About this report or communique
Report of the Auditor-General No. 8 of 2016-17
Auditor-General’s Report on the Financial Statements of State Entities
Volume 3
Local Government Authorities and Tasmanian Water and Sewerage Corporation Pty Ltd 2015-16
This Report contains the results of our audits of financial reports of entities in the local government sector, comprising the 29 councils, TasWater and seven other local government entities with a 30 June 2016 year end.
Councils were created under the Local Government Act 1993 (LGA) and provided governance, planning, service delivery, community development, asset management and local regulation to their regional areas. Councils determined service provision according to local needs and requirements of State legislation, and in some cases, established subsidiary or other entities as required to assist them achieve their objectives.
Councils vary widely in their size and location and in the broad range of community services they supply. For comparison purposes in this Report, we group them based on the Australian Classification of Local Government compressed into the five classifications used by Department of Premier and Cabinet’s Local Government Division (LGD). This classification was based upon a national standard and is updated periodically for changes in population and other determining factors. The classification groups were:
- Urban medium, with populations between 30 000 – 70 000
- Urban small, with populations of up to 30 000
- Rural agricultural, very large, with populations between 10 000 – 20 000 at a density of <30 per square kilometre
- Rural agricultural, large, with populations between 5 000 – 10 000 at a density of <30 per square kilometre
- Rural agricultural, small and medium, with populations of up to 5 000 at a density of <30 per square kilometre.