What We Do And Why

What We Do Guide

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Local Government, or Council, focuses on what’s happening at a grass roots level. They are elected by the residents of each local government area to make decisions that affect their everyday lives. The state government is like their overseer, setting out a range of reporting and planning guidelines they must follow.

We’ve got 537 councils across Australia, called regions, shires, cities, or towns. Each council seats a Mayor and Councillors to carry out Local Government responsibilities, which may include:

• Building regulation and development
• Public health regulations
• Local roads, footpaths, parks and playing fields
• Libraries
• Local environmental issues
• Waste disposal
• Community services
• Town planning and land use management
• Water supply

The Council is made up of eight councillors plus the Mayor. The Mayor is elected each September by the sitting Councillors. The administration of council is divided between the executive staff members under these departments:

• Office of the General Manager (Finance (Financial Services, Financial Planning and Economic Development), People and Culture, Legal Services and Information Technology)
• Creative Communities and Experiences (Entertainment
  Venues, Marketing and Communication, Events, Galleries and Museums, Australian Equine and Livestock Centre, Visitor Experiences
• Regional Services (Sports and Recreation, Civil Construction, Strategy Assets and Design, Project Planning, Plant, Fleet and Building Services)
• Liveable Communities (Development, Development Engineering, Community Safety and Wellbeing, Future Communities, Customer Service, Learning Communities and Companion Animals.
• Water and Waste (Water and Environment Operations, Projects, Strategy and infrastructure, Waste and Resource Recovery)

Local council is like the headquarters of community action. Being on the Council is your chance to step up, represent your area, and be involved in decision making to make things happen. Our community is diverse, and it’s important that our Council reflects that.

NSW, Council elections are held every four years, and involve selecting individuals from the community to be the representatives on Council. Everyone in the community over the age of 18 who is registered to vote must vote in council elections, just like we do for state and federal elections.

If you want to run for election, you must tick these boxes:

• Be an Australian citizen and registered to vote
• 18 or older
• Live in the local area
• Not be banned from running for any reason