Community Engagement Requirements in Australia: State by State

Australia has no single national community engagement requirement. Each state and territory sets its own rules, mainly through its local government and planning laws, so what a council or planning authority must do depends on where it is and what it is deciding. Some require councils to adopt an engagement policy or strategy, several set principles or charters for planning consultation, and all set minimum exhibition or notification periods for at least some planning decisions.

This guide is for council and agency practitioners and consultants who work across states. It summarizes selected requirements as of October 2026, including several recent changes. It is selective, not exhaustive, and it is general information, not legal advice. Requirements change, and transitional rules often apply, so check the current position with the relevant authority before relying on it. For how other countries handle this, see our guide to engagement documents required by law.

Summary: requirements by state and territory

New South Wales

From 1 September 2026, the statewide Community Participation Plan prepared by the Planning Secretary under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 applies across planning authorities, including councils, replacing more than 100 separate plans, subject to savings for development and modification applications lodged but not determined before that date, and for draft strategic plans already exhibited but not finalised. It sets community participation objectives and minimum public exhibition periods, although some development types do not require public exhibition. Our guide to the community participation plan in NSW covers what it requires.

Separately, section 402A of the Local Government Act 1993 requires each council to establish and implement a community engagement strategy for engagement with the local community when developing its plans, policies and programs and determining its activities (other than routine administrative matters). The Office of Local Government's guidelines add that it must be based on social justice principles and reviewed within three months of local government elections. As a minimum, the guidelines require the strategy to identify relevant stakeholder groups and the methods that will be used to engage each group.

Victoria

Section 55 of the Local Government Act 2020 requires every council to adopt and maintain a community engagement policy. The policy must give effect to the Act's community engagement principles, describe the type and form of engagement having regard to the significance and complexity of the matter, and include deliberative engagement practices for the Community Vision, Council Plan, Financial Plan and Asset Plan. Under sections 88 and 90 to 92, councils must develop or review those four documents in accordance with their deliberative engagement practices and adopt them by 31 October in the year following a general election.

Planning is changing too. Under the Planning Amendment (Better Decisions Made Faster) Act 2026, a council seeking authorization to prepare a planning scheme amendment must include a proposed public engagement plan, and for low-, medium- and high-impact amendments the planning authority must prepare and publish an engagement report outlining the engagement undertaken, summarizing submissions and comments, responding to each, and explaining any resulting changes. These provisions commence on a day to be proclaimed, no later than 29 October 2027, so check whether they apply yet.

Queensland

Queensland's local government law sets engagement as a principle rather than a procedure. One of the local government principles in section 4 of the Local Government Act 2009 is "democratic representation, social inclusion and meaningful community engagement". For councils governed by that Act, section 104 requires the financial management system to include a corporate plan that incorporates community engagement, and section 165 of the Local Government Regulation 2012 requires the plan to cover five financial years. Brisbane City Council is governed mainly by the separate City of Brisbane Act 2010. Neither the Act nor the regulation sets a consultation process for the corporate plan or budget, and we found no requirement to adopt a community engagement policy.

Planning has more detail. Under section 18 of the Planning Act 2016, the chief executive gives the council a notice setting the process for making or amending a planning scheme, and the Act sets minimum contents for that notice. The consultation period must be at least 40 business days after the last public notice for a proposed planning scheme and 20 for an amendment. The council must implement a communications strategy, consider all properly made submissions, tell the people who made them how their submissions were dealt with, and give the Minister a summary. Under section 20, some amendments can instead follow the process in the Minister's Guidelines and Rules.

For development applications that must be publicly notified, including those requiring impact assessment, section 53 generally requires at least 15 business days for submissions, or 30 for an application that includes a variation request, and a regulation can prescribe a longer period for some application types. For these submission periods, days between 20 December and 5 January are not counted as business days, and where notice must be given in more than one way, the period starts after the last notice is given.

