Organisations--Local Government

Local governments or “councils” chief responsibilities are usually provision of community facilities such as libraries and parks, maintenance of local roads, town planning and development approvals, and local services such as waste disposal.

Local government activities are financed by collection of local land taxes known as “rates” and by grants from the state and Commonwealth governments. Local government powers are determined by state governments, and states have primary responsibility for funding and exclusive responsibility for supervision of local councils. Local governments are subdivisions of the states and the Northern Territory. The Australian Capital Territory has no separate local governments; and functions in Canberra and the surrounding area normally performed by state and local governments are performed there by the territorial government of the Australian Capital Territory.

Although they are all essentially identical in function, Australian local governments have a variety of names. The term “local government area” is used to refer collectively to all local governments regardless of status, whilst the local governing body itself is generally known as a council. Today, the styles “borough”, “city”, “district”, “municipality”, “region”, “shire”, “town”, “community government”, “Aboriginal shire” and “Island” are used in addition to areas/councils without a specific style.

All local governments are approximately equal in their theoretical powers, although LGAs that encompass large cities such as Brisbane and Gold Coast Cities command more resources due to their larger population base. Unlike local governments in many other countries, services such as police, fire protection and schools are provided by state or territory government rather than by local councils.