New laws requiring councillors to declare gifts are too broad and could see them forced to include presents from family members, the WA Local Government Association (WALGA) says.

The legislation was introduced after the Corruption and Crime Commission found Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi failed to declare tens of thousands of dollars in gifts and travel.

Each local government must now have an online register for councillors to enter gifts over $50.

But WALGA president Lynne Craigie said while they supported transparency, the wording of the legislation was unclear and could lead to confusion.

"It now means an elected member has to declare gifts from family, from friends, of a personal nature," she said.

"If you were given a birthday gift, for example, in excess of $200 in value you would need to declare it.

"If it was a gift from your family, your daughter, your son, surely that's overstepping the mark even when it comes to transparency."

WALGA to argue for changes to legislation

She said that could be seen as a breach of privacy.

"What my family were to give me, or any other elected member, as a gift surely shouldn't have to be recorded for the public to view, there's no way it could be seen as someone trying to influence my judgment on a matter," she said.

"One of the examples given by the department was if someone borrowed a trailer or asked a friend for a trailer to move house on the weekend, that could be construed as having a value of $200 to $300, and that would have to be declared, whereas really that's something that everybody does.

"We just need a very clear definition of what is required, what is construed as a benefit to an elected member that wouldn't be given to anybody else."

WALGA will meet the Local Government Minister later this week to argue for changes to the legislation.

Opposition local government spokesman David Templeman said the problem with the law could have been dealt with much earlier.

"The Government could have sorted this all out before the bill was passed by accepting the Labor proposal to send it to a Legislative Council committee, but the National Party and the Liberal Party refused to do that," Mr Templeman said.

"It would have been a very short process, would have only taken a couple of weeks for the committee to have taken a look at the transparency measures and make sure that they were delivered in the way they were intended."

Local Government Minister Tony Simpson has rejected the concerns.

Mr Simpson said the only changes to the legislation were for declarations to be made within 10 days of receipt of gifts and or travel, and for the information to be posted on the local government's website for the public to view.

He said it was concerning that WALGA did not appear to understand the existing gift provisions, particularly given it was leading a review of those provisions.