Two regimes add project-level engagement. Since 18 July 2025, Part 6B of the Planning Act has generally required applications for prescribed development to include a social impact assessment report, which the Planning Regulation requires to be prepared in line with the state's SIA guideline (the Act allows a regulation to set requirements about consulting the public in preparing it), and a community benefit agreement with the host council and any other council whose community the assessment identifies as affected. This is subject to transitional rules, and under section 106ZE the chief executive can decide that either document is not required for a particular application. The prescribed development initially covered material changes of use for wind farms, with no megawatt threshold, and for solar farms with a maximum instantaneous electricity output of 1MW or more. Material changes of use for battery storage facilities with a maximum instantaneous electricity output of 50MW or more were added from 12 December 2025 by the Planning (Battery Storage Facilities) and Other Legislation Amendment Regulation 2025. Separately, for large resource projects whose draft environmental impact statement (EIS) is publicly notified under the provisions listed in section 9(1) of the Strong and Sustainable Resource Communities Act 2017, the owner or proponent must prepare a social impact assessment as part of the EIS, and it must provide for community and stakeholder engagement.

South Australia

South Australia sets planning engagement through a statutory charter. Section 44 of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 requires the State Planning Commission to maintain a Community Engagement Charter. Section 44(3) sets principles that must be taken into account in preparing the Charter, including engagement weighted towards early stages, plain-language information, participation methods suited to the significance and likely impact of the policy and, as far as reasonable, reasons for decisions, including how community views were taken into account. Entities must comply with the Charter's mandatory requirements and otherwise seek to achieve its principles and performance outcomes. The Charter applies to preparing or amending planning policies and strategies, not to assessing development applications.

The Charter itself sets five principles: engagement is genuine; engagement is inclusive and respectful; engagement is fit for purpose; engagement is informed and transparent; and engagement processes are reviewed and improved. When a designated instrument such as the Planning and Design Code is prepared or amended, section 73 requires consultation under the Charter, then a report to the Minister that is published on the SA planning portal. Amendments consulted on in 2024, which proposed stronger engagement with groups including First Nations people, young people and culturally and linguistically diverse communities, were approved by the Minister in January 2025, and Version 2 of the Charter was published on 10 February 2025.

Local government changed recently. Under the Local Government Act 1999, a Local Government Community Engagement Charter made by the Minister and published in December 2025 replaces the Act's long-standing consultation minimums with categories of consultation and mandatory requirements for each. Councils must have a community engagement policy under section 50A that is consistent with it, replacing the old public consultation policy. Councils were required to adopt a policy consistent with the new Charter by 11 September 2026, according to the Local Government Association of South Australia.

Western Australia

For now, the main local government requirement is in regulation 19C of the Local Government (Administration) Regulations 1996: a council must ensure electors and ratepayers are consulted when developing or modifying its strategic community plan, and the plan must describe how they were involved.

Reforms are legislated but not yet in force. The Local Government Amendment Act 2023 will, when proclaimed, insert section 5.56A into the Local Government Act 1995, requiring each local government to adopt and publish a community engagement charter. It will also replace section 5.56 with a requirement to prepare a council plan, which the state government says is intended to replace strategic community plans. These provisions are awaiting proclamation, and the state government's reform page (June 2026) lists their commencement as to be confirmed, with regulations being developed.

Planning advertising is set by the Planning and Development (Local Planning Schemes) Regulations 2015. Submission periods are 90 days for a proposed local planning scheme, 60 days for a complex amendment and 42 days for a standard amendment, or a longer period approved by the Western Australian Planning Commission. Under the deemed provisions, advertised development applications have a period of 28 days for complex applications and 14 days for other applications, or a longer period agreed in writing between the applicant and the local government. These calculations exclude 25 December to 1 January and the seven days beginning on Good Friday.

Tasmania

Under section 66 of the Local Government Act 1993, a council preparing its strategic plan (covering at least 10 years) must consult the community in its municipal area, and section 68 requires it to invite and consider submissions before adopting the plan.

Tasmania legislated changes in 2026. The Local Government Amendment (Targeted Reform) Act 2026 allows the Minister, from 1 September 2026, to issue a local government charter that specifies principles for councils on matters including community engagement, which councils must have regard to. The same Act inserts a requirement for every council to establish and implement a community engagement strategy, but that part was excluded from the September 2026 commencement and was not yet in force in the current consolidation.

