The Local Government Association of South Australia has pushed against a call for a new requirement that would see councillors obliged to crosscheck one another for conflict of interest after a report published by the SA Ombudsman urged the adoption of the practice.

 

SA Ombudsman Richard Bingham recommended the adoption of an objective test to be applied by other councillors in his report into the Charles Sturt Council over its St Clair land swap earlier last year.

 

“Consideration should be given to amending the Local Government Act to include an objective test for council members’ conflicts of interest.  I propose an objective test as has been adopted by Queensland in section 173(4) of the Local

Government Act 2009 (Qld),” Mr Bingham said in his November report.

 

The Local Government Association has claimed that such a test would lead to greater conflict within councils, especially if there were any divergent interpretations as to what constitutes a conflict of interest.

 

The object test was one of 13 recommendations made by the Ombudsman after the Charles Sturt Council swapped community land for a former factory site to allow construction of a transport hub.

 

The Ombudsman’s report can be found here