Urgent bill to reinstate nearly 50 councillors stood down in election returns saga

Almost 50 councillors – including five mayors – who lost their positions after being caught up in a donations debacle have been given a second chance.

Nearly 50 councillors stood down after they failed to submit required information to the Electoral Commission on time will be reinstated under legislation to be urgently introduced to state parliament.

The 45 elected members, who failed to complete returns that declare gifts they received during their campaign by the January deadline, will be given a 10-day extension from the time the Bill is passed.

The state government said the law would protect ratepayers from the prospect of by-elections, which would likely have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in total.

It will also provide certainty for councils by ensuring decisions made by members who had been stood down remain valid.

Local Government Minister Geoff Brock. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Brenton Edwards

The Bill will be introduced on Wednesday and is expected to be passed in the lower house this week.

Local Government Minister Geoff Brock said the extension “does not in any way excuse the failures of the 45 members who failed to lodge their returns” after the November 2022 council elections.

“It simply removes the burden that communities who elected these members would otherwise be carrying and ultimately be paying to fix,” he said.

“I have already stated that we will be looking at steps to ensure this never happens again, through the review of local government elections.”

Attorney-General Kyam Maher said the Bill would still ensure that councillors file their returns.

“Transparency in the electoral system is of utmost importance, and all requirements must still be adhered to,” he said.

Several of the councillors who were stood down had lodged appeals with the SA Civil and Administrative Tribunal in a bid for reinstatement, with some claiming they had technical difficulties with the online submission portal.

By-elections were to be held for those who did not appeal or had their appeal rejected.

The Local Government Association last week called for the councillors to be reinstated through changes to legislation.

“The unprecedented scale of this issue, state-wide, is evidence there was a broader problem with the system – after twenty years in local government, I haven’t seen anything like this,” president Dean Johnson said.

“South Australians shouldn’t need to foot the bill of legislative bureaucracy.”

Changes to disclosure rules meant that, for the first time, councillors were required to submit disclosure forms directly to the Electoral Commission instead of to their council, as had been the case in previous years.