The South Australian government will introduce a bill to state parliament today to prevent dozens of council by-elections caused by elected members failing to return forms declaring gifts to their campaigns.
Under the proposed amendment, council members would be granted 10 extra days to lodge their campaign donation returns to avoid losing their elected position permanently.
Earlier this month, three mayors and 42 councillors were removed from their positions for not responding in time to multiple reminders from the Electoral Commission of South Australia to submit gift registration forms, regardless of whether they received any gifts.
Burnside councillor Ted Jennings welcomed the proposed changes, saying it was "absolutely fabulous news".
"I was just hoping that the right thing might happen and it has happened, so very happy," he told ABC Radio Adelaide's Stacey Lee and Nikolai Beilharz.
Most of the ousted elected members had lodged appeals with the South Australian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, giving various excuses for not submitting their forms on time.
They will be reinstated if they submit their forms by the new deadline.
Attorney-General Kyam Maher said the proposed changes would avoid by-elections across 36 councils, each of which would have had to bear the cost of the process.
"The consequence of not acting on this would be hundreds of thousands of dollars of likely extra costs for ratepayers," Mr Maher said.
Mr Jennings lodged an appeal and said he believed he put the incorrect date on his disclosure form.
"I obviously did not pay close enough attention, and I'm glad I can put this all behind us if this goes through in parliament," he said.
Opposition local government spokesman Sam Telfer called for an independent investigation into the process.
Up until a year ago, he was a mayor and the president of the Local Government Association of South Australia.
"Although the short term problem is going to get a fix, and we'll welcome that and look at the legislation, there's still a real need to understand why this happened," Mr Telfer said.
