borough", "municipality", "district", "region", "community government", "Aboriginal council/shire" and "island" are used in addition. The word "municipality" occurs in some states with differing meanings: inNew South Wales it is typically used for older urban areas, and the word is used for some rural towns inSouth Australia. Larger towns and small metropolitan exurban centres inQueensland andWestern Australia simply use the term "town", while inVictoria they are designated as "rural city". Historically, the word "borough" was common for small towns and suburban centers in Victoria, but nowadays only theBorough of Queenscliffe remains as the one and only borough in the entire country. New South Wales and Queensland have also introduced a new term "region" foroutback LGAs formed by theamalgamation of smaller shires and rural cities. In New South Wales, where theLocal Government Act does not mandate adopting a designation, some local government areas are legally known simply as "council", such asPort Macquarie-Hastings Council,Inner West Council andFederation Council. Some rural areas in South Australia are known as "district council", and all the LGAs inTasmania that were previously municipalities have been renamed "council".
Almost all local councils have the same administrative functions and similar political structures, regardless of their naming, and retain a particular designation ("shire", "borough", "town", "city") for historical reasons only. They will typically have an elected council and usually a mayor or shire president responsible for chairing meetings of the council. In some councils, the mayor is adirectly elected figure, but in most cases the mayor is elected by theboard of fellowcouncillors. The powers of mayors vary as well; for example, mayors in Queensland have broad executive functions, whereas mayors in New South Wales are essentially ceremonialfigureheads who can only exercise power at the discretion of the council.
Most of the capital city LGAs administer only thecentral business districts and nearbycentral suburbs. A notable exception is theCity of Brisbane, the most populous LGA in the country, which administers a significant part of theBrisbanemetropolitan area. In most cases, when a city's population statistics are used, it is thestatistical division population rather than the local government area.
The following table provides a summary of local government areas by states and territories by local government area types as of December 2023:
| Local government area types | NSW | Vic | Qld | WA | SA | Tas | NT | ACT[6][7] | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aboriginalcouncils | 2 | 2 | |||||||
| Aboriginalshires | 12 | 12 | |||||||
| Boroughs | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Cities | 30 | 34 | 8 | 27 | 21 | 6 | 2 | 128 | |
| Councils | 32[8] | 17 | 23 | 2 | 74 | ||||
| District councils | 23 | 23 | |||||||
| Municipalities | 2[8] | 2 | |||||||
| Regional councils | 9[8] | 29 | 4 | 9 | 51 | ||||
| Ruralcities | 6 | 1 | 7 | ||||||
| Shires | 55[8] | 38 | 28 | 104 | 2 | 227 | |||
| Towns | 1 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 13 | ||||
| Sub-total | 128 | 79 | 78 | 139 | 70 | 29 | 17 | 0 | 540 |
| Unincorporated | 2 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 22 | ||
| Total | 130 | 88 | 78 | 141 | 71 | 29 | 24 | 1 | 562 |
Note the above table does not include thecounty councils of New South Wales, which while a form of local government are not classified as being local government areas.
The Australian Classification of Local Governments (ACLG) categorises local governing authorities using the population, thepopulation density and the proportion of the population that is classified as beingurban for the council.[9] The classification, at the two-digit level, is:
All local governments are approximately equal in their theoretical powers, although LGAs that encompass large cities such asBrisbane and theGold Coast command more resources due to their larger population base. Unlike local governments in many other countries, services such as police, fire protection and schools are provided by respective state or territory governments rather than by local councils. However, local governments still maintain some responsibility for fire service functions within Queensland and Western Australia.
The councils' chief responsibility in the first half of the 20th century was the provision of physical infrastructure such as roads, bridges and sewerage.[10] From the 1970s the emphasis changed to community facilities such as libraries and parks, maintenance of local roads, town planning and development approvals, and local services such as waste disposal. Child care, tourism and urban renewal were also beginning to be part of local governments' role. These are financed by collection of local land taxes known as "rates", and grants from the state and Commonwealth governments. They are caricatured as being concerned only with the "three Rs": Rates, Roads and Rubbish.
However, the roles of local government areas in Australia have recently expanded as higher levels of government have devolved activities to the third tier. Examples include the provision of community health services, regional airports and pollution control[10] as well as community safety and accessible transport.[11] The changes in services has been described as a shift from 'services to property' towards 'services to people'.[11] Community expectations of local government in Australia have risen in the 21st century partly as a result of wider participation indecision-making andtransparent management practices.[10]
Recent years have seen some State governments devolving additional powers onto LGAs. In Queensland and Western Australia LGAs have been granted the power to independently enact their own localsubsidiary legislation, in contrast to the previous system ofby-laws. Councils also have organised their own representative structures such as Local Government Associations andRegional Organisations of Councils.
Doctrines ofNew Public Management have shaped state government legislation towards increased freedoms aiming to allow greater flexibility on the part of local governments.[11]
There is no mention of local government in theConstitution of Australia, though it is mentioned several times in theAnnotated Constitution of Australia.[12][13] "Municipal institutions and local government" appears in Annotation 447, and "Power of the Parliament of a Colony" appears under "Residuary Legislative Powers" on pages 935 and 936.
