Local Government Minister Nic Street has told a budget estimates committee that he believes the state has too many councils.
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Mr Street expressed his view on Wednesday when asked whether the local government review, which was due to soon produce an interim report, would yield a position on council amalgamations.
"My personal opinion is that 29 councils is probably too many," he said.
"It's less than an ideal setup. I don't think I'm going out on a limb there."
He added the government would await on what the interim report proposed on the necessity and desirability of amalgamations, though confirmed the government would not force amalgamations to occur.
Mr Street agreed with Labor's local government spokeswoman Anita Dow that the behaviour of councillors and the code of conduct process were often portrayed negatively in the media.
He said 55 per cent of all complaints of code of conduct complaints for 2020-21 were dismissed, and so far this year, 46 per cent of assessed complaints had been dismissed at the initial assessment phase.
Mr Street said the government was working to reform the Local Government Act to make changes in six key areas of the code of conduct framework.
He said this would include the implementation of local dispute resolution processes.
"Quite frankly, a lot of issues that exist in terms of complaints against councils can be dealt with at the local level most efficiently, but we want to have a code of conduct framework in place to deal with the more serious allegations and complaints," Mr Street said.
In addition to this, he said the government was working on policies to assist with managing challenging behaviors in the sector.
Mr Street said workplace culture problems for elected representatives and bullying behaviour had deterred potential candidates for standing for elections.
"There have been council elections in different municipalities where there have been more more positions available than they've had candidates," he said.
"So there has been an election that has just basically appointed people - the [Tasmanian Electoral Commission] have appointed people.
"It's not healthy for democracy."
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Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
Political reporter for Australian Community Media, based in Hobart.
