Gift and travel declaration is still confusing and could lead to more situations like the one Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi faces despite recently enacted legislation, according to Armadale mayor Henry Zelones.
A Department of Local Government report released this month laid 45 allegations of breaches of the Local Government Act to Ms Scaffidi over her failure to disclose gifts and contributions to more than 35 trips.
Ms Scaffidi looks set to stand before the State Administrative Tribunal where she could face disciplinary action.
Recent changes to the Local Government Act and the introduction of the City of Perth Act now require elected members to disclose gifts or travel more than $200 within 10 days and publish them online.
Under the legislation the word gifts has a loose definition and could mean birthday presents from extended family members would have to be declared.
Mr Zelones said there was a lot of confusion in the sector.
“The interpretation guidelines go to areas they’ve never gone before which is not fair because it just adds another area of confusion,” he said.
“There’s two results of that, either you’re going to have a lot of people falling foul of it or you’re going to have a reluctance of candidates to declare. In my case, if my granddaughter, who is not a blood relative, gives me a gift over $50 I’ve got to put it up on the website and I find that obnoxious.”
He also said there should be a tool where councillors can declare travel and gifts on the run so they could meet the 10-day deadline.
Mr Zelones said despite the overarching legislation councils across the state had different forms of logging declarations, which confused ratepayers.
“You can’t have 139 different interpretations, the form and log should be the same so everyone knows what it is,” he said.
