Ratepayers will be barred from speaking at council meetings and instead need to have their say one week before councillors debate and vote on local issues and ideas, among a raft of other changes every NSW council is adopting in 2026.
Monthly council meetings provide an opportunity for residents to attend council chambers in person and speak on issues they wish to raise before councillors vote on agenda items that same night.
While some councils are opposed, NSW Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig said the reforms would “restore dignity and order to the council chamber”.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
However, the government has made it mandatory for all 128 NSW councils to adopt tweaks to the uniform set of meeting rules, called the “Model Code of Meeting Practice”. In 2026, all public forums must be held separately from council meetings; the timing depends on each council but many are holding them a week beforehand.
The code describes council meetings as having purely decision-making purposes and, where possible, public forums where community members speak on agenda items should not be held as part of them.
NSW Greens spokesperson for local government Dr Amanda Cohn said splitting public forums and council meetings was “restrictive”, and pushed Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig to amend the code.
“This removes the immediacy of comments, and it also means not all of the councillors making a decision on the item may be in attendance to hear members of the community speak about it,” she said.
“The new mandatory provisions do not allow for questions between councillors and members of the public, and that limitation on discussion is restrictive.”
Hoenig said having a gap between public forums and council meetings would allow councillors more time to consider issues before voting, and would still allow for “genuine engagement with the community.
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