Under the Land Use Planning and Approvals Act 1993, unless the Tasmanian Planning Commission grants an exemption under section 40I, a draft amendment to a council's Local Provisions Schedule is exhibited for 28 days from when it becomes available for public viewing, not counting days when the exhibition premises are closed during normal business hours (section 40G). People may make representations on a discretionary permit application within 14 days of notice, which the planning authority may extend by up to 14 days (section 57).

Australian Capital Territory

The ACT has no separate local councils, so the ACT Government carries out both roles. Section 11 of the Planning Act 2023 requires anyone consulting under the Act to consider principles of good consultation: accessible, balanced, inclusive, meaningful, resourced, respectful, timely, transparent and understandable. Transparency includes giving reasons for decisions, including how community views were taken into account. Section 12 requires the Minister to make good consultation guidelines. People consulting under the Act must take those guidelines into consideration, and consultation on territory plan amendments and development applications that follows the Act's procedures is taken to meet the principles (section 13).

Public consultation on a draft major plan amendment to the territory plan runs for at least 30 working days (sections 55 and 63 of the Planning Act). For development applications that require public notification, section 36 of the Planning (General) Regulation 2023 prescribes 15 working days generally and 20 working days for significant development, or 10 working days where a significant development application is notified again under section 179(5) of the Planning Act.

Northern Territory

Under section 35 of the Local Government Act 2019, before adopting its annual municipal, regional or shire plan, a council must publish the draft and invite written submissions for at least 21 days, then consider them. Regional councils identified by the Minister must also establish local authorities, whose functions under Part 5.1 include involving local communities and contributing to the regional plan. We found no requirement for a standalone engagement policy.

Under the Planning Act 1999, proposed planning scheme amendments that the Minister places on exhibition are exhibited for 28 days from when the notice is first published, or a longer period the Minister determines (section 15), although minor amendments can be made without exhibition (sections 12 and 13), and development applications that need public notice have a submission period of at least 14 days, or 28 days for prescribed development (section 47).

Commonwealth environmental assessment

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) applies to relevant actions by public and private proponents. Section 74(3) gives anyone 10 business days, measured in Canberra, to comment on whether a referred action is a controlled action. Where assessment proceeds by environmental impact statement, section 103 requires a comment period on the draft statement, specified by the Minister, of at least 20 business days.

What the states have in common

The instruments differ in form and force, but some patterns repeat across several jurisdictions. These are observations about the selected requirements above, not rules that apply everywhere:

• Planning has the most prescriptive rules. Most jurisdictions above set minimum exhibition or notification periods for at least some planning decisions, while local government requirements are often broader principles.

• Several use principles, policies or charters. NSW, Victoria and South Australia require council engagement strategies or policies; South Australia and the ACT set principles for planning consultation; Western Australia and Tasmania have legislated similar requirements that have not yet commenced.

• Several scale engagement to significance. Victoria's policy considers significance and complexity, South Australia's planning principles call for methods suited to significance and impact, and the ACT's principles tie resourcing to significance and complexity.

• Several expect feedback. Queensland's section 18 planning scheme process, South Australian planning instruments and the ACT's transparency principle (which consultation must consider) all point to explaining how community input was considered. A community engagement report can help provide that feedback, but the required form of reporting or notification depends on the applicable legislation.

• Some link engagement to the election cycle. Victoria's deliberative engagement deadline and the NSW strategy review both follow council elections.

Applying these requirements across projects

For teams working in more than one state, the legal minimums are the easy part to look up. The harder part is making sure each project keeps the requirements that apply to it, and the organization's own commitments, when the people running projects may never have read the policy. These are practice recommendations, not a substitute for checking the procedure that applies:

1. Check the jurisdiction and the process. The same project may trigger local government, planning and other requirements, each with different periods and steps. Note any transitional rules.

2. Treat minimums as the floor. A required exhibition period is not a plan. Scale engagement to the decision, using a consistent method such as a project assessment tool.

3. Build requirements into the plan. Put the required periods, groups and feedback steps into the community engagement plan and the engagement timeline, not a separate checklist.

