BATHURST Regional Council meetings will be live streamed into lounge rooms across the region within 12 months to comply with a new code of meeting practice handed down last week.
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Under the new Model Code of Meeting Practice released by Local Government Minister Gabrielle Upton, all councils have just a year to start webcasting their meetings to allow residents greater access to proceedings.
The new code also includes optional time limits on meetings, a five-minute limit on councillor speeches, uniform rules of debate and limits on mayoral minutes.
Councillor Jess Jennings, who first proposed live streaming of council meetings in 2013, welcomed news that it would now be made mandatory for all councils.
“I’m generally supportive of it, it’s another way for the community to access council activities and decision-making,” Cr Jennings said.
“I don’t expect many people will embrace the joy of watching council from the comfort of their own home but there will be that opportunity.”
But he questioned who would foot the bill to set up the streaming service.
“It will cost maybe $10,000 for the actual set-up but there won’t be much of a cost after that,” he said.
“But if this going to be the rule for all councils then I would expect some sort of funding support from the state government.
“I would certainly be encouraging our council to seek any funds.”
It is believed recordings of the meetings will be kept for future reference, giving residents the chance to go back and view a particular debate at a later time.
However, Cr Jennings said the move would also require councillors – and members of the public gallery – to think more carefully about what they might say in the chamber.
“As a councillor, unlike at state or federal level, you do not have parliamentary privilege so whatever a councillor says can be quoted against them in a court of law,” he said.
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“So streaming the meetings might tighten the screws a bit on councillors and they might want to think about what they want to say.”
Mayor Graeme Hanger said he had no strong feelings either way about live streaming meetings.
“If it’s being legislated we will have to follow the rules, but I’m ambivalent about it,” he said.
Ms Upton said the new meeting code would make local government “more transparent, informed, inclusive and respectful”.
