The WA Government is giving itself new powers to deal with troublesome councillors.

New legislation seeks to allow the Government to suspend or sack individual councillors who are failing to perform their function or duties.

They could also be sacked for conduct that causes dysfunction within their council.

Accused councillors could be disqualified them from council under the new regime.

Those found to have seriously breached the Local Government Act could be suspended or sacked.

The Government can already sack or suspend entire councils but not individual councillors.

The Government says the City of Perth's recent issues, which led to the indefinite suspension of the council, show why the Local Government Act needs to change.

“You only have to look at recent events to see how cumbersome the current Local Government Act is,” Local Government Minister David Templeman said.

“This is a mechanism that I would expect would not be used widely.”

The state opposition has raised concerns the changes could be used for political purposes.