Council officers are about to rewrite the at times controversial codes of conduct all councillors must sign at the start of every term to bring them in line with sweeping state government reforms.

New reforms will strip councils of their power to decide on the means to settle protracted disputes through third-party arbitration.

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Councillors will also lose their collective power to impose sanctions on colleagues deemed by an abitrator to have breached the code of conduct.

However, the council will likely still be able to internally mediate issues between councillors to avoiding having to bring in a third party to handle disputes.

All Bendigo councillors are expected to abide by the code of conduct, which includes principles for expected behavior as well as processes for dealing with alleged breaches through mediation.

Bendigo council's coordinator of legal services Ryan Millard said the reforms could help cut down on frivolous cases going to arbitration, which he said could be an issue for many local governments around Victoria.

"At the moment, the mechanism really is that if you cannot mediate the decision and come to a conclusion internally, you have to go to arbitration. It's the only way forward," he said.

"Arbitration is expensive, frankly. So if we can keep inappropriate matters out of arbitration that would be a good outcome for the community."

Councillors will likely still be encouraged to follow internal mediation processes already covered by existing codes, Mr Millard said.

However, he and his team are yet to consult with councillors about what processes they want in the new code, which the council must sign off on within for months of last October's election.

Below: This code of conduct will cover as the model for serving councillors until a new one is introduced by the end of February (story continues below document).

Codes of conduct have been invoked a number of times during disputes between Bendigo councillors, including between 2012 and 2016 when a raft of issues were made public.

The Bendigo Advertiser is aware of six out of nine then-councillors found to have breached the code on various occasions through conduct towards colleagues, along with recommendations to apologise.

In a separate case, an independent panel found a councillor had breached the code by drink-driving. He apologised and took a month's leave from public duties.

Another councillor unsuccessfully challenged a panel recommendation at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal after sending a graphic image of children with mutilated genitals to a supporter of Bendigo's proposed mosque via social media.

She had left office by the time of VCAT's decision that a publicly available ruling would serve as a reprimand.

New state laws are not a response to those disputes or Bendigo's code, which was reviewed in 2016 and then again in 2017.

They aim to bring consistency to all councils' codes, which can vary widely. Some, like Bendigo's, are four pages long, others are 145.

Many outline behavioral standards the government views as too vague.

Local Government Victoria recently updated standards expected of councillors in their dealings with colleagues and the public.

Below: New standards of councillor conduct drawn up by Local Government Victoria (story continues below document)

The group attempted to balance the sometimes competing requirements to protect human rights and implied rights to free speech.

For the first time, they specified that "nothing in these standards is intended to limit, restrict or detract from robust public debate in a democracy".

A clause on the treatment of others was updated in line with the state's Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities. A clause on requirements not to discredit or mislead the council was replaced.

The standards are intended to eliminate discrimination, sexual harassment and victimisation, and foster good governance.