Local Government

Clive Palmer has lost a more than three-year legal battle with the Gold Coast City Council, which would have seen 3,000 new dwellings built next to a sewage treatment plant.

The fight over the looming closure of a critical women's crisis centre in Perth next week escalates, with Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas insisting it is what his community wants.

Councillors from outside Sydney are accused of making discriminatory comments during a state conference debate about a support network for LGBTQIA+ representatives and drag story time events.

Outback Queensland mayors say a "governmental, legal conundrum" could lead to a huge increase in the cost of roadworks as they scramble to form land use agreements for hundreds of gravel pits.

The 25-year-old Pakenham saleyards are the closest of their kind to the city and handle up to 100,000 cattle destined for supermarket shelves each year. But they will close in 2024, in a foreboding sign for saleyards in general.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner reveals more details about where his council will cut $400 million in spending this financial year, while simultaneously announcing a multi-million-dollar cost increase to the Moggill Road upgrade at Indooroopilly.

Former Department of Housing contractor Craig Robert Dale pleads guilty to defrauding the remote Kimberley community of Warmun to the tune of $2.7 million.

Irrigators who have for more than a decade been fighting "death by 1,000 cuts" water buybacks say it won't just be those on farms who are hurt by proposed changes to the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

Emergency services were called to a park in Zeehan on Monday afternoon where a council worker was found under a mower.

Jaimen Hudson has helped bring international recognition to beaches near Esperance. But the local filmmaker, who lives with quadriplegia, struggles to access one of its most iconic stretches of coastline.

Labor insists it will not form a coalition with the minor party ahead of next year's local election while the LNP administration also says it will not do any deals with anyone.

In 2023, about 90 per cent of Australians can access fluoridated water — but only 72 per cent of Queenslanders do.

Regional towns look to local government for a creative solution to bank closures.

A church elder and a homeless man have called on the City of Bunbury to help those in need, after the controversy caused by its attempts to drive away rough sleepers from a public soundshell with children's music.

With cash and change now a 700-kilometre round trip away, community groups and businesses in Tom Price are donating, bartering and looking for any available solution after the town's bank branch closed.

A council in Melbourne's inner south-east will begin painting over a mural which has faced criticism for its resemblance to "highly offensive" anti-Semitic caricatures and tropes.

It's taken two years and the Tasmanian government has already ruled out forced amalgamations, but an extensive local government review identifies 12 councils suitable to merge.

More than 1,000 signatures have been added to call for a strip club to be stopped from opening in the heart of Albury. But its would-be proprietor says the town "really needs one".

The hospital has closed the services after more than 100 years of operation, prompting fears it will further strain nearby hospitals and deter families from moving to the area.

The City of Whyalla Council wants to demolish the Westlands United Soccer Club's grounds to make way for a tourism and housing development, but intervention by the town's local member has bought the club some time.

Many in this community booming with treechangers are demanding a moratorium on residential development, fearing new arrivals will put further pressure on their dwindling creek water supply.

Dozens of infrastructure projects across the country have been scrapped by the federal government in an effort to contain spending.

By popular demand, the artificial swimming lake in South Australia's south-east will be refilled for the school holidays, while the council looks to fix leaks that went undiscovered for years because of a misread water meter.

The Queensland Audit Office reports that the state's councils over the past five years have found assets such as vast stretches of road, lost due to administrative blunders.

The Shire of Dundas considers reversing its decision to cut support to its Norseman-based GP of 17 years after the FIFO medical service it backed to replace him runs into financial trouble.