Local Government Minister Geoff Brock revealed on Thursday that 45 councillors failed to lodge their campaign returns with the Electoral Commission of South Australia (ECSA) following last November’s local government elections.

Campaign returns disclose any gifts a councillor received during their campaign for office. Gifts under $500 do not need to be disclosed, and the councillor is only required to return a form to ECSA stating “nil return”.

Under the Local Government Act 1999, failure to lodge a campaign return means a councillor is required to vacate their office barring a successful judicial appeal to the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (SACAT).

Brock told ABC News Breakfast this morning that “roughly about 40 councils” were affected and supplementary elections would be held in “six to seven weeks’ time”.

“There were four mayors, which makes it even worse,” he said.

Both Brock and ECSA have refused to name the councillors involved, with the Minister citing privacy considerations and the Commission citing the potential for proceedings in the SACAT.

The SACAT can determine the failure to submit a campaign return “arose from circumstances beyond the member’s control” and reinstate the councillor, avoiding the requirement for a supplementary election to take place.

No councillors from the City of Adelaide are involved, according to Brock’s office.

Local Government Association of South Australia (LGA) CEO Clinton Jury said he had been told both metropolitan and regional councillors were affected, although he had not been advised of who yet.

“I am assured that it is across both metro and regional, so I don’t think anybody’s been spared with this,” Jury told InDaily.

“We would hope by early next week to have a clear picture of just who was involved and what that looks like, and then we can at least try and work out what might be behind it.”

He added that the LGA is “as disappointed as the next [person]” about the situation and would “try to work towards this not happening in the future because it’s not been a problem before to the extent that it is this time around”.

The local government sector advocated for the Marshall Government to make the legislative change which gave the Electoral Commissioner responsibility for collecting campaign returns, rather than council CEOs.

Brock highlighted this point in a ministerial statement to parliament on Thursday and said this exodus of councillors “has not occurred in previous elections”.

I will be looking very closely at the legislation to make sure that this does not happen again at future local government elections.

“I understand that this change was requested by the local government sector, as it was the view of the sector that this process is more properly managed by the Electoral Commissioner… and that it was resource intensive for councils,” Brock said.

“It is important to remember that the link between not providing the return and a member’s position becoming vacant has been part of the Act since its commencement more than 20 years ago. To date, this scenario has not occurred in previous elections.

“Of course, given these events, I will be looking very closely at the legislation to make sure that this does not happen again at future local government elections.”

Jury, who took over CEO of the LGA in October 2021, said he wasn’t involved in the LGA’s previous advocacy on the issue but the changes were “centred on transparency”.

“Having this process at arm’s length certainly does make sense from that point of view,” he said.

Asked if the responsibility should be given back to council CEOs to prevent this from happening again, Jury said: “I think we’re going to have to wait for the SACAT process to take place.”

With these new changes that have come into effect over the last couple of years, we know that there’s every likelihood we might need to revisit some of what’s in there because until we experience these issues for the first time, we just don’t know what’s there.

“At the back end of that process, I would hope we’d have a much clearer picture of just what the issue is at the moment,” he said.

“But once we know that, then we’ll know whether it’s an issue of communication, if it’s an issue of access, or is it an issue that’s overly complex that we need to look at.”

He also said the Marshall Government’s 2021 local government reforms had led to “unintended consequences” that would need to be reviewed.

The LGA has also been critical of a Marshall Government scheme, introduced as a compromise to rate capping, which demands some councils pay upwards of $45,000 for “advice” about rates and spending. 

“With these new changes that have come into effect over the last couple of years, we know that there’s every likelihood we might need to revisit some of what’s in there because until we experience these issues for the first time, we just don’t know what’s there,” he said.

“So we’ll certainly be making a number of submissions around some tweaks that could be looked at just to make things run a little bit more smoothly.”

Jury said the LGA would look at changes to the campaign returns process separately to issues such as elections and “administrative” problems.

“There’s some quite detailed administrative bits that are in there as well and I think there’s been some unintended consequences,” he said.

“But we’ll be talking to our members more broadly, the council’s come back with a consolidated view on that.”

Opposition local government spokesperson Sam Telfer, who was president of the LGA from 2018 to 2020, defended the Marshall Government’s legislative changes.

He said a “failed process” was to blame for the councillor exodus, not “faulty legislation”.

“I’m amazed that Geoff Brock can be in the position of only finding out that this week that there’s issues like this in the local government sector,” Telfer told reporters this morning.

“Suddenly, the whole sector and the whole state has been put in this state of confusion.

Asked about whether he expected this would be fallout of changes he advocated for as a former LGA president, Telfer criticised ECSA for not being proactive enough.

“The responsibility for elected members for declaration of gifts or declaration of conflicts of interest hasn’t changed,” he said

“The legislation changed the process, but the Electoral Commission should have been a lot more proactive with their processes.”

In a statement on Thursday, ECSA said it provides “extensive guidance” to candidates on campaign returns.

“More than 1200 candidates nominated for the 2022 Local Government Elections and of those, the vast majority have complied with the legislative requirements,” it said.

“It is the elected members responsibility to ensure that they understand and comply with the relevant legislation. ECSA provides extensive guidance to candidates to assist them to meet their legislative obligations.”

ABC Radio Adelaide reported this morning that newly-elected Prospect Mayor Matthew Larwood was one of the mayors who failed to submit his campaign returns.

Larwood told InDaily he had not been formally advised of this but was seeking legal advice on a potential appeal if the report was accurate. He declined to comment further.

Additional reporting by Angela Skujins