AUDIO: Ordinary Meeting of Eurobodalla Council Date: March 26th 2019 Presentation by Trish HellierUnder MOU with Eurobodalla Shire CouncilCreative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia licence.read more http://bit.ly/beagleCC
Good morning Mayor, Councillors, General Manager, Staff, Gallery and those comfortable Live Streaming at home. My name is Patricia Hellier from Batemans Bay. I am here today to speak on Item No. GMR19/005 DRAFT CODE OF MEETING PRACTICE.
Whilst I acknowledge this document is listed as a “DRAFT” it currently sits in our libraries with the amendments NOT highlighted in black, yellow or red so that people can distinguish what is mandatory and what is NON mandatory, those without internet access are at a disadvantage.
On many occasions when an item goes out for submission I have found that there has been little change from the Draft Document to the final document that is approved by you the Councillors despite the fact that many varied submissions have been received from the community.
I believe that Councils are the public’s first point of call for a Local Government and I question WHY is there such a need for the many undemocratic and restricted changes in this document.
I will try and keep my presentation brief and cut to the chase
PART 3
3.3 – I disagree with this section why should I, or anyone for that matter have to fill out an application form to speak to our elected councilors through Public Forum, as you the Councillors were elected by the people to represent us the people of this shire.
3.4 – thru to 3.7 I disagree with the contents.
3.8 - I strongly disagree to limit the number of speakers in Public Forum I believe this to be undemocratic, as my view and my presentation may differ to others that are chosen. Councillors would I have the privilege to chose between the 9 Councillors that sit here today to listen to those Presenting in Public Forum NOW which of the 4 ½ would I choose?
3.9 – I strongly disagree undemocratic.
3.10 – I strongly disagree with this as it is a blatant attempt to remove the 3 minute extension of time that we currently have as it is “custom and practice”.
3.12 – I strongly disagree with the removal of the Public Forum being Live Streamed. I am a Rate Payer of this shire I believe to remove the Live Streaming of the public is a form of discrimination. Our Rates contribute to the cost of Live Streaming, the Public are not to be Live Streamed and yet it appears that the Councillors WILL be Live Streamed. This maybe a case for the Anti Discrimination Board.
3.13 – “Speakers must not digress” etc. WELL Mayor and Councillors that is where the call for “Point of Order” is used.
3.14 – Someone should be asking WHY this point applies.
3.22 – This section is too wide with too much power given to the General Manager
PART 7 – ORDER OF BUSINESS FOR ORDINARY COUNCIL MEETINGS – Agenda item 04. On the Agenda there should be 04. B -“Business Arising from the Previous Minutes”.
It is quite obvious with this document presented here today that there is an attempt to abolish the 9.30am session Public Access I therefore request that Point 12 on the Agenda Urgent Business be substituted to General Business for the community of this shire.
Councillors how many of you stood on Transparency - I ask you all to think about these words that appear on the first page of this document “We are an engaged and connected community – We work together to achieve our goals” ask yourselves do you think these NON MANDATORY requirements kick those goals and do you think these changes will see engagement with the community.
Finally and far be it for me to digress from this subject I will use the words that will be familiar to some Councillors the words “LIKE FOR LIKE” – and there are some Councillors here today that have fought for “peoples rights” there is nothing that is highlight in RED in this document that is “LIKE FOR LIKE” what I am see is loss of community rights from this Draft Code of Meeting Practice therefore I employ the Councillors to vote against this Draft Code from going out for exhibition and take it back to the drawing board with some input from community members.
Trish Hellier
