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The South Australian government's timeline to transition the District Council of Coober Pedy out of administration is set to be discarded — without any new end date being set.
The South Australian government has introduced a bill to indefinitely delay Coober Pedy council's transition out of administration. The timeline to transition the District Council of Coober Pedy out of administration has been indefinitely delayed.
The Far North South Australian town had been due to participate in the 2027 local government elections. The state government says a recent bill introduced into parliament would facilitate a hybrid model of governance. The government's timeline to transition the Coober Pedy council out of administration is set to be scrapped — and no new end date has been fixed.
The remote Far North council was suspended and an administrator appointed in 2019 but Coober Pedy had been due to participate in the April 2027 local government elections, which would have marked the end of the administration. Local Government Minister Rhiannon Pearce told parliament the council was not ready to be handed back over.
"The principal administrator has advised me in the strongest possible terms of his concerns about the readiness of Coober Pedy council to return to an elected body at the next period local government elections, given the seriousness and the complexity of the issues the administrators are working to rectify," she said. ABC News: Lincoln RothallThe council was suspended in 2019 by the former Liberal government in response to soaring debt and findings of maladministration.
Ms Pearce said those issues were exacerbated by Coober Pedy's unique position as the only council in the state responsible for delivering essential services like water and electricity. Water delivery will be transferred to SA Water by the end of this year, while discussions are underway with the Department for Energy and Mining over electricity supply.
The move to prolong the administration comes despite "a high degree of assurance" from previous local government minister Joe Szakacs that the government "will ensure" the administration ends in 2026 — the original date for the scheduled council elections. Ms Pearce said the recent bill would allow for more flexibility around the timing of the transition, and would also facilitate a hybrid model of governance.
"Having travelled to Coober Pedy to meet with community leaders, they expressed a strong desire for a staged transition back to an elected council,"Administrator Patrick Conlon said the most significant challenges faced by the council were water delivery and debt management. "I think that there are sufficient indications of progress on the water front and the debt front to suggest that shouldn't be too far into next year," he said.
George Kountouris, chair of the Coober Pedy Retail, Business and Tourism Association, agreed the council was not yet ready to exit administration.
"We would be in a mess again because we owe a lot of money and that still has to be sorted. Caravan park owner Jason Wright felt the administration had gone on too long, and said the majority of residents were "over it".
"But they have to put the things in place to make that transition easy for the local people. "
Administration Far North Election Rhiannon Pearce Patrick Conlon George Kountouris Local Government Elections Opal City
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