Council Meeting Minutes and Agendas

General information about Council meetings

Ordinary Meetings of Council are held once a month, except during a summer break in late December and January. Meetings commence at 3.30 pm.

Members of the public attending or speaking at a meeting will be recorded and publicly broadcast.

Members of the public are able to address Council during the Public Forum about a Visitor Item or in relation to a proposal to close part of a meeting to the public. 

Applicants to speak are required to sign a declaration that includes acknowledging that Council is legally required to livestream its meetings and consenting to their image and address being publicly broadcast. 

Applicants are also required to undertake that if approved to speak they will not make any defamatory comments or imputations, and that they agree to indemnify Council in respect of any defamatory statements or imputations they make.

Meetings are live streamed (excluding closed sessions) in accordance with Council's Code of Meeting Practice.  

What to Expect:

The Council meets once a month except during the late December-Early January Summer break.

Community members are encouraged to come along and there is no need to register to do so.

If you would like the opportunity to speak on a matter from the Meeting Agenda you can register to speak at the Public Forum.

You may also register to address the Council about a Visitor Item or in relation to a proposal to close part of a meeting to the public.

Please note that by law, Council is required to livestream our meetings.  Anyone attending or speaking at the meeting will be included in the recording and public broadcast and if you have registered to speak, you’ll need to sign a consent for publication/broadcast.

Speak at Public Forum

Your opportunity to voice your input on any item from the Meeting Agenda.

You’ll need to register to speak at the Public Forum after the Meeting Agenda has been published on our website, and no later than 4:30pm two days prior to the Council Meeting you wish to address.

Legal representatives wishing to speak on behalf of others must make this known on their registration form.

Limited spots are available and the General Manager or their delegate may refuse an application to speak at the Public Forum.

If your application to speak is approved, five minutes will be allocated for you to make your presentation. You’ll be required to undertake that you will not make any defamatory comments or imputations and agree to indemnify Council in respect of any made in the course of your presentation. 

How can the public address the forum?

Members of the public can apply to address Council on any item that is on the agenda of Ordinary Council Meeting. A person may apply to speak on no more than one item of business on the agenda of the council meeting. 

A limited number of places are available to speak at each meeting.

All requests for consideration need to be submitted by 4:30 pm two business days prior to the meeting. This will generally be on the Monday in the week of the Council meeting using the Public Forum Application form.

To ensure an equal opportunity for members of the public to apply to speak, the form will only be accepted for consideration after the relevant Council meeting agenda is published on Council’s website.

Presentations by members of the public are limited to five minutes duration each and are restricted to one speaker 'for' and one speaker 'against' on an item of business. 

Legal representatives acting on behalf of others are not to be permitted to speak at a public forum unless they identify their status as a legal representative when applying to speak at the public forum.

The General Manager or their delegate may refuse an application to speak at the Public Forum. 

For further information about Public Forum see Council’s Public Forum Guidelines(PDF, 191KB) and Code of Meeting Practice.

Visitor items

In the event that our General Manager determines that a development matter is considered to be a Visitor Item, the applicant and those who have made a submission will be invited to apply to speak in relation to that Visitor Item.

The relevant application form will be included with the invitation.

A maximum of two speakers, one in favour and one opposed, will have the opportunity to each address Council for five minutes in relation to the item, prior to entering debate.

Determination of who will speak shall be at the discretion of the General Manager in preparation of the Meeting Agenda. 

Speaking on a proposal to close a meeting to the public

Community members may make representations at a Council Meeting as to whether a part of the meeting should be closed, before the matter is closed.

If the matter has been identified in the Meeting Agenda as a matter that is likely to be considered once the meeting has closed to the public, you must first make an application to Council in order to make representation.

This form must be received by Council no later than 4.30pm, two business days prior to the meeting.

Two speakers will each be allocated one minute to make representations and the General Manager or their delegate may refuse an application to speak. 

Questions from the community session

Giving you access to the Governing body of Council, questions form the Community Session is held at 2:45pm on the day of the Ordinary Meeting of Council and may also be held prior to Extraordinary Meetings.

Chaired by the Administrator, this session is not live streamed.

Community members wishing to ask questions must register your attendance no later than 12pm on the day of the session.