Residents in some South Australian council areas could be going to the polls for a fifth time in barely a year, because of a bungle involving gift disclosure paperwork.
Three mayors have been caught up in the debacle that could cost the jobs of almost 50 elected members across 36 councils, both in Adelaide and regional areas.
Under state law, gifts over $500 must be reported — but candidates who do not receive any gifts are still required to submit returns to the Electoral Commission of South Australia (ECSA).
In a statement to parliament, Local Government Minister Geoff Brock yesterday said 46 mayors and councillors elected last November had not done so.
Their positions could be declared vacant, meaning some voters could be facing a potential fifth election in 12 months.
After casting ballots in the March state election, the May federal election, the November council elections, as well as supplementary council elections prompted by a lack of candidates in some local government areas, voters could now be called upon to re-elect councillors in affected wards.
"Once we've had the general election which was in November then there were still vacancies, so certain councils then had to go out through the Electoral Commissioner for nominations to fill those unfilled positions," Mr Brock told ABC Radio Adelaide this morning.
"That was a supplementary election and that's going on at the moment as we speak.
"There are councils now that will have a third [council] election and that's a financial impost specifically for smaller regional councils in particular."
Mr Brock said the issue had been caused by the fact that dozens of councillors failed to disclose their gift registry to ECSA following last November's council elections.
He said that those implicated would have the opportunity to appeal — but if those appeals were knocked back, council elections would have to be re-held.
"They've got an opportunity to appeal to the SACAT (South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal)," he said.
"If that commissioner decides to [say], 'Oh, you had extreme circumstances,' so therefore they may allow them to continue on.
"If not, those particular people have to then go for another election and unfortunately some of these people … my information is, there were four mayors."
Mr Brock said the state's electoral commissioner, Mick Sherry, was in contact with all the councils.
"The electoral commissioner is now talking to the chief executive officers of those councils to advise them that these particular people … can't attend council meetings," Mr Brock said.
Mr Sherry later clarified there were three mayors affected not four, as Mr Brock said, and 45 elected members rather than the 46 Mr Brock mentioned.
Mr Sherry said most of the elected members had lodged their returns later rather than not at all.
'Nothing nefarious, just an oversight'
Ted Jennings, who was elected as a councillor for Burnside last year but is one of those who have been impacted, said he had taken no donations.
He said his failure was not accepting undisclosed gifts but failing to submit paperwork in the correct way, and he was critical of the process.
"It was a bit of a shock to get a phone call from my excellent CEO last night. I submitted my form a couple of days ago — yes it was late, I did receive a registered letter from the postie," he told ABC Radio Adelaide.
"It didn't have a self-return envelope in it which would have made it a lot simpler.
"I submitted it with my phone, I scanned the document, I also took no donations.
"I'll probably write to Mr Brock and just explain my situation and hopefully this can all be resolved because there is nothing nefarious that has happened – it's just a complete oversight."
Opposition MP Sam Telfer said the situation was a result of a "catastrophic failure" of the system set up to facilitate disclosure declarations.
He said he had spoken to several councillors who had submitted their forms, but missed the deadline.
"A lot of these people that are now saying they've been told, 'Your position is vacant', they've got their forms posted in and the Electoral Commission has said, 'Sorry, we didn't receive it in time'," he said.
"If you live in a regional area, you don't get your mail very often and a lot of these ones that I've been talking to overnight actually got this reminder on the day that it was due.
"They get on the Electoral Commission portal — that crashes, that fails."
Local Government Association CEO Clinton Jury said there had been a recent change to the system which may have caught out candidates.
He said the gift disclosure form was formerly sent by councillors to council CEOs, but they now have to submit them directly to the Electoral Commission "through the portal".
"There is a large portion [of councillors] that did manage that process," he said.
"[But] we need to look at the process of submission perhaps, and I think once all of the SACAT hearings go through we're going to have a better indication of what we're actually dealing with, in terms of what challenges people had."
Mr Brock, who is himself a former mayor, said the elected members had been advised of the disclosure requirement 12 times during and after the election, including in letters sent via registered mail.
That letter said their positions would become vacant if they did not submit their returns.
