How a patchwork of municipalities became the third tier of government.
Local governments are often taken for granted in Australia. It’s why no media outlet other than 6 News is doing dedicated live broadcast coverage for the 2024 New South Wales local elections. But they have played an important role in everyday life in Australia since the mid-19th century.
Although not explicitly mentioned in the Australian Constitution, as was seen in Common(wealth) Knowledge #62, they are protected as a domain of the states.
Just as state governments carry out duties that the Commonwealth can’t or shouldn’t be responsible for, state governments give local governments the powers to deal with local needs in local circumstances, which the state can’t meet. This can include road maintenance, town planning, and even garbage truck schedules.
These are local matters that affect local people. Given the “democratic theme of the Constitution,” to quote Justice Murphy, it is only fair that local communities should be able to elect the members of the local government, rather than leaving it up to appointed bureaucrats, to hold them in check for how they government the local area.
Local governments evolved from the same principle of ‘responsible self-government’ that the United Kingdom applied to the colonial governments, which slowly granted more powers to the government as the colony developed and expanded.
But they weren’t always democratic.
Despite being settled last, Western Australia and South Australia were the first two to establish local governments, with the Perth Town Trust in 1838 and the Adelaide Corporation two years later.
Yet early local governments tended to collapse after a few years, constantly being abolished or reformed. This was partly a result of the overtly commercial interests of the local governments.
For example, in New South Wales, section 147 of the Municipalities Act 1867 (NSW) granted local governments the power to create “free infant schools,” an early form of public schooling. However, this was only allowed when it was for the “common use and advantage” of more than one local government.
This meant that multiple local governments had to fund the school, and ratepayers refused to fund projects they didn’t solely benefit from. So the local governments refused to cooperate with one another.
Even after Federation, and the passage of the Local Government Act 1906 (NSW), which created the power to undertake projects “for the mutual benefit of their areas,” the local governments refused to cooperate.
This isolationism and economic protectionism mirrored the colonial governments, especially in Western Australia, so much so that the framers of the Constitution dedicated Chapter IV to resolving these economic and financial disputes. This included ‘uniform customs and duties’ on goods crossing state borders and the famous “trade [and] commerce … shall be absolutely free” rule of section 92.
By the 1890s, local and colonial governments were becoming more democratic. Reforms, like Victoria’s Local Government Act 1874 (Vic), created some internal consistency in local governments’ powers.
However, local governments were excluded from the Constitution because there was no agreement on how they should work and what their powers should be, so the framers just left it to the states.
After Chapter IV came into force with the rest of the Constitution in 1901, the last vestiges of commercial and corporate power in local governments were officially abandoned.
It should be noted that the powers of local governments, especially local planning and development, can be exploited by businesses through bribery, donations, or otherwise compromising the interests of councillors.
They can also be exploited by councillors themselves, because council work is often only part-time, so they also work other jobs.
Local governments have comprehensive legislation governing accountability and transparency, going into more depth than laws for state, territory and federal politicians. The recent Victorian Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission’s investigation into the City of Casey is just one example of why this is important.
Although states continue to disagree about the powers and composition of local government bodies, especially in Queensland, all have broader powers than their early counterparts.
The public schooling proposal in New South Wales was absorbed back into the colony’s government. But the public baths and libraries proposed by the legislation are still with us today.
Many local governments have stamped out the incentives for bribery by creating business forums that allow local businesses to raise concerns over anti-competitive business practices.
Industrialisation and migration have greatly increased the importance of zoning powers, while the power to maintain public roads has become a key responsibility of local governments. Roads are not mentioned in any of the colonial local government legislation.
The amalgamation debate was restarted by Queensland after its mass merger of local governments in the 2000s. Local governments elsewhere were so opposed to it that the Local Government (Reform) Amendment Act 1992 stripped the state government of the power to force amalgamation.
Local governments, who advocate for their independence and oppose amalgamation, would be shocked to learn that, in 1901, much of regional Australia didn’t have regional governments, especially in New South Wales.
Fortunately for New South Wales’ voters who are going to the polls on 14 September, that problem has been fixed.
Originally published as "Common(wealth) Knowledge #103: The rise of Local Governments"
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