4. Record and report. Several regimes require reasons for decisions or responses to submissions, in different forms. Plan how you will close the loop from the start.

5. Watch the reform calendar. Victoria's planning engagement plans, Western Australia's charter and Tasmania's engagement strategy are all legislated but still to commence.

CE Canvas turns an organization's engagement strategy and framework into the way every project is planned, delivered and reported, so the commitments in a policy or charter are built into each project rather than left to memory. See how it works for teams with an established engagement practice.

Sources

Selected legislation and official guidance reviewed on 20 October 2026. This is not an exhaustive account of applicable requirements; check current requirements with the relevant authority.

• Statewide community participation plan and community participation plans, NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure

• Integrated Planning and Reporting Guidelines for local government in NSW, NSW Office of Local Government

• Local Government Act 1993 (NSW) and Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW)

• Local Government Act 2020 (Vic) and Planning Amendment (Better Decisions Made Faster) Act 2026 (Vic)

• Local Government Act 2009 (Qld), Local Government Regulation 2012 (Qld), Planning Act 2016 (Qld), Planning Regulation 2017 (Qld) and Strong and Sustainable Resource Communities Act 2017 (Qld)

• Minister's Guidelines and Rules, Queensland Government

• Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016 (SA) and Local Government Act 1999 (SA)

• Community Engagement Charter amendment consultation and Local Government Community Engagement Charter, YourSAy, Government of South Australia

• Community Engagement Charter and Charter instrument page, PlanSA, Government of South Australia

• Public Participation in Amendments to Planning Policies, Law Handbook, Legal Services Commission of South Australia

• Local Government Act 1995 (WA), Local Government (Administration) Regulations 1996 (WA) and Planning and Development (Local Planning Schemes) Regulations 2015 (WA)

• Council planning reforms, Government of Western Australia

• Local Government Act 1993 (Tas), Local Government Amendment (Targeted Reform) Act 2026 (Tas) and Land Use Planning and Approvals Act 1993 (Tas)

• Planning Act 2023 (ACT), Planning (General) Regulation 2023 (ACT) and Planning (Good Consultation) Guidelines 2023 (No 1)

• Local Government Act 2019 (NT) and Planning Act 1999 (NT)

• Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth)

Frequently asked questions

Is there a national community engagement requirement in Australia?

No. There is no single national law requiring councils or agencies to engage the community or publish an engagement policy. Each state and territory sets its own requirements, mainly through local government and planning legislation. Some Commonwealth processes, such as environmental assessments under the EPBC Act, include public comment steps for particular projects.

Which states require deliberative engagement?

Victoria is the clearest example. Under the Local Government Act 2020, each council's community engagement policy must include deliberative engagement practices, and the Community Vision, Council Plan, Financial Plan and Asset Plan must be developed or reviewed in line with them and adopted by 31 October in the year after a general election. We found no equivalent statutory requirement in the other states and territories, although many councils use deliberative methods as a matter of practice.

What is South Australia's Community Engagement Charter?

It is a statutory charter maintained by the State Planning Commission under section 44 of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016. It sets principles and mandatory requirements for consultation when planning policies, strategies and schemes are prepared or amended, but not for assessing development applications. Its five principles are that engagement is genuine, inclusive and respectful, fit for purpose, and informed and transparent, and that engagement processes are reviewed and improved. South Australian councils now also have a separate Local Government Community Engagement Charter under the Local Government Act 1999.

Which jurisdictions require councils to adopt a community engagement policy or strategy?

Some do. NSW councils must have a community engagement strategy, Victorian councils a community engagement policy, and South Australian councils a community engagement policy consistent with the Local Government Community Engagement Charter. Western Australia and Tasmania have legislated similar requirements that had not commenced as of October 2026. We found no general requirement in Queensland or the Northern Territory. Check current requirements with the relevant authority.

Is this article legal advice?

No. It is a general summary of selected requirements as of 20 October 2026, not an exhaustive account. Laws change and transitional rules apply, so confirm current requirements with the relevant department or your legal team before relying on them.