Greens Tamworth Regional councillor Ryan Brooke will move a motion at next week’s council meeting to establish a briefings committee that would open pre-meeting briefings and workshop sessions to the public for the first time.
If adopted, all councillors would become members of the new committee, which would receive briefings and workshops on matters due to come before council. Because the committee would comprise the full council, it would be treated as an ordinary council meeting under the Local Government Act, requiring a published agenda, public access either in person or via livestream, and published minutes.
The proposal follows changes to the Model Code of Meeting Practice introduced by the Minister for Local Government earlier this council term. Although a broad coalition of Legislative Council members, led by the Greens, successfully disallowed the revised code after widespread criticism from the local government sector, elements of the changes were later retained in updated regulations, with one provision strengthened.
Under the updated regulations, closed-door councillor briefing and workshop sessions are no longer permitted.
Brooke said the changes had left councils across New South Wales, including Tamworth Regional Council, without a clear mechanism to discuss agenda items with staff before formal meetings. He said the solution was not to abandon briefings, but to make them public.
“For years, we’ve held briefing sessions and workshops behind closed doors, and I think that needs to change, not by scrapping them, but by opening the doors,” Brooke said.
“The Minister for Local Government has been explicit about his intentions on this: when councillors are briefed on issues that affect the community, that should happen in an open, legally constituted committee meeting, in front of the press and the public, not behind closed doors.”
Brooke acknowledged concerns raised by council staff in the business paper, including an estimated annual cost of $100,000 and the potential psychosocial impact on staff of presenting at an additional formal weekly public meeting.
He rejected the suggestion that the proposal would create another council meeting, arguing a briefings committee would serve a different purpose.
“A council meeting is where we vote and make decisions on behalf of the community. A briefings committee is where we ask questions and get across the details so we can make better decisions when it comes time to vote. Those are two very different things, and I don’t accept that formalising a practice we’ve historically carried out, just with the doors open, needs to come with a six-figure price tag,” he said.
Brooke also pointed to a motion moved by Mayor Russell Webb at the previous council meeting, which was unanimously supported by councillors present and called on the Premier to reconsider broader restrictions on councillor participation introduced under the new regulations.
He said the unanimous vote showed councillors broadly agreed the changes had created practical problems, even if they differed on how to respond.
The motion will be debated at the Tamworth Regional Council meeting on Tuesday night.
“Just at our last meeting Councillors unanimously endorsed a motion by the Mayor decrying regulatory change that has made it harder for councillors to ask questions of council staff. If we can all agree it’s an issue, we should all want to implement a solution,” said Brooke.
“This isn’t a major change. Historically this term we have held workshops about upcoming council business and briefings to ask questions about the upcoming meeting agenda the week before a council meeting. All we need to do to be compliant with State Government rules is open the door for the public to sit in on what is public information anyway.”
“If councillors genuinely value transparency and want to build trust in council, they’ll have an opportunity to demonstrate that by supporting making our briefing sessions open to residents to watch.”
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