Local Government Association president Lorraine Rosenberg says politicians agree tougher penalties needed for bad behaviour

POLITICAL leaders have agreed that tougher sanctions are needed to stamp out bad behaviour among councillors, according to Local Government Association of SA president.

Local Government Association of SA president Lorraine Rosenberg said representatives from SA political parties support tougher sanctions for code of conduct breaches.

• LGA to hold code of conduct roundtable to help fix “broken system”

POLITICAL leaders agree that tougher sanctions are needed to stamp out bad behaviour among councillors, according to the head of the Local Government Association of SA.

Politicians from the state Liberal Party, Greens, Dignity Party and SA Best held a roundtable with the LGA on Wednesday to discuss the association’s proposal to fix what president Lorraine Rosenberg said was a “broken” code of conduct system.

The closed meeting came after The Advertiser revealed that SA councils deal with about one code of conduct complaint each week about elected members or staff, leading to calls for an overhaul of the system governing how councillor behaviour is managed.

Ms Rosenberg told The Advertiser after on Wednesday’s meeting that there was agreement that the system needed to be strengthened, in particular with more sanctions for councillors found guilty of bad behaviour or serious misconduct.

“One of the failures at the moment is there’s no serious sanctions, so people don’t take the outcomes (of code of conduct findings) seriously,” she said.

“The best thing we got was a commitment from all those at the meeting to work with us to get a solution.”

Giving mayors power to expel unruly councillors from meetings and fine them for misbehaviour was also raised at the roundtable, she said.

Ms Rosenberg said the meeting helped to put code of conduct reforms on the political agenda heading into the state election. She said she was a “bit disappointed” the Labor Party did not send a representative, but said the LGA had been working with the Government for 12 months on reforms to the code of conduct system.

Full outcomes of the meeting will be provided to councils within a couple of weeks.