The Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (the GIPA Act) requires that Council maintain a publicly available register of contracts to which it is a party and which has, or is likely to have, a value of $150,000 or more. This register must be published on Council’s website.

The contracts that must be reported include: 

• Projects e.g. construction, infrastructure or property development
• Provision of goods or services 
• Transfer of real property 
• Lease of real property

Contracts of employment do not need to be reported.

The GIPA Act identifies three classes of contracts. The information to be reported varies with each class of contract.

Most contracts entered into by Council following the usual tendering process will be Class 1 contracts. Class 2 contracts are generally those where there has not been a tender process and have a value of less than $5 million. Class 3 contracts are those with a value of more than $5 million. A copy of Class 3 contracts must be made available with the register.

Some confidential information does not need to be included in the register. This is set out in Section 32 of the GIPA Act.

For full details about the register refer to Division 5 of the GIPA Act.