Victorian Local Government Minister Marlene Kairouz on Wednesday introduced to parliament a new Local Government Bill.

It would give her the power to issue a suspension of up to 12 months to a councillor “who posed a significant threat to the governance of a council”.

“Mayors and councillors who behave badly will be gone for a year – the days of them acting with impunity are over,” Ms Kairouz said.

Indigo mayor Jenny O’Connor said: “I would hope the standards of behaviour that are being put in the act apply to all politicians, state and federal.

“I don’t think that’s unreasonable and if the end result is a by-election so be it.”

The bill requires councils not to charge levies that exceed service costs.

That means Wodonga Council would not be able to overcharge ratepayers through its waste levy as it has done since 2002.

Mayors serving two-year terms, such as Wodonga’s Anna Speedie, could also be ousted on a motion of at least three-quarters of councillors.

Doctor Julian Fidge, whose behaviour as a councillor was linked to Wangaratta’s council being sacked in 2013, welcomed the changes and said they would not deter him from standing again.

“I don’t believe I would be concerned about any of the new provisions against the new councillors,” he said.

“You’ll always have people complaining and writing letters to the local government minister saying they don’t like me.”

Dr Fidge said Wodonga’s waste levy behaviour was “not good practice” and “deceptive” and suggested it was “typical of the level of the state government’s incompetence in policing the Local Government Act”.