Speak at a Council Meeting

Members of the public can address Councillors at Council meetings. You must first obtain Council approval and comply with the rules governing Council meetings.

Guidelines for addressing Council

Members of the public may address meetings of Council on items that are on the council agenda, subject to the approval of the Council:

• You must apply in writing to the Chief Executive Offiver no later than 12pm (noon) on the Friday the week before the Council Meeting by filling a Request to Address Council form.

• Members of the public must restrict their addresses to no more than three minutes, with a further one minute extension available, if resolved by Council.
• Councillors may ask questions to clarify the position of the speaker or statements made.
• If a satisfactory resolution to the matter on the agenda is being considered there may be no need for members of the public to address the Council.
• Council, and council staff on behalf of Council, may invite applicants, consultants, government authorities and other groups or individuals to provide a presentation to Council on a matter that is on the council agenda.
• If there are a large number of people interested in the same item, one representative will be nominated to speak on behalf of a group and to indicate how many people they are representing. 

Copyright notice and disclaimer

By attending a Council meeting, you consent to your speech or other personal information being captured and recorded. For this reason any opinions expressed or statements made by individual persons during the course of Council meetings are the opinions or statements of those individual persons and are not opinions or statements of Council.

All persons should refrain from making any defamatory remarks. Council accepts no liability for any defamatory remarks made during the course of a Council meeting. All persons should refrain from making public comments about another individual(s) without seeking the consent of that individual beforehand.