Two Hunter councils want structured staff briefings about agenda items allowed again, subject to safeguards. The regulation that bans them is open for comment until 6 November

In August we explained how the rules changed: the Legislative Council disallowed the 2025 Model Code of Meeting Practice on 26 May, and a June regulation brought back some of its aims, including compulsory livestreaming and a bar on councillors other than the mayor or chair meeting staff before a meeting to discuss agenda items. The Office of Local Government’s circular, which Upper Hunter reproduced in its 27 July agenda, recommended that councils rescind the resolution adopting the 2025 Model Meeting Code. We said then that we had not surveyed the other councils. This is that survey.

Nine councils, side by side

“Nothing found” means nothing in the minutes and smaller papers we searched, not that a council has no view. Several councils’ full agendas run to tens of megabytes and we did not read them all; the method note below lists what we did and did not open.

The rule two councils want changed

Upper Hunter moved first. At its 27 July meeting the council resolved unanimously to express concern regarding the prohibition on councillors meeting with council staff prior to meetings, and to tell the Minister for Local Government and the Premier that it may limit councillors’ ability to fully understand complex matters prior to decision making. It asked the Government to consider amendments that would permit structured councillor briefings, workshops and site inspections, subject to appropriate transparency and governance safeguards, and sent the resolution to nearby councils. On livestreaming it had no complaint: it already livestreams all Council and Committee meetings.

The cost was already showing in Upper Hunter’s own papers. A late report to the same meeting, on a draft submission about councillor conduct, said the restriction had meant the document was formulated at a staff level and presented to Council without the benefit of discussing these matters beforehand.

Newcastle followed on 25 August. Its resolution register records that the council formally received Upper Hunter’s resolution and noted that the rule, section 236A of the Local Government (General) Regulation 2021, appears to create a broad prohibition on councillors meeting staff about agenda matters without qualification of time, or legitimate or prohibited activities. It asked the Lord Mayor to write to the Minister and the Office of Local Government supporting Local Government NSW’s call for an urgent review, and requesting amendments to permit structured councillor briefings, workshops, site inspections and other legitimate engagement, plus clarity on what is or will be listed on the agenda means in time.

Dungog took the other path open to a council and complied in writing. Its code of meeting practice, adopted 15 July 2026 (minute 2026/116), records that pre-meeting briefing paragraphs 3.32 to 3.37 were struck out under the June regulation. Cessnock’s June report, by contrast, said Public briefings will remain; public briefings are a different thing from a councillor meeting staff privately, and nothing we read says Cessnock’s practice breaches the rule.

Why 6 November matters

On 9 October the Office of Local Government issued Circular 26-21. The Local Government (General) Regulation 2021, which is where section 236A sits, is automatically repealed on 1 September 2027 unless remade, and the Office proposes to remake it as separate regulations. Its Regulatory Impact Statement puts Part 10 – Meetings including the model code of meeting practice into a new Local Government (Council Governance and Operations) Regulation.

The statement describes the work as regrouping, renumbering and language modernisation. In 27 pages it does not mention section 236A, livestreaming or the disallowance, and no draft regulation text is posted beside it. It does invite submissions on any of the matters raised in the RIS and any other matter contained in the proposed Regulations, through OLG’s policy and legislation page, by 5pm on Friday 6 November 2026. As at 10 October the circulars index lists no new model meeting code, although the four-month bar on making one ended on 26 September.

Our view, labelled as such

The livestreaming half of the June regulation is settled in practice: of the eight councils we could read, seven plainly stream, and Upper Hunter says the mandate changed nothing for it. The argument is all about section 236A, and the councils objecting are not asking for the corridor conversation back. Both resolutions ask for structured briefings with safeguards, and Newcastle’s sharpest point is about scope: a rule with no time limit on what will be listed can reach a workshop on next year’s budget. That is a fair criticism of the drafting, and it can be fixed without giving up the gain, which is that answers a councillor gets are written down and published before the vote.

The remake is the obvious place to fix it, and the consultation paper does not say whether section 236A will carry over as it stands. A council or resident with a view has four weeks to put it in writing.

Sit on one of these councils, or found a minute we missed? Tell us and we will check it against the council’s papers and log the outcome here.