Local government in Australia

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Local government is the third level of government in Australia, administered with limited autonomy under the states and territories, and in turn beneath the federal government.^[1] Local government is not mentioned in the Constitution of Australia, and two referendums in 1974 and 1988 to alter the Constitution relating to local government were unsuccessful.^[2] Every state/territory government recognises local government in its own respective constitution.^[3] Unlike the two-tier local government system in Canada or the United States, there is (largely) only one tier of local government in each Australian state/territory, with no distinction between counties and cities.

The Australian local government is generally run by a council, and its territory of public administration is referred to generically by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as the local government area or LGA, each of which encompasses multiple suburbs or localities (roughly equivalent to neighborhoods) often of different postcodes; however, stylised terms such as "city", "borough", "region" and "shire" also have a geographic or historical interpretation. The council board members are generally known as councillors, and the head councillor is called the mayor. As of August 2016, there were 547 local councils in Australia.^[4]

Despite the (largely) single tier of local governance in Australia, there are a number of extensive regions with relatively low populations that are not a part of any established LGA. Powers of local governments in these unincorporated areas may be exercised by special-purpose governing bodies established outside of the local legislation, as with Victoria's alpine resorts; or directly administered by state/territory governments, such as the entirety of the Australian Capital Territory. The administrative area covered by local government councils in Australia ranges from as small as 1.5 km² (0.58 sq mi) for the Shire of Peppermint Grove in the Perth metropolitan region, to as big as 624,339 km² (241,059 sq mi) for the Pastoral Unincorporated Area in South Australia.

As an exception to the generalisation that Australian local government has only a single tier, New South Wales has county councils, which are special purpose local governments governing county districts composed of two or more LGAs; variously responsible for water supply, flood mitigation and weed management; formerly they also played significant role in urban planning, electricity distribution, and some also operated abattoirs. By the 21st century, only a handful remain, with the majority of New South Wales LGAs no longer belong to any county council.