All levels of government, including local government, are required to account for their activities to the community.

Resolving issues and complaints with your local council

The Local Government Act 2009 is the legislation that governs councils in Queensland. The Act gives councils flexibility in how they make decisions and deliver services. It allows them to do this without intervention by the state government or the minister responsible for local government. Councils are accountable to the local community and must have a process for dealing with complaints fairly and quickly. Their process for management of complaints must be publicly available and transparent.

Under the new local government legislation introduced on 1 July 2010, councils must have a suitable complaints management process in place by 1 July 2011.

If you have a complaint about:

• a decision of council, or
• the service your council provides

you should contact your council's customer service area, call centre or inquiry counter which may be able to quickly address your concern.

If this does not resolve the matter to your satisfaction, it is recommended you write to the council and make an official complaint. The council is required under legislation to respond to complaints about specific actions of council in a fair and effective manner. These complaints, which must meet specific criteria, are called 'administrative action complaints'.

A complaint may be made about an administrative action of a council, which includes council decisions, actions, proposals and intentions as well as council recommendations. This also includes failure to make a decision about a matter or failure to provide a written statement for a decision.

Complaints may be made by any 'affected person'. An affected person is someone who is directly affected by the council action. To make a complaint, the person must have a direct interest in the decision.

All councils must have a complaints management process, including written policies and procedures for how they manage and respond to complaints. This process must be publicly available through the council office and website. Councils must record all complaints, whether made verbally, in writing or anonymously and must report on their complaints management process in their annual report.

Refer to your individual council for a copy of its complaints management process and to determine whether you are able to make a complaint.

Councils must respond to complaints quickly and efficiently and must be fair and impartial in their review of a complaint. The council must use transparent criteria to decide whether to investigate a complaint. Unless the complaint was made anonymously, councils must also inform the complainant about the outcome of the review and the reasons for its decisions.

If you are not satisfied with the council's response to your complaint, a review body may be able to help. However, you should always firstly refer to your local council to investigate the complaint.

Ombudsman
The Office of the Queensland Ombudsman will impartially investigate complaints against councils. It considers the administrative action of the council and determines whether the action was taken in a lawful and reasonable manner. The Ombudsman provides a free and independent service, and may make recommendations back to councils.

Typical problems referred to the Ombudsman include enforcement of local laws, roads and footpaths, drainage and flooding, sewerage, building inspections, rates and charges, access to property, garbage services, tender disputes, dog control, and some planning matters. However, the Ombudsman should be regarded as an avenue of last resort.

Anti-Discrimination Commission (Queensland)
The commission's role is to ensure the basic right of all people to fair treatment no matter what their circumstances or background. Decisions made by councils may not use gender, marital status, pregnancy, parental status, breastfeeding, age, race, impairment, religion, political beliefs, trade union activity or lawful sexual activity as the basis for disadvantaging you or treating you differently from the rest of the community.

Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC)
If you have reason to believe there has been official misconduct involving a council employee or a councillor, you should go straight to the CMC.

Official misconduct can involve carrying out duties dishonestly or in a way that lacks impartiality, or breaching the trust placed in the position, or breaching confidentiality. It may include fraud, bribery, misuse of powers and corruption. You should telephone the CMC first to ensure your concerns do constitute official misconduct, as this is a very serious charge.

The court system
There are a range of courts that could be approached for a review of your case. For example, under the Judicial Review Act 1991, you may apply to the Supreme Court to have an administrative decision or action of your council examined. You must obtain a statement of reasons for the action or decision from the council before applying for a judicial review.

The minister's role
The minister responsible for local government may take action only if the local government has acted unlawfully or corruptly, or if it cannot properly exercise its jurisdiction. The minister does not review individual decisions of councils on behalf of complainants.

Right to information (RTI)

Right to information legislation aims to allow the public to participate in government processes.

The Right to Information Act 2009 gives you the right to access documents held by ministers, state government departments, most semi-government agencies and local governments.

The department maintains a publication scheme of information publicly available from the department.

Under the Act, you are able to apply to your council:

• for access to any documents held by the council
• if you believe information held in council records about your private affairs is inaccurate, incomplete, misleading or out-of-date, you can have the information changed.

All documents must be made available except those in which a matter has been properly exempted from disclosure under RTI legislation. The council's RTI coordinator must provide you with reasons for exempting documents.

If you are dissatisfied with the RTI coordinator's decision on access to documents, you can apply for a review of the decision.

Fees are not charged for reviews or applications that are confined to your personal affairs. However, fees apply for access to non-personal documents. Charges also apply for photocopies of documents.

You can apply to your council's RTI coordinator on official forms or in writing explaining which documents are required.

See the Local government directory for information about how to contact your local council.