Council
8 November, 2025
New Model Code of Meeting Practice quashes backdoor briefings
A new 2025 Model Meeting Code of Practice will come into effect by 1 January 2026 to prohibit confidential pre-meeting councillor briefings and reduce the incidence of voting blocks.
A new 2025 Model Meeting Code of Practice will come into effect by 1 January 2026 to prohibit confidential pre-meeting councillor briefings and reduce the incidence of voting blocks.
The ban on these private briefing sessions means decisions by councillors will be made on publicly available information and in the direct view of the public.
The 2025 Model Meeting Code doesn't place a limit on notices of motion lodged by councillors at council meetings, however councils can adopt a supplementary provision in their adopted code to do this.
The prohibition on briefing sessions does not prevent a councillor from requesting information from the general manager about a matter to be considered at a meeting, provided the information is also available to the public. The intent behind this change is to ensure decisions are made as a collective in council meetings in full view of the public, not beforehand.
Wingecarribee Shire councillors have previously engaged in caucusing and voting blocks throughout many terms, including closed-door pre-meeting briefings with certain information from former staff being disseminated to the exclusion of particular “difficult” councillors, as revealed during the Public Inquiry hearings throughout April 2022, whilst the council was under administration.
The public inquiry also revealed that former council general manager, Ann Prendergast, played a recorded phone call to a select group of councillors she obtained from the council switchboard during a confidential briefing session. The call was from a resident seeking information on rebuilding their home which burned down, following the 2019/20 Black Summer Bushfires. At the time, Wingecarribee Shire was the only council that did not agree to waive DA fees for affected homeowners when all other impacted councils decided to waive those costs.
The decision to play the recorded phone call of the local bushfire victim came following the council receiving national media attention for not waiving DA fees at the time, however, it resulted in the furore of then councillors Garry Turland and Ken Halstead, who were not present at that briefing session, openly alleging in subsequent council meetings that the general manager had breached the NSW Surveillance Devices Act 2007, claiming that the call was recorded without consent.
In the current term, discussions between many of the current councillors have been undertaken on Sundays, creating a probable but certainly perceived voting block.
Multiple sources in neighbouring Wollondilly Shire have told the Southern Wire “the hat block” is a common term used to describe a block of councillors that has been impenetrable across two terms.
The new model code for all councils in NSW has been praised as a step in the right direction to promote a more transparent and open local government, however, the prohibition on pre-meeting briefings does not prevent the mayor and general manager from meeting before a council meeting, “To ensure the meeting runs smoothly.”
Equally, the new model code does not prevent councillors from gathering outside of meetings for other purposes such as training, social gatherings, or workshops to seek councillors' views on particular matters, provided they are not matters that should be considered at a formal meeting in the presence of the public. It does not prevent councillors from seeking information from council about constituent matters through proper council channels.
A spokesperson for the NSW Office of Local Government told the Southern Wire, “Under the Local Government Act, meetings of council and council committees (where the committee consists entirely of councillors) must be open to the public, unless closed to consider confidential business.
“Council committees that include members who are not councillors don't need to be open to the public, but openness should always be an aspiration for these committees." The spokesperson explained.
The former publisher of both the Southern Highlands Express and Wollondilly Express newspapers, Jane King told the Southern Wire, “For over 15 years, we reported on local councils and witnessed blatant and extended voting blocks that totally undermined the purpose of transparent community representation.
“Serving as a councillor means putting principles before personalities, it’s not a social club. Councillors must make decisions based on the information they have to hand, to be leaders not followers.
"During the 2016-2021 Wingecarribee Shire Council term, there was an obvious voting block which led to the dysfunction and eventual dismissal of the councillors by then Minister for Local Government, Shelley Hancock.”
Read More: Southern Highlands, Wollondilly, Southern Tablelands