Will secret council meetings return to Wollongong?

In a surprise move, NSW Parliament has overturned Minns government efforts to ban so-called "secret" council meetings in NSW.

Four Wollongong councillors – three Greens and an independent – have spoken out, saying the development was a backward step for community trust in how council operated.

What has surprised many is that the NSW Greens voted together with the Liberals, Nationals and Mark Latham in the Upper House to enable all NSW councils to bring back the briefings, which are closed to the public.

Community alarm

The Illawarra Flame has covered this issue extensively in the past two years.

While the Labor-controlled Wollongong City Council could see no issue with the behind-closed-doors meetings continuing out of public view and with no minutes taken, it raised the ire of Neighbourhood Forum community groups and non-Labor councillors.

Neighbourhood Forum 1 convenor Warwick Erwin, a long-time critic of the private councillor “briefings", said: “If there’s no minutes, there’s no information. It’s a secret meeting. Where is our transparency from council?”

NF5’s John Riggall highlighted how much council business was discussed out of the eye of the public and media, saying 31 confidential briefings were held between 24 October 2024 and December 2025 in which 127 issues were discussed.

State Labor, led by Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig, introduced a new mandatory Model Meeting Code of Practice to prevent those secret meetings from continuing.

At the time, the NSW Office of Local Government said: “Pre-meeting briefings are inconsistent with the principles of transparency, accountability and public participation, and have the potential to undermine confidence in the proper and lawful decision-making processes of the council.”

The new way of conducting business was introduced at the end of last year and many councils toed the line.

Wollongong City Council’s response was to abandon its practice of briefings and replace them with similarly secret workshops. The main difference was that councillors in the workshops weren’t permitted to discuss issues upcoming on council’s meeting agenda.

In February 2026, a council spokesperson said the organisation was committed to meeting the new requirements: “We may, as permitted by the requirements, hold workshops, strategic and discussion forums, induction sessions and professional development activities for councillors that are not public facing. These sessions are not decision-making forums."

'Unnecessary confusion'

Late last month, state Labor was blindsided when the Upper House Greens decided to rock the boat, and their Illawarra-based colleagues appear to have been taken by surprise.

The NSW Office of Local Government was strong in its response.

“Every council will now be burdened with unnecessary confusion and uncertainty as the transparency and other measures contained in the new Code need to be wound back by each of New South Wales’ 128 councils,” the OLG said in a statement.

“The Liberals-Nationals, the Greens and Mark Latham unity ticket has… thrown the baby out with the bathwater.”

Illawarra Greens councillors Jess Whittaker, Deidre Stuart and Kit Docker are the first Wollongong councillors to respond publicly to the news.

“The Greens support greater transparency and accountability in local government. While pre-meeting briefings can assist councillors to understand matters before decisions are made, they should not be used to share information that is unavailable to the public,” the Greens councillors said in a statement.

“Residents should have access to the same information as councillors, except where confidentiality is justified under Section 10A of the Local Government Act. Any material provided at briefing sessions should be made publicly available as soon as practicable, and mayors should not receive greater access to information than other councillors.

“In respect to workshops, the Greens recognise the value of workshops in helping councillors understand complex strategic issues, including long-term planning and community priorities. Transparency can be maintained by requiring councils to publish workshop materials within a specified timeframe.

“Where matters are genuinely confidential, such as commercial in confidence, councils should use existing closed-meeting provisions rather than confidential briefings. This provides a clear public record that confidential information has been considered and ensures greater accountability in council decision-making.”

Independent councillor Andrew Anthony, a long-time critic of secret meetings, said council was still to discuss (behind closed doors) “how to wind back” the meeting code.

“The option might be to just continue with the workshops in the way that we’ve got them now,” Cr Anthony said. “But there is still a lack of transparency about those workshops.

“Even if we reverted back to having the private briefings, there’s probably not much difference about what the community gets to find out. They’re still meetings that are being held in secret regardless of what you call them.”

Wollongong City Council has been contacted for comment.