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COMMITTEE'S REPORT

The committee tabled its report, No. 7, 56th Parliament - Local Government Electoral (Implementing Stage 1 of Belcarra) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018 on 23 April 2018. The Bill was passed by the Legislative Assembly on 17 May 2018.

ABOUT THE BILL

On 6 March 2018 the Hon Stirling Hinchliffe MP, Minister for Local Government, Minister for Racing and Minister for Multicultural Affairs introduced the Local Government Electoral (Implementing Stage 1 of Belcarra) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018.

The policy objective of the Bill was to implement the Government’s response to certain recommendations of the Crime and Corruption Commission’s report Operation Belcarra: A blueprint for integrity and addressing corruption risk in local government to:

• reinforce integrity and minimise corruption risk that political donations from property developers has potential to cause at both a state and local government level
• improve transparency and accountability in state and local government
• strengthen the legislative requirements that regulate how a councillor must deal with a real or perceived conflict of interest or a material personal interest.

It should be noted that the Local Government Electoral (Implementing Belcarra) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2017, which was substantially the same as the 2018 Bill, was referred to the former Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee prior to the dissolution of the 55^th Parliament for the 2017 election. The former committee had not concluded its inquiry for the 2017 Bill, which lapsed when the 55^th Parliament was dissolved. See the former committee inquiry - here.

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