The Office of Local Government (OLG) finalised a new 2025 Model Code of Meeting Practice for Local Councils in NSW (2025 Model Meeting Code).

All councils were required to adopt a Code of Meeting Practice consistent with the Model Code by 31 December 2025.

Required changes that will impact the operation of the Council meeting related to:

We prepared a draft Northern Beaches Code of Meeting Practice (the draft Code), and at its meeting on 21 October, Council resolved to publicly exhibit the draft Code for community feedback.

We exhibited the draft Code from 24 October until 4 December 2025 and received 73 submissions. Thank you to everyone who made a submission. The engagement outcomes and a copy of all feedback received are available in the Community Engagement Report.

We presented a report on the outcomes from engagement to Council at the meeting on 16 December 2025.

Council adopted the Code of Meeting Practice with amendments, however, a rescission motion was received. The rescission motion was debated at the Council meeting on Tuesday 17 March 2026 (deferred from the 17 February meeting), and the motion was lost, meaning the Code of Meeting Practice adopted on 16 December 2025 is now in effect.

• View the Council Minutes (Item 14.1, p.8)

Links to previous Council reports and minutes are available under the Resources tab.

The Office of Local Government has published useful information on its website including the Model Code of Meeting Practice and Frequently asked questions.

The new Model Code will allow councils to determine whether or not to hold a public forum. This is an optional provision. If Council decides to hold a forum, mandatory provisions in the Model Code require the forum to be held before the meeting (not during), livestreamed and for the purpose of hearing oral submissions from members of the public on items of business to be considered at the Council meeting.

To comply with the Model Code requirements, Council intends to hold a public forum to hear from members of the community on matters listed on the agenda on an evening 7 days prior to the Council meeting. The forum will be livestreamed.

The draft 2025 Model Meeting Code has 3 elements:

• mandatory provisions (indicated in black font)
• non-mandatory provisions* (indicated in red font) covering areas of meeting practice that are common to most councils
• bespoke changes (indicated in green font) – e.g. where there may be a need for some variation in practice between councils based on local circumstances.

*Recommended non-mandatory provisions operate to set a benchmark based on what the OLG sees as best practice for the relevant area of practice.

If you need assistance providing feedback or would like information supplied in your language or another format, please contact Council via 1300 434 434 or council@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au.

If you would like to speak to someone over the phone in your language, call Translation and Interpreting Service (TIS) on 131 450 for a free interpreting service.

If you are d/Deaf or have a hearing or speech impairment, please contact National Relay Service on 1300 555 727.

གལ་སྲིད་ཁྱེད་རང་ལ་དགོངས་འཆར་འབུལ་བའི་ཆེད་དུ་རོགས་རམ་དགོས་པ་ཡང་ན་ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་སྐད་ཡིག་གི་ནང་དུ་ཡང་ན་རྣམ་པ་གཞན་ཞིག་གི་ལམ་ནས་གནས་ཚུལ་ཐོབ་འདོད་ཡོད་ན། ལྷན་ཁང་ལ་ཨང་གྲངས་ 1300 434 434 ཡང་ན་གློག་འཕྲིན་ council@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au བརྒྱུད་ནས་འབྲེལ་གནང་རོགས།

གལ་སྲིད་ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་རང་གི་སྐད་ཡིག་གི་ནང་དུ་ཁ་པར་ཐོག་མི་ཞིག་ལ་སྐད་ཆ་བཤད་འདོད་ཡོད་ན། ཡིག་སྒྱུར་དང་སྐད་སྒྱུར་ཞབས་ཞུ་

(Translation and Interpreting Service, TIS) ནས་རིན་པ་སྤྲོད་མི་དགོས་པའི་སྐད་སྒྱུར་ཞབས་ཞུ་ཞིག་ཐོབ་ཆེད་ཨང་གྲངས་ 131 450

如果您在提供反馈时需要帮助，或希望我们以您的语言或其他格式提供信息，请致电1300 434 434 或发送邮件至council@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au，与市政议会取得联系。

如果您想用您的语言与他人进行电话交谈，请拨打口笔译服务处 (Translation and Interpreting Service TIS ) 的热线 131 450，获得免费口译服务。

Si necesita ayuda para hacernos llegar su opinión o desea que le facilitemos la información en su idioma o en otro formato, póngase en contacto con el Concejo al 1300 434 434 o en council@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au

Si desea hablar con alguien por teléfono en su idioma, llame al Servicio de Traducción e Interpretación (Translation and Interpreting Service, TIS) en el 131 450 para recibir un servicio gratuito de interpretación.

तपाईंलाई पृष्ठपोषण प्रदान गर्न सहायता चाहिएमा वा आफ्नो भाषामा वा अर्को ढाँचामा जानकारी प्राप्त गर्न चाहेमा, कृपया काउन्सिललाई 1300 434 434 वा council@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au मा सम्पर्क गर्नुहोस्

तपाईं फोनमा कुनै व्यक्तिसँग आफ्नो भाषामा कुरा गर्न चाहनुहुन्छ भने, निःशुल्क दोभाषे सेवाका लागि अनुवादन तथा दोभाषे सेवा (Translation and Interpreting Service, TIS) लाई 131 450 मा कल गर्नुहोस्।

यदि आपको फीडबैक प्रदान करने में सहायता की आवश्यकता है या आप अपनी भाषा या किसी अन्य प्रारूप में जानकारी चाहते हैं, तो कृपया परिषद् से 1300 434 434 या council@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au पर ईमेल के माध्यम से संपर्क करें।

यदि आप अपनी भाषा में किसी से फोन पर बात करना चाहते हैं, तो निःशुल्क दुभाषिया सेवा के लिए अनुवाद और दुभाषिया सेवा (टीआईएस) (Translation and Interpreting Service (TIS)) को 131 450 पर कॉल करें।

الدعم

إذا كنت بحاجة إلى مساعدة لتقديم ملاحظات أو كنت ترغب في الحصول على معلومات بلغتك أو بتنسيق آخر، فيُرجى الاتصال بالمجلس على الرقم

1300 434 434 أو عبر البريد الإلكتروني council@northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au

وإذا كنت ترغب في التحدث إلى شخص ما عبر الهاتف بلغتك، فاتصل بخدمة الترجمة التحريرية والشفهية (Translation and Interpreting Service

(TIS)) على الرقم 450 131 للحصول على خدمة ترجمة شفهية مجانية. وأخبِر مَن تتصل به بلغتك المختارة وبأنك تريد التحدث إلى أحد مسؤولي مجلس نورثرن