South Australian Liberals say a public sector shake-up is on the way if they win the upcoming election, while the state’s Local Government Association speaks out about potential policy changes.

SA Liberal leader Steven Marshall says department heads have to report to too many ministers, and he says some departments are over-staffed as well.

There has been no further information on just which areas they are, but lessons from other states and the federal government suggest there will be moves toward deregulation of industries and consolidation of departments into over-arching groups.

Mr Marshall also says an audit of fixed speed and red light cameras would see $1 million spent setting up an independent authority for reviews and complaints. It would mean that expiation notices can be reviewed outside of the costly court system.

But SA Attorney-General John Rau says the organisation already exists.

“The fines payment unit is up and operational, that's what it's there to do, it's fully independent of the courts, the police, it runs its own show,” Mr Rau said.

Meanwhile, the South Australian Local Government Association has come out against state government meddling in council rate-setting.

SALGA has voted to continue its opposition to the Liberal Party's plan to centralise rate setting, saying significant concerns have been raised from councils in Adelaide and across regional South Australia.

“For example a number of Councils have assisted sporting clubs to deal with significant increases in water bills, how will Councils be able to do that if their rates are limited to cost increases in their past services?” asked SALGA Acting President, Mayor Lorraine Rosenberg.

“If Councils don't help then clubs would go to the wall and as most sporting clubs are on Council land, the Council would then have to pick up oval maintenance or children would miss out.”

Ms Rosenberg said councils had also pointed out that a number of programs promised by the Liberal Party, such as the Regional Development Fund boost to $15m a year; a $1m a year CCTV program; blackspot funding and a $3.5m a year increase in recreation and sport grants; all required some form of matching by Councils.

“How will Councils be able to match valuable new funding if their rates are limited?

“While Councils had low debt and capacity to borrow on average, the concept of forcing Councils to borrow as the only way to invest in new services or infrastructure risked pushing Councils to borrow when their individual circumstances might not support it,” she said.

Mayor Rosenberg said there was considerable evidence that the only other State with a similar scheme (NSW) was facing huge infrastructure renewal challenges as a result of the limits.