NSW New Court Hearings and Legal Actions for Councillor Misconduct

Local Government and Other Legislation Amendment (Councillor Conduct) Bill 2025

14 Oct 2025: MPs in the first house are debating whether this bill is a good idea in principle.

Legislative Council

Legislative Assembly

Assent

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Topics

councillor conduct disciplinary action government ethics local government public interest proceedings

Introduced by: The Hon Tara Moriarty MLC (ALP)

Links to official parliament websites

Official page: progress through parliament

Official page: bill text and explanatory notes

Effects of this bill

If this bill passes, it means that:

Relevant persons can start public interest proceedings against a councillor in the Land and Environment Court.
The Land and Environment Court can suspend a councillor if it is in the public interest.
The Land and Environment Court can make disciplinary orders against a councillor.
Evidence from these proceedings cannot be used in criminal cases against the councillor.
Public interest proceedings must stop if criminal proceedings start for the same conduct.
The Chief Executive of the Office of Local Government can investigate councillor conduct.
The Land and Environment Court takes over jurisdiction from the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

News articles and press releases

Local Government and Other Legislation Amendment (Councillor Conduct) Bill 2025

The Hon. TARA MORIARTY, Minister for Agriculture — 2025-10-14

The primary objectives of this bill are to transfer the jurisdiction for councillor misconduct matters from NCAT to the Land and Environment Court, to introduce a new category of public interest proceedings and to empower the Land and Environment Court to impose stronger penalties on councillors found to have engaged in serious misconduct. Schedule 1 to the bill amends the Local Government Act. Item [1] and items [10] to [15], together with the amendments to the dictionary proposed in item [50], update the provisions that define the circumstances in which a person may be disqualified from holding public office or suspended from public office.