Challenges faced by councils.
Recent Auditor-General reports show that reporting pressure on councils is not just theoretical. Audit findings, control weaknesses and unresolved matters point to the need for stronger alignment between planning, implementation, evidence and year-round reporting.
What the Auditor-General reports tell us about the real reporting pressure on councils
The Auditor-General’s recent local government reporting gives a practical picture of where councils are under pressure. In the 2023–24 local government audit cycle, 91.5% of financial statements were submitted on time. In the same cycle, 116 audit findings were raised, and 93 of those findings — 80.17% — related to internal control environments, including oversight, risk assessment, segregation of duties and independent review of reconciliations.
The previous year showed similar stress points. In the 2022–23 audit results, Local Government recorded 100 audit findings, including 14 high-risk findings. Those are not abstract indicators. They point to pressure in the systems, controls and review mechanisms that support sound reporting and compliance.
The pressure is not evenly distributed across the sector. In the Auditor-General’s 2021–22 local government commentary, rural councils were highlighted as a concern, with average growth in expenses outpacing average growth in revenue over a four-year period. That matters because limited financial capacity and tight resourcing make it harder to maintain strong planning, evidence, controls and reporting disciplines year after year.
Taken together, the audit story is clear. Councils do not just need help at annual report time. They need stronger year-round alignment between planning, implementation, controls, evidence and review. That is especially true for smaller councils trying to meet growing expectations with limited internal capacity.
Source: Auditor‑General Reports, Tasmania, 2021–2024.
A need to improve.
LGAT’s reform submissions reinforce a clear message from the sector: councils may support reform in principle, but implementation will require time, capability and resourcing. For many councils, the real challenge is translating additional requirements into workable planning, reporting and assurance arrangements.
What LGAT’s reform submissions say about council capacity
LGAT’s recent submissions make one point very clearly: reform may be necessary, but councils will need the time, capability and resourcing to implement it properly. In its March 2024 response to the Future of Local Government Review Final Report, LGAT said delivery of the recommendations would require substantial additional resourcing and that the proposed roadmap timeframes were overly optimistic.
That message continued in LGAT’s 2025 submission on targeted reforms to the Local Government Act. LGAT said several proposed measures would have a material impact on councils’ resources or require external capabilities to develop. The examples it gave included a Workplace Development Strategy, Community Engagement Strategy, internal audit function, and changes to mandatory rates notice information where software changes would be required. LGAT also said the sector would need time to develop the capacity to respond.
This matters because, for many councils, reform is not experienced as one isolated change. It arrives on top of existing planning, reporting, compliance and service delivery responsibilities. What can look straightforward on paper may be much harder to implement in a small organisation with limited internal capacity, competing priorities and a small executive or corporate team.
That is why practical support matters. Councils do not just need more requirements translated into new documents. They need workable structures, realistic sequencing, and planning and reporting approaches that fit their scale, systems and resourcing.
Source: LGAT Submission on Local Government Act Targeted Reforms, 2025.
Future of Local Government Review.
Tasmania’s Future of Local Government Review highlights growing pressure on councils to connect strategic planning, implementation, annual planning and reporting. For smaller and regional councils, the challenge is not simply preparing plans, but creating practical systems that can be sustained within limited capacity.
Why planning and reporting is becoming harder for councils to hold together
Councils are required to do far more than set a long-term direction. Under Tasmania’s current local government framework, they must prepare and review a strategic plan, maintain long-term financial and asset planning documents, prepare an annual plan each year, and produce an annual report. In practice, that means planning, delivery, reporting and assurance all need to work together, not as separate exercises.
The Future of Local Government Review shows why this has become difficult. In its Stage 1 work, the Review heard that some reporting requirements were costly to meet, inconsistent with other reporting requirements, and failed to properly capture important council activity. It also found an absence of meaningful accountability for a range of council functions, services and capability measures.
By Stage 2, the Review was more direct. It said Tasmania’s local government performance reporting and monitoring framework was well overdue and that current reporting and monitoring deficits needed improvement, particularly around service levels and quality. It also pointed to significant variation in statutory planning compliance, including that less than half of councils had a current Long Term Strategic Asset Management Plan.
The Final Report continues that theme. It recommends streamlining existing reporting obligations and considering a digital reporting interface to reduce manual collection exercises, while also highlighting the need to strengthen audit panel and oversight capability.
For smaller and regional councils, this is not just a governance issue. It is a practical capacity issue. The real challenge is not simply preparing the next plan, but creating a workable connection between strategic direction, annual planning, delivery and reporting that can be sustained over time.
Source: Future of Local Government Review & Local Government Board Reports, Tasmanian Government, 2022–2023.