Under the new Local Government Act 2020, a council is now required to have Governance Rules to govern the conduct of Council meetings and meetings of any delegated committee the Council may establish.

The Governance Rules also govern the process for the election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor and the disclosure of conflicts of interest and incorporates Council’s Election Period Policy.

The Governance Rules must provide for a Council to:

• consider and make decisions on any matter being considered by the Council fairly and on the merits; and
• institute decision making processes to ensure that any person whose rights will be directly affected by a decision of the Council is entitled to communicate their views and have their interests considered.

A council must ensure that a process of community engagement is followed in developing or amending its Governance Rules.  If the amendment only involves the adoption of a good practice guideline issued by the Minister for Local Government, the community engagement process is not required to be undertaken.

Council’s Governance Rules and Election Period Policy were adopted at the Council Meeting held on 25 August 2020.

A copy of the Governance Rules are available below