The first official local government in Australia was thePerth Town Trust, established in 1838, only three years after British colonisation of Western Australia.[2] TheAdelaide Corporation followed, created by the province of South Australia in October 1840. TheCity of Melbourne and theSydney Corporation followed, both in 1842.[2][14] All of these early forms failed; it was not until the 1860s and 1870s that the various colonies established widespread stable forms of local government, mainly for the purpose of raising money to build roads in rural and outer-urban regions. Council representatives attended conventions beforeFederation, however local government was unquestionably regarded as outside the Constitutional realm.[2]
In the 1970s, theWhitlam government expanded the level of funding to local governments in Australia beyond grants for road construction. General purpose grants become available for the first time.[15]
Significant reforms took place in the 1980s and 1990s in which state governments used metrics and efficiency analysis developed within the private sector in the local government arena. Each state conducted an inquiry into the benefits of council amalgamations during the 1990s.[16] In the early 1990s, Victoria saw the number of local councils reduced from 210 to 78.[16] South Australia, Tasmania and Queensland saw some reductions in the number of local governments while Western Australia and New South Wales rejected compulsory mergers. New South Wales eventually forced the merging of some councils. The main purpose of amalgamating councils was for greater efficiency and to improve operations, but forced amalgamation of councils is sometimes seen as a dilution ofrepresentative democracy.[16]
An increase in the range of services offered by councils, but only minor cost savings of less than 10% have been noted by academics as outcomes after mergers. The council mergers have resulted in widespread job losses and lingering resentment from some whose roles have experienced a larger workload.[16]
The growth of theRegional Organisations of Councils has also been a factor in local government reform in Australia.[16] In 1995, there were 50 such agreements across the country. A 2002 study identified 55 ROCs with the largest involving 18 councils.[16]
Local government powers are determined by state governments, and states have primary responsibility for funding and exclusive responsibility for supervision of local councils.
Local government is mentioned in the annotated Australian constitution, as a department of the State Governments, and they are mentioned in the constitutions of each of the six states.
Under the Constitution, the federal government cannot provide funding directly to local governments; a1974 referendum sought to amend the Constitution to authorise the federal government to directly fund local governments, but it was defeated.
A1988 referendum sought to explicitly insert mention of local government in the federal constitution but this was comprehensively defeated. A further referendum wasproposed in 2013, but was cancelled due to the change in theelection date.
Federal government interaction with local councils happens regularly through the provision of federal grants to help fund local government managed projects.
Local government in Australia has very limitedlegislative powers and nojudicial powers, andexecutive-wise is subject to the exclusivejurisdiction of the state/territory it belongs to. The functions and practices of local councils are mostly centered around managingpublic services andland uses at thecommunity level, and are similar throughout Australia, but can vary to some degree between jurisdictions. State departments oversee the activities of local councils and may intervene in their affairs when needed, subject to relevant legislation.[11]
For more details in each state and territory, see the following:
TheAustralian Capital Territory is not divided into local government areas, so it is regarded as a single "unincorporated" local government area duringcensusing.
Unlike many other countries, Australia has only one level of local government immediately beneath state and territorial governments. Aside from very sparsely populated areas and a few other special cases, almost all of Australia is part of a local government area. Unincorporated areas are often in remote locations, cover vast areas, or have very small populations.
Queensland andTasmania are entirely partitioned into LGAs and have no unincorporated areas.
TheAustralian Capital Territory (ACT) has no municipalities. TheACT government is responsible for both state-level and local-level matters. In some countries, such an arrangement would be referred to as aunitary authority, but theAustralian Bureau of Statistics refers to the whole of the ACT as an unincorporated area.[17]
The ACT Government directorateTransport Canberra & City Services handles responsibilities that are under the purview of local government in other parts of Australia, such as local road maintenance, libraries and waste collection.
Many Canberra districts have community organisations called "community councils", but these are not part of the government (though they generally receive government funding). They do not have the power to change laws or policies, and their role is limited to advising government. They are effectivelyresidents' associations.[18]
New South Wales has three unincorporated areas:
In theNorthern Territory, 1.47% of the total area and 3.0% of the population are in unincorporated areas. These include the Cox-Daly and Marrakai-Douglas Daly areas in theTop End region,[20] theNorthern Territory Rates Act Area andDarwin Waterfront Precinct withinDarwin,Nhulunbuy on theGove Peninsula,Alyangula onGroote Eylandt, andYulara inCentral Australia.[21]
InSouth Australia, 63% of the state's area is unincorporated. Residents in this area – less than 0.2% of the state's population – receive municipal services provided by a state agency, theOutback Communities Authority.[22]
Victoria has a number of unincorporated areas which are not part of any LGA, includingFrench Island, the six alpine resorts (Falls Creek Alpine Resort,Lake Mountain Alpine Resort,Mount Baw Baw Alpine Resort,Mount Buller Alpine Resort,Mount Hotham Alpine Resort, andMount Stirling Alpine Resort) andGabo Island.
TheAustralian Bureau of Statistics includes numerous other uninhabited offshore islands, includingLady Julia Percy Island, in its definition of unincorporated areas of Victoria.[23]
Western Australia has two unincorporated areas:
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