Question | Councillor responses | Council officer responses37 |
|---|---|---|
Do you think collecting accurate information about the interests held by councillors is important? | Yes – 90% Somewhat important – 10% | Yes – 91% Somewhat important – 9% |
Why is it important? | identify/avoid potential conflicts of interest which links to transparency (81%) | transparency (64%) it assists with managing conflicts of interest (36%) it increases integrity of council decisions and/or public confidence in those decisions (25%) promotes accountability (16%) |
What do you think council officers should be responsible for when it comes to councillor interests returns? | administrative process (42%) providing training, guidance, answer questions (33%) check the returns (25%) | administrative process of sending out forms, information, sending reminders, collecting and storing the forms (86%) providing training and guidance (21%) nothing (4%) |
| What do you think councillors should be responsible for when it comes to their interests returns? | complete forms accurately and submit on time (89%) seek clarification if they don’t understand something (5%) | being honest and disclosing interests accurately (91%) timely submission of returns (79%) educate themselves on the importance of and the requirements for disclosure, seek advice if necessary (14%) |
What works well | council officers providing forms and due date reminders (27%) reliable and helpful staff, a go to person, providing previous returns (17%) | process working well overall (59%) reminders (7%) having a centralised process or central contact person (5%) helping or having conversations if required (5%) |
| What doesn’t work so well | forms/legislation hard to understand – should be in plain English rather than ‘legalese’ (17%) lack of sufficient guidance (in plain English) and education (25%) paper-based system (17%) forms were often completed in a rush (for example at the start of a meeting) and thus councillors didn’t pay sufficient attention to their declarations (3%) | accuracy of disclosure and/or timeliness of submission of returns (66%) process is manual, labour intensive, inefficient (32%) councillors are not taking their obligations seriously – they have no respect for the process, lack personal accountability (27%) councillors don’t understand the requirements (13%) there is a lack of enforcement (11%) |
What do you think is the main cause of the problems you identified? | legislation/forms hard to understand, not in plain English (27%) process not given the attention it would require – there is a lack of understanding the importance of it, and it is often rushed (25%) lack of training, guidance and support by council officers (17%) there are no consequences for non- compliance (3%) | councillors don’t understand the importance of their obligations regarding interests returns (40%) lack of education, guidance – legal terms are hard to understand, simplification and examples would be required from LGV (21%) councillors are generally busy (9%) process is manual and paper-based (9%) lack of consequences/enforcement of rules (7%) |
| What do you think could be changed to improve the system? | online portal or electronic lodging system, for example a state-wide app (22%) better resources required: clearer forms and instructions, examples to increase understanding, advice hotline, video training (19%) compulsory training (14%) provide previous returns, council officers to perform cross-checks on disclosed interests (11%) sit down with officers when completing returns (5%) Concerns were raised by 8% of respondents about the privacy and safety of councillors who did not want information about their residential address be made public | education/training, e.g. an online training module (18%) forms and guidance in plain English, guidance detailed and including examples (18%) consequences – enforcement, requirement to report non-compliance to LGI, random audits (14%) automating the process: having an online portal or electronic system (13%) having a centralised system for submission (to the Inspectorate, the minister) (11%) 5% stressed that it is important to protect personal information for safety reasons |
What do you think could be changed to promote transparency? | make disclosed interests/returns available online (11%) increase what needs to be disclosed, for example, include family members’ interests (5%) | publishing summary online (16%) |
| Do you think there is sufficient guidance available to councillors on this topic? | No/more would be helpful (75%) Yes (19%) No opinion (6%) | (question not asked) |
37 Percentages do not always add up to 100% as respondents were able to provide multiple answers.
Reviewed 27 October 2021