The City of Greater Bendigo is updating and introducing new policies and rules to ensure compliance with the new Local Government Act 2020.
The new policies and rules are now out for community comment which will support the City's commitment to transparency and good governance.
The new Act aims to improve local government democracy, accountability and council operations. It also sets out various principles including community engagement and public transparency.
To meet these requirements the City has developed a new Public Transparency Policy which is now out for comment.
The Act also requires Council adopt Governance Rules (a new requirement) including an Election Period Policy (significant changes on previous requirement). The City's new Governance Rules and Election Period Policy are also out for comment.
The City already has adopted a new Community Engagement Policy in accordance with the Act.
Director Corporate Performance Andrew Cooney said the City supported the changes of the Act and was working quickly to ensure compliance.
"We are committed to transparency, good governance and accountability, so these changes are things we think are important and in some cases were already working towards," Mr Cooney said.
"We already have a Community Engagement Policy which is great, so we just need to complete these other requirements to bring us in line with the new legislation.
"It is important for us to continually find ways to improve community access to decision-making processes, which the new Act does."
To read the draft policies and provide feedback, go to www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/localgovernmentact. Feedback is open until July 29, 2020.
