YARRIAMBIACK Shire residents could see the make up of their council reshaped, following the enacting of the state government's reforms to the sector into law.
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The Local Government Act (2020) passed state parliament on Tuesday, and is considered biggest overhaul to council legislation in three decades.
Under the act, all 79 of Victoria's councils must adopt updated governance rules, expenses and transparency policies by September 1. The training for candidates at October's council elections has also been made mandatory for the first time.
Mayor Graeme Massey said Yarriambiack might not be able to retain its existing ward structure of seven councillors across three wards. In the shire, the Warracknabeal ward is represented by one more councillor than the other two.
"It looks like councils are going to be given the choice of whether to have unsubdivided or wards with equal numbers of members," he said.
"(Equal numbers) would not work in Yarriambiack - it would be a logistical nightmare involving splitting Warracknabeal into three to balance the population - so we could be going back to unsubdivided.
"It may not prove a problem because where councils are unsubdivided they tend to get people from outlying districts voted in anyway. Whatever happens, it won't affect this October's election - in 2024 we will go to whatever structure is applied to us."
Hindmarsh Shire mayor Rob Gersch said the ward provisions would not affect Hindmarsh Shire, which has six councillors across three wards. He was supportive of the compulsory training.
"Another good change is the minister before only had the right to sack a full council, now they have the right to sack individual councillors," he said.
"I think it's unfair to sack a whole council when a lot of times it's only an individual councillor causing trouble."
West Wimmera Shire Bruce Meyer said he was waiting to see the full detail of what the pre-election mandatory training was.
"If it is simply code of conduct issues like that people have to be aware of before they stand as a candidate that is fine, I don't have an issue with that,' he said.
"There are things like conflict of interest and behavioural matters they are trying to address. Conflict of interest are often misunderstood and in grey areas, so any clarity given on those issues would only be beneficial."
Horsham Rural City mayor Mark Radford said he understood people would have the opportunity to nominate to run for a council after they had completed the compulsory training.
"Being in council is a big commitment, and especially for people new to the system, it's important to understand what you are putting your hand up for," he said.
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