Queensland Local Government Areas

The first areas of local government in Queensland appeared before the separation of the state from the colony of New South Wales in 1859 . By 1879, almost all of Queensland's districts were under the control of a local government, either as municipalities established under the Local Government Act of 1878 , or counties established under the District Government Act of 1879 . With the adoption of the Law on Local Self-Government Bodies of 1902 , which repealed both previous laws and expanded the powers of the councils over the areas controlled by them, municipalities received the status of small urban territories ( English town ; if they did not have the status of an urban territory). and the counties became counties ( English shire ) on March 31, 1903 . In 1915 - 1917, and again in 1949, local government in the southeast and extreme north of Queensland underwent significant changes. Although various areas of local self-government still existed, at the time the Law on Local Self-Government came into force in 1936, they, in essence, were only a designation of the territory, and their bodies did not carry out any practical functions. The status of an urban territory ( English city ) to a settlement was assigned by the governor, subject to a number of conditions.

In 1923, a number of local authorities in Brisbane were united in the Brisbane District , which at that time covered the entire metropolitan area. His council, the Brisbane City Council , actually became a “super-council,” which was endowed with a number of powers, usually within the competence of the state. The Brisbane Council is currently governed by the Brisbane District Act of 1924 , and the city has a population of over 1 million. However, due to the growing population and suburbs, almost half of Brisbane’s capital actually lives in neighboring areas such as Ipswich , Logan , Morton Bay and Redland , which are all governed by the Local Government Act.

In 1989, the Commission on Electoral and Administrative Reform was created, the main task of which was to study and prepare a report on a number of reforms in Queensland public administration, and one of its areas of activity was to study the Local Government Act 1936 and the boundaries of local councils. As a result, according to her recommendations, the Gossa Labor Government united some of the councils and adopted the new 1993 Local Government Act .

Indigenous Councils

In the mid-80s, with the adoption of the 1984 Social Security Act (Torres Strait) and the 1984 Social Security (Aboriginal) Act , many former Aboriginal reservations and missions (especially in the Cape York region ) and several Torres Strait islands were granted the opportunity to create their own communities. Formally recognized governing bodies known as indigenous community councils have been created to manage land. These bodies had very different responsibilities compared to traditional local authorities, due to the peculiarities of land ownership and differences in the relationship between the council and the community. In 2005–07, these same bodies became the “Councils of Aboriginal Counties” and the “Island Councils” and received additional powers inherent in the traditional authorities. A significant number of them were consolidated in 2008 either in the Torres Straight Islands Region or in the North Peninsula Region Region , which are vested with special powers under the Local Government Act in relations with lower-level community councils.

2007 Reforms

In April 2007, the Beatty government began an extensive process of reforming local governments, according to a report from the Local Government Reform Commission . This was partly due to the large number of financially weak advice with a small population in rural areas created earlier, when industry and the population justified their creation. The Commission’s next report, dated July 27, 2007, contained recommendations for mass unification throughout the state into “regions,” governed by regional councils and concentrated on major cities or centers, based on a number of criteria, such as savings due to production growth, common interests and financial sustainability. Some changes occurred in much larger areas, for example, Sunshine Coast was managed by one authority instead of three, Bodezert county was divided into urban / planned urban and rural sections and annexed to other areas, two neighboring towns of Townsville and Tering were merged into one.

All these processes took place not without resistance in many of the affected areas, there was a threat of interference from the Howard federal government , which financed the plebiscites for the unification in December 2007, which in most cases received negative votes regarding the unification, but not counted due to the turnout below the minimum allowed by Australian referendum law.

On August 10, 2007, the recommendations of the unification commission received legal force in the Law on Local Self-Government (Reform) of 2007 with minor changes to the names. In each new district, a “Local Transition Committee” (MCP) was created, consisting of advisers and staff from the original districts, and on March 15, 2008, the old posts officially ceased to exist and elections were held for the posts in the new councils.

• Counties of Australia
• Queensland Local Government Association