Under the Code of Conduct, certain council officials, namely councillors and designated persons, are required to disclose their personal interests in publicly available returns of interests.
Returns of interests are an important accountability and transparency mechanism for promoting community confidence in council decision making by councillors and others and for ensuring that they disclose and appropriately manage conflicts of interest they may have in matters dealt with by the council or joint organisation.
A councillor or designated person must make and lodge with the general manager a return in the form set out in schedule 2 of the Code of Conduct, disclosing the councillor’s or designated person’s interests as specified in schedule 1 to the code within 3 months after:
- becoming a councillor or designated person, and
- at 30 June of each year, and
- the councillor or designated person becoming aware of an interest they are required to disclose under schedule 1 that has not been previously disclosed in a return lodged under paragraphs (a) or (b).
Information contained in returns made and lodged under clause 4.21 of the Code of Conduct is to be made publicly available in accordance with the requirements of the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009, the Government Information (Public Access) Regulation 2009 and any guidelines issued by the Information Commissioner.