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New model local laws
14 July 2010
The Department of Infrastructure and Planning announced the release of a new set of model local laws in October 2009 (Bulletin 18/09) following a comprehensive review of its existing 21 model local laws to ensure their currency, alignment with community aspirations and their capacity to reduce the regulatory burden on business.
Since their release, two significant issues have been identified requiring amendments to the model local laws as follows:
- Model Local Law No.2 (Animal Management) 2010
The definition of prescribed period has been amended. The definition still allows a local government to set, by subordinate local law, the period it will keep an impounded animal before selling, rehousing or ordering the destruction of the animal. However, the minimum period specified in the model local law has been reduced from 14 days to 5 days for a registered animal and 3 days for an unregistered animal.
This amendment has been made following consideration of a number of submissions made by local governments and other stakeholders following release of the model local law and the review of data obtained from local governments about current processes and the impact of retaining the 14 day minimum period.
- Model Local Law No.4 (Local Government Controlled Areas, Facilities and Roads) 2010 and Model Local Law No.7 (Indigenous Community Land Management) 2010
When these models were originally developed and released, Crown Law identified a statutory impediment to the inclusion of a provision allowing regulation of motor vehicle access in local government controlled areas, such as parks and reserves. To enable the models to be released at that time, the provisions were removed until the matter could be resolved.
The relevant provisions in the Transport Operations (Road Use Management) Act 1995 that restricted local governments from regulating this matter have now been amended. Accordingly, the provisions originally included in these models have been reinserted.
The department has taken the opportunity, given the need to re-release the abovementioned model local laws, to address minor issues identified in the other model local laws. These are aimed at clarifying intent, improving practical implementation and correcting minor referencing errors. The amendments made do not alter the overall intent of the model local laws.
The new set of models was approved by the Minister on 11 June 2010 and a notice about their approval was gazetted on 25 June 2010. The model local laws are available on the department’s website, together with a schedule of the amendments made to each model since they were originally released in October 2009.
The seven new model local laws are:
- Model Local Law No.1 (Administration) 2010
- Model Local Law No.2 (Animal Management) 2010
- Model Local Law No.3 (Community and Environmental Management) 2010
- Model Local Law No.4 (Local Government Controlled Areas, Facilities and Roads) 2010
- Model Local Law No.5 (Parking) 2010
- Model Local Law No.6 (Bathing Reserves) 2010
- Model Local Law No.7 (Indigenous Community Land Management) 2010
The new models have been drafted to be consistent with, and are reliant on, provisions of the Local Government Act 2009 and may therefore be adopted as the Act commenced on 1 July 2010.
Further information
For further information on the background to the review of model local laws and the rationale for the new framework established by the new set of model local laws, please refer to Local Government Bulletin 18/09 dated 15 October 2009.
