Amended draft Code of Meeting Practice

The purpose of this code is to comply with the provisions of Section 360 of the Local Government Act 1993, and provide a framework for Council to conduct business in an inclusive, responsive and transparent manner by supporting the conduct of effective Council meetings.

To enable more effective and efficient decision-making for Councillors, and to provide certainty for community members’ participating in meetings, it is proposed that Council make the following changes to the Code of Meeting Practice:

1. Clause 2.2 (2), Timing of Ordinary Meetings, changes from third to fourth Tuesday of each month, unless otherwise resolved.
2. Clause 3.25, Public Access, changes from “usually on the first Tuesday of each month”, to “usually on the second Tuesday of each month, unless otherwise resolved”.
3. Update clause 4.2 to include the sentence: “The Chair must be physically present in the Council Chamber except in emergency circumstances.”
4. Clause 4.3 change from “If a councillor is anywhere in the room where the Council meeting is being held, they are considered to be present for the purposes of voting. This means that if they are in the room but do not raise their hand to vote on an issue, then their vote is taken as against the Motion” to “If a councillor is present at a meeting of Council but fails to vote on a motion put to the meeting, their vote is taken as against the motion.” Practice notes 1. And 2. which define the Chamber, have been removed as no longer necessary. This brings the Code in line with the mandatory provisions of the OLG Model Code, clause 11.5.
5. Update clauses 4.23,4.24, requiring General Manager approval for councillor participation via audio-visual link. Replaces this with “written notification to the Corporate Manager – Governance and Risk”. Remaining requirements remain unchanged.
6. Clause 16.11, Rescinding or altering Council decisions, change requirement for rescission motions relating to development applications to be submitted to the General Manager no later than 12.00pm on the following business day after the meeting at which the resolution was adopted. Previous requirement was 5.00pm.

Minor edits include:

• Updated references to the Local Government Act 1993 and Local Government (General) Regulation 2021.
• Corrections to referencing and/or numbering errors.

We welcome feedback from the community on the amended draft Code of Meeting Practice.