1 March 2015 marked the 20th anniversary of the Public Interest Disclosures Act 1994 (PID Act), an important milestone for integrity and accountability of the NSW public sector. This milestone presents a timely opportunity for General Managers to increase staff awareness by promoting their Councils’ internal reporting policy and procedures.

Your Council – Profile & Performance of the NSW Local Government Sector 2013/14 report and supporting data has been released. The report provides councils and their community with information on key measures of local government performance.

The NSW Department of Justice has received advice from the Crown Solicitor that, pursuant to the provisions of the Civil Procedure Regulation 2012, the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) and the Local Government Act 1993, councils must pay the corporate fee when filing a matter in a court or tribunal. Courts and tribunals have been instructed to charge councils the corporate fee, as opposed to the standard fee, from 1 July 2015. This fee will not be back-dated.

The next rounds of the NSW Government’s Fixing Country Roads grants program are expected to award up to $500 million over a ten year period. This will be complemented by a $400 million Fixing Country Rail program, targeting upgrades to the rail network connecting country NSW to ports.

The 2015/16 Calendar of Compliance and Reporting Requirements is now available for councils. The Calendar includes key statutory and other reporting deadlines for all general purpose councils.

IPART has issued the final methodology for its assessment of councils’ Fit for the Future proposals, as well as details about the proposal submission that will be through an online portal.

On 2 December 2014, the Independent Regulatory and Pricing Tribunal announced the 2015/16 rate-peg limit of 2.4%. The Special Schedule 9 Permissible Income Workpapers have been updated accordingly. The rate-peg for 2015/16 will be used to calculate the Permissible Income that will be reported and audited with the Financial Statements for 2014/15.

The NSW Government has committed $900,000 over 3 years to the Responsible Pet Ownership Grants Program (2014-15 through to 2016-17). Applications for the second year of funding for the program can now be made.

The Minister for Local Government, the Hon Paul Toole MP, has determined the maximum Boarding House Tariffs and maximum interest rate chargeable on overdue rates and charges for 2015/16.

The Minister for Local Government has announced that the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) will undertake the role of the Expert Panel in assessing councils’ Fit for the Future proposals. IPART will be inviting submissions on the proposed assessment methodology.