Conduct and ethics

The City of Stirling is serious about preventing misconduct, corruption, and fraud. The City has a separate Code of Conduct for Elected Members and employees in their dealings with the community and others, as well as a Statement of Business Ethics to manage our relations with suppliers.

The City has established a dedicated hotline for reporting alleged misconduct, corruption, or fraud. The City will fully investigate all reports and treat them with the utmost confidentiality. Persons disclosing misconduct or corruption-related matters are protected from reprisal or detrimental action by the Corruption and Crime Commission Act 2003 and other ‘whistle blower’ protection laws.

Codes of Conduct

Under the Local Government Act 1995, the City is required to adopt separate Codes of Conduct for Elected Members and employees.

Council is required to adopt the Code of Conduct for Elected Members, Committee Members and Candidates, and the Chief Executive Officer is to adopt the Code of Conduct for Employees.

Elected Member Code of Conduct

The City of Stirling Code of Conduct of Council Members, Committee Members and Candidates sets the standards for the behaviour and conduct rules for City’s Elected Members, Committee Members and Local Government Election Candidates.

A complaint of an alleged breach of a behavioural matter or rule of conduct under the Code of Conduct by an Elected Member, Committee Member or Local Government Election Candidate must be made in writing by completing the Code of Conduct Breach Complaint Form or can be made through the Local Government Inspector’s Online Breach Complaint Form.

Further information about complaints, including the complaints process, is available from the Western Australian Local Government Inspector’s website.

Employee Code of Conduct

The City of Stirling Employee Code of Conduct sets the behavioural and conduct standards for all City's employees.

A complaint of an alleged breach of the Code of Conduct by an employee can be made in writing by completing the Reporting Misconduct Form or reported through the City’s Misconduct, Corruption and Fraud Hotline on (08) 9205 8990.

Statement of Business Ethics

A statement of business ethics has also been introduced to outline the expectations of goods and services providers. These include:

Complying with all Australian laws
Understanding the City’s policies, guidelines and procedures
Providing accurate and reliable advice and information when required
Declaring actual or perceived conflicts of interest as soon possible
Dealing ethically, fairly and honestly
Taking all reasonable measures to prevent disclosure of confidential information
Not engaging in any form of collusion, especially with City employees
Not discussing City business or information with the media
Reporting any unethical practices in business relationships.

It also includes information on the City’s commitment to ethical dealings with providers, and what they can expect from us, such as:

Using public resources effectively and efficiently
Dealing with all individuals and organisations in a fair, honest and ethical manner
Avoiding any conflicts of interest (whether real or perceived)
Never seeking gifts or other personal benefits
Treating all suppliers impartially and fairly, and giving equal access to information to assist with quotations, tendering or supply
Full and clear documentation for an effective audit trail, allowing for fair contract performance review
As far as reasonably possible, purchasing energy-efficient equipment, environmentally-friendly products and products containing recycled materials, whilst taking value-for-money into account
Not requesting tenders unless the City has a firm commitment to proceed to contract (however, Council reserves the right not to proceed with any tender so advertised)
Not disclosing confidential or proprietary information
Reporting misconduct, corruption and fraud.

City of Stirling Integrity Framework

The City of Stirling Integrity Framework outlines the City's approach to ensuring it not only acts with integrity, honesty and transparency; but is seen doing so by making reasoned decisions without bias by following fair and objective processes. This framework applies to all employees and elected members at the City.

The City’s Framework is based on the Public Sector Commission’s document Embedding Integrity: Integrity Strategy for WA Public Authorities 2024-28.