Circulars

What’s new or changing?

• The Office of Local Government (OLG) has a new dedicated webpage on its website for candidates at the upcoming local government elections called ‘Become a Councillor’.
• The webpage contains a range of resources for potential candidates to assist them to understand what their role and responsibilities will be as a councillor if they are elected.
• The resources include:
  • the “Stand for your Community Candidate Guide”
  • an online learning tool for prospective candidates
  • targeted candidate guides for women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people with disability, and young people.

What will this mean for council?

• It is important that prospective candidates at the upcoming local government elections understand what will be expected of them should they be elected, and the legislative boundaries they must work within.
• OLG’s Councillor Induction and Professional Development Guidelines encourage councils to conduct information campaigns and information sessions for prospective candidates within their areas.
• By conducting information campaigns and sessions for prospective candidates, councils can ensure that candidates who nominate have seriously considered whether they have the personal attributes required to fulfil the responsibilities of civic office and can effectively meet the demands of representing their community on a council.
• OLG’s Councillor Induction and Professional Development Guidelines provide detailed guidance to councils on how to conduct candidate information sessions.
• The candidate resources published on OLG’s website have been designed to assist councils in conducting candidate information campaigns in their areas and have been made available for use by councils.

Key points

• Further information and resources will be uploaded to OLG’s ‘Become a councillor’ webpage over the coming weeks.

Where to go for further information

• OLG’s Councillor Induction and Professional Development Guidelines are available here.
• For more information, visit the Become a councillor page on OLG’s website.
• For further information, contact the Council Governance Team on 4428 4100 or olg@olg.nsw.gov.au.

Brett Whitworth

Deputy Secretary

Office of Local Government