Local government in New South Wales
The Sydney Corporation was formed in 1842, an elected body to manage primary services such as street lighting and drainage.
Reforms included providing enfranchisement for women and for residents who did not own property in the LGA, standardising land valuation systems, and the introduction of ordinances.
The Barnett Committee Review of Local Government Areas, conducted during 1973-74, sought to create stronger economic LGAs through a substantial reduction in council numbers.
[3] Completed by the NSW Local Government Boundaries Commission, this review focused on the efficiencies in the mergers of rural and regional councils and the anticipated economies of scale in service provision.
[3] Triggered by a paper issued by the NSW Local Government and Shires Association, twenty-one councils reviewed their own position and explored three options including the status quo, models for resource sharing and a merger.
Despite recommendations for mergers, with the Carr government maintaining a no-forced amalgamation policy, no mergers transpired until late 2008 when Sproats was invited to review his earlier paper, including revisiting the controversial proposal to amalgamate the City of Sydney Council with the South Sydney City Council.
[8] Releasing its final report in October 2015, the IPART reviewed submissions from local government authorities and others with a view towards establishing authorities that have the scale and capacity to engage effectively across community, industry and government, are sustainable and efficient, and that effectively manage infrastructure and deliver services for local communities.
[14][15] On the same day, the Governor of New South Wales acted on the advice of the Minister, and proclaimed the 19 new local government areas.
Mosman, Hunters Hill, North Sydney, Ku-ring-gai, Woollahra, Oberon and Walcha councils also challenged the Government's amalgamations.
[21] During the 2021 local elections, the online voting system "iVote" had technical issues that caused some access problems for some voters.
[22] This failure caused the NSW Government to suspend the iVote system from use in the 2023 New South Wales state election.
County councils are established by groups of local government areas which wish to cooperate in the provision of certain services.
Under current legislation, county councils can only exist for specific purposes, which must be identified by the proclamation of the Governor which establishes them; but, it is possible for a single county council to two or more unrelated functions (e.g. both water supply and weed management), provided all those functions are specifically enumerated in the proclamation which established it.
