Overview

• Four councillors resigned on July 7, stripping the body of quorum and triggering the council’s dissolution.
• Beazley will appoint three commissioners to oversee local governance and finalise the council’s budget ahead of the October election.
• A Department of Local Government investigation into governance breaches is concluding and will guide the commissioners’ work.
• A long-running feud over a children’s hospice parkland and chronic staff turnover fuelled the council’s dysfunction.
• Former premier Colin Barnett has reignited calls to cut Western Australia’s 137 local governments, though no amalgamation plans are under consideration.