Two jurisdictions in Australia have enacted caretaker provisions within their local government Acts—Victoria in 2003 and Queensland in 2007. Making the provisions legally binding has a number of implications, some of which are explored in Chapter 7. Queensland’s provisions are based on those of Victoria. The focus is on ensuring public confidence in local government electoral practices and preventing sitting councillors deriving advantage from incumbency.

The main focus of local government caretaker requirements is to prevent inappropriate decision-making by councils during an election period and to ensure council resources are not being used to support the activities of existing councillors, with a particular emphasis on the publication of electoral matter. Both the Victorian Local Government (Democratic Reform) Act 2003 (Vic) and the Queensland Local Government and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2007 (Qld) specify a range of decisions that council may not take during an election period. Individual councils are responsible for developing ‘codes of conduct’ which include these caretaker provisions. The provisions prevent:

Both jurisdictions provide an option for ministerial appeal in exceptional circumstances. If the local council believes a major policy decision is required in the public interest, it can apply to the minister for approval to make the decision. If such an approval is not received, the contracts and decisions are invalid.

Victorian legislation requires individual councils to adopt the provisions from the Act in their own codes of conduct. In Queensland this it not a mandatory requirement, but is left to the discretion of the chief executive of the Department of Local Government, Planning and Sport. Because the legislation has only recently been enacted the implications for breaches are as yet untested, as is the potential for ministerial involvement in making judgements about alleged breaches.