The Independent Assessor

The Independent Assessor (IA), Bronwyn Blagoev, is the head of the Office of the Independent Assessor.

The IA is accountable to the Minister for Local Government and is not subject to direction by another person in regard to exercising the IA’s powers under the Local Government Act 2009 (LG Act).

The OIA was established under the Local Government (Councillor Complaints) and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2018 as part of the Queensland Government’s commitment to local government reform.

The IA’s functions and powers include:

• to assess complaints about councillors of a conduct breach, misconduct or corrupt conduct when such complaints are referred to the OIA by the CCC
• to refer suspected conduct breaches back to councils to resolve
• to investigate misconduct complaints
• to undertake a natural justice process to give councillors an opportunity to respond to complaints before possible referral to the Councillor Conduct Tribunal (CCT) which decides misconduct matters
• to prepare applications for hearing by the CCT
• OIA investigative powers are available for misconduct investigations and the investigation of statutory offences
• to investigate other matters as decided by the Minister and any other functions given to the IA under the LG Act.