Representation Review

Representation Review

Section 12(3) of the Local Government Act 1999 (the Act) states that Council must undertake a “representation review’ to determine whether its community would benefit from an alteration to Council’s composition or ward structure.  This review is required to be undertaken and completed during the period October 2024 – October 2025.

Gazettal of Council decision - 23 October 2025

Following the submission of the Elector Representation Review to the Electoral Commission of South Australia, the Commissioner provided a certificate confirming the review undertaken by Council meets the requirements of Section 12 of the Local Government Act 1999.

A gazette notice was published on 23 October 2025 to notify of the completion (and certification) of the review, which changes to take effect at the 2026 General Local Government Elections.

Council decision - 16 July 2025

Council considered the feedback received from the public at the meeting held 16 July (refer to page 93 of the agenda) and resolved to adopt the report as consulted upon and instruct the CEO to prepare and lodge the required report to the Electoral Commission of South Australia confirming Council's preference to:

• Retain a no ward structure (area councillors)
• At the next general election (November 2026), increase the number of area councillors to seven members, recognising that the Mayor will be publicly elected by separate ballot.

Representation Report for consultation - June 2025

At the June 2025 Council meeting, Council approved the release of the draft Elector Representation Report, with feedback to be received by 5pm, Thursday 10 July 2025. The report is available below for your information (click on the picture), and below is a survey link to make providing feedback as easy as possible.

Whilst the proposal presented in the draft report reflects the current position of the Council, no final decision will be made in respect to Council’s future composition and/or structure until consideration has been given to any and all public submissions which may be received during the current public consultation stage.

Feedback is now closed.

A survey was made available to assist with feedback (which is now closed).

Project Timeframe

Council decision on options - May 2025

Noting that the State Government reforms now require all Mayors to be elected by the public (commencing at the next elections in November 2026), at the Council meeting held 21 May 2025, Council considered the Discussion Paper as provided within the public agenda and resolved to:

• retain a council of area Councillors and no wards
• have seven area Councillors in addition to a publicly elected Mayor.

A draft representation report was drafted for Council consideration at the next Council meeting based on these preferences.

Discussion Paper - April 2025

Council last completed a review of its elector representation in November 2017, the outcome of which was the retention of the existing “no ward” structure and the current composition of Council (i.e. 7 area councillors with the Mayor selected from amongst the council members).

A briefing was conducted on 14 April 2025 by the consultants engaged to coordinate the project to inform members of the matters relevant to the review and the review process. Information was provided to the members on the matters to be considered in the review, namely:

• whether the number of elected members should be retained, reduced or increased, bearing in mind that, pursuant to Section 51(1) of the Act, the principal member of Council must now be a mayor elected by the community, rather than a chairperson (with the title of mayor) who was selected by and from amongst the elected members;
• whether the existing “no ward” structure should be retained or whether the Council area should be divided into wards; and
• if the preference is for the Council area to be divided into wards, identify the preferred future ward structure, including the names/titles of the proposed wards and the level of representation in each ward, and determine whether there is a need for “area councillors” in addition to “ward councillors”.

Members were also provided with a draft Discussion Paper which contained four ward structure options (as examples of how the Council area could be divided into wards), as well as information pertaining to the existing “no ward” structure.