Georges River Councl has thrown out the revised NSW Model Code of Meeting Practice which made significant changes to how council meetings and briefings were conducted.

Public forums will return as part of council meetings after an extraordinary meeting of Georges River Council threw out the NSW government's new Code of Council Meeting Practice.

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

or signup to continue reading

The introduction of the revised NSW Model Code of Meeting Practice for local councils in January made significant changes to how council meetings and briefings were conducted.

It included the end to councillor briefings by council staff, a separate public forum to council meetings, and stopping councillors from participating in meetings via video link.

But on May 26, the NSW upper House disallowed code, meaning that councils could revert to the previous code.

Last night Georges River Council unanimously voted to rescind the new code allowing the council to return to its 2021 version of the Code of Meeting Practice.

This means next week's separate public forum has been cancelled and will instead be held as part of the next full council meeting on June 22.

Councillor briefings by staff will also return and councillors will be able to attend council meetings remotely online.

The council will keep part of the 2025 revised Code of Meeting Practice which allows all councillors to be part of all its committee meetings and for the committee meetings to be held concurrently.

Councillor Kathryn Landsberry moved the rescission motion, throwing out the new code.

"This particular version of the new Code of Meeting Practice was not well received by many councils," she said.

"There were some good things in it but it actually didn't tick a lot of boxes for the efficacy of councils - things like the banning of private meetings. I still fail to understand how this can enhance transparency. This has impacted more than anyone on the newer councillors because they haven't had capacity to sit down in briefings like we were having regularly every month on a variety of issues including planning matters.

"I personally didn't like having public forums separated from the council meeting. I felt there was a real disconnect with the actual meeting itself. It was a backward step.

"Another significant backward step was banning the attendance of councillors online. Most of us have jobs. Councillors are paid an allowance which is not enough for us to live on. We do have a couple of councillors who work for federal members of parliament so they need to travel to Canberra of a regular basis. Some of us travel for work.

"While we were meeting under Covid circumstances back in 2021, it worked very effectively."

Cr Landsberry moved a foreshadowed motion that the council revert to its previous Code of Meeting Practice which was supported by the councillors.

"It provides us with a bit of clarity that we are reverting to the previous Code of Meeting Practice," she said.

"The Minister may negotiate with the Upper House to amend the format that is acceptable to them. They may throw the whole thing out and start from scratch, so for the interim we need some certainty with how we conduct our business at council.

"We will be reverting to our public forum prior to the council meeting. I think there is a better connect than having it a week before. There's a sense of participation from the community where they can come and speak to us. We can hear the passion of some of our community members," she said.

Mayor Elise Borg said, "We are in a bit of a holding pattern and until we see if anything comes from the Minister and if not we can look to do the review ourselves."