FAQs

Governance Rules are required under section 60 of the Local Government Act 2020 (the Act). They determine the way in which Council will:

• make decisions fairly and in the best interests of the community
• elect the Mayor and Deputy Mayor
• conduct meetings of Council and Delegated Committees
• give notice of meetings and record and make available meeting records
• be informed in its decision-making through community engagement, advisory committees and reports
• require the disclosure and management of conflicts of interest
• apply rules for the conduct of Council and Councillors during Election Periods
• apply rules for the use of Council’s common seal.

All Victorian councils will hold elections in October 2024.

It is best practice to periodically review all governance policies and rules, and this is done at least once per election cycle.

The Election Period Policy has been updated to provide more specific guidance to Councillors, Council staff and election candidates to ensure that they meet their obligations under the Act during the Election Period.

As the Election Period Policy forms part of the Governance Rules, it is necessary to amend the Governance Rules in order to update the Election Period Policy. This provides an opportunity to also review the remainder of the Governance Rules and make some minor improvements.

Following consideration of community feedback, the final Governance Rules will be tabled for adoption at a Council meeting in June 2024.

Council must include an Election Period Policy in its Governance Rules under section 69 of the Local Government Act 2020 and in the interests of good governance, the Election Period Policy should be reviewed prior to a general election.

Accordingly, the Election Period Policy was reviewed in early 2024. Resources from the Local Government Inspectorate, including examples of best-practice policies, were consulted and benchmarking with policies of neighbouring Councils was undertaken. It was found that the existing Election Period Policy did not contain sufficient detail in comparison, and needed to be more comprehensive. The amount of information to be incorporated was substantial, which necessitated a complete rewrite rather than the making of specific amendments.

It should be noted that the new material introduced into the Election Period Policy is a reiteration of existing requirements under the Local Government Act 2020, the Whitehorse Planning Scheme and the Whitehorse Community Local Law 2014 – i.e., there are no substantive new rules or requirements, and these are largely required by law rather than by Council design. Existing obligations for Council, Council staff and candiates have simply been summarised into one document for ease of reference and to help provide a more equal footing for incumbent Councillors and new candidates.