00:00Cracking down on dysfunction and chaos with new far-reaching powers that councils have not had
00:08to contend with before. I'm looking at all 139 local governments so we'll look at what issues
00:14pop up and how we can assist those local governments and you know do we need to send a
00:19monitor in. Appointed by the Governor Mr Brown has been given new powers to intervene at the first
00:26sign of trouble. He can send in monitors to any council, investigate complaints, issue fines and
00:33recommend the suspension or dismissal of councillors and even entire councils. Having another tool at
00:40our disposal through the inspector and the office of the inspectorate is incredibly valuable in terms
00:46of addressing that dysfunction but also building capability and capacity. The sector was plagued
00:52with problems last year. Nedlands and Port Hedland councils were sacked and replaced with three
00:57commissioners while the shire of Koolgaardy narrowly avoided suspension after significant financial
01:03problems. While the inspector is tight-lipped he's indicated Perth's flagship council the city of Perth
01:10is on his list. We'd be very happy to work with the city of Perth and send someone in to assist them
01:18go through whatever issues they have and ways to address those issues. The city made headlines after
01:25Mayor Bruce Reynolds gave councillors just six minutes notice about his intention to order a
01:30$125,000 independent workplace culture review in November. He later abandoned those plans after a public
01:38backlash while self-referring the matter to Mr Brown. The opposition is supportive of the inspector's
01:44new role but sceptical change will follow. I do have some concern around why it's taken so long
01:51for the office to be set up considering this was touted some four years ago and time will tell how
01:58effective it really really is. Mr Brown will hold the position for five years.
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