Make a complaint about council operations

You can make a complaint about council operations that breach local government legislation, or where a council member breaches the Code of Conduct.

Breaches of the code must be referred to your council.

Breach of legislation can be referred to the Local Government Unit.

Make a complaint of a breach of the Code of Conduct

You can make a complaint about a council matter or a member of the council if you believe the Code of Conduct under the Local Government Act 2019 has been breached.

The code governs the conduct of:

• council members
• audit committee members
• council committee members
• local authority members.

Read the code of conduct PDF (117.8 KB).

Complaints about council members go to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the relevant council.

You must make a complaint within 3 months after the date of the alleged breach.

To make a complaint, follow these steps:

Step 1. Fill in the breach of Code of Conduct complaint form including the statutory declaration. You will need to give full details of the alleged breach.

Breach of code of conduct complaint form PDF (47.4 KB)
Breach of code of conduct complaint form DOCX (29.1 KB).

Step 2. Submit the form, statutory declaration and any supporting documents by email, mail or hand in to the CEO of the council.

You should request confirmation that the council has received your complaint.

Breach of local government legislation

The Local Government Unit will look into complaints about a council that are in potential breach of legislative requirements.

It does not investigate complaints about councils’ decisions or processes unless there is an allegation of a breach of the local government legislation. You should otherwise discuss these matters with your council.

We will assess your complaint and respond as needed. We may contact you for more information.

You can report anonymously if you wish, but we won’t be able to give you updates and it may make it difficult for us to look into your complaint if we can’t contact you.

Depending on the nature of your complaint, we may not be able to provide detailed feedback on the outcome, but we will let you know that we have taken action.

Make a complaint

To make a complaint, complete the online form.

Contact the Local Government Unit if you would like to discuss breaches of council legislation,
by phone 08 8999 8571 or email lgquestions.cmc@nt.gov.au.