The practice of many councils that hold 'closed' meetings out of the eye of the public and the media will no longer be permitted.
A Friday night missive from the NSW Office of Local Government (OLG) – titled "The model code of meeting practice for local councils in NSW" – effectively puts an end to "briefing sessions" which Wollongong City Council has conducted for many years. Ratepayers, residents and the media have no visibility of what takes place in those meetings, which often discuss significant issues that impact the city and its people. The meetings are never minuted.
As previously reported in The Illawarra Flame, in 2024 the OLG released a discussion paper for public comment which said in part, "communities and councillors report that council decision making is not transparent – with decisions being seen as made behind closed doors, information not being provided or withheld, too much use of closed to the public briefings or councils going into closed sessions for no adequate rationale."
In the period of the new Council, from 24 October 2024 to 2 June 2025, Wollongong Council conducted 16 behind closed doors "briefings" covering 78 different topics. Matters discussed out of public view included Lake Illawarra Entrance Options Study, West Dapto Masterplan, Wollongong City Centre Urban Design Framework, Economic Development and Tourism, Urban Greening Program, Floodplain and Stormwater Management, Revenue Policy and Rates, Media Relations and Public Comment, Relocation of Bus Layover Site and the OLG Discussion Paper on Councillor Conduct and Meetings.
Wollongong Council's submission to the OLG was in favour of a continuation of its closed meetings. The Wollongong submission put the case for the practice of off-the-record meetings to continue to allow councillors to ask "the silly question" in "a safe environment" without fear of embarrassment.
In its submission to the OLG, Wollongong Council said, "that for the requirements for information considered at closed meetings to be made public after it ceases to be confidential may have administrative burdens and impacts that outweigh the perceived transparency improvements, due to already existing methods for the public to seek access to this information."
The Council's submission said: "Wollongong City Council takes pride in the transparency that it provides in its decision making. This is evidenced by the very infrequent use of confidential reports to Council meetings."
The new Model Meeting Code from the OLG must be adopted by councils no later than 31 December 2025 and "councils are required to consult with their communities prior to adopting a code of meeting practice".
While many on Wollongong Council were in favour of continuing to meet behind closed doors, Greens Councillor Kit Docker was not.
"For our community, these changes will mean greater visibility into how decisions are made," Cr Docker said. "The advice councillors receive will now be public, and residents may also have more opportunities to ask questions in regular public forums on council business.
"More transparency is a good thing. It's about strengthening trust between councils and the people we represent."
The community advocacy group, Neighbourhood Forum 5, representing people in central Wollongong, has also welcomed the decision of the Office of Local Government. NF5 said, "the pre-meeting briefings are inconsistent with the principles of transparency, accountability and public participation and have the ability to undermine confidence" in the Council.
Neighbourhood Forum 1 convenor Warwick Erwin has long been a critic of private briefings. “If there’s no minutes, there’s no information – it’s a secret meeting. Where is our transparency from council?” he said.
The leader of the forum for Helensburgh and surrounding suburbs for the past decade, Mr Erwin welcomes the OLG news but would like another step to increase trust and transparency: banning council staff from training newly elected councillors.
“Their training should not be done by Council staff. It should come out of the division of Local Government,” he said. “Council staff training new councillors on the council operations – on what they can do – is, to me, a conflict of interest.”
In a final irony, councillors are expected to meet behind closed doors this week to discuss the impact of the OLG decision to end closed meetings from the start of 2026.