RESIDENTS will soon be able to watch council meetings from the comfort of their own homes after councillors voted in favour of live-streaming.
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The report on Tuesday night initially recommended voice recording, accessible only by mayor Reg Kidd, general manager Garry Styles and relevant council staff for the purpose of creating the minutes but not publicly released.
However, councillor Jeff Whitton asked for live-streaming to be added.
“As part of the election, most of us in this room have talked about getting the message out into the community in a real-time sense and in a way that they’re part of what’s happening in council,” he said.
“The feedback that we got from the Central Western Daily, who did the live-streaming of the election of the deputy mayor, there was a lot of people who actually were interested and watched.”
“Sure they may not be here in person, but they can take the time and watch, if they choose to, how we as councillors perform on their behalf.”
The Central Western Daily live-streamed the meeting on September 26, gaining more than 3600 views.
Most of us have talked about getting the message out into the community in a real-time sense.
- Councillor Jeff Whitton
Councillor Kevin Duffy agreed, saying it would make access far easier.
“We’ve seen a number of times here where the gallery has been full and the meeting hasn’t gone ahead or a decision hasn’t been made and people had to find babysitters and they couldn’t come back,” he said.
Mayor Reg Kidd said he thought the council could be progressive as other councils had already introduced the idea and the state government was looking at a code of practice for live-streaming.
“Maybe it’s a way perhaps of making us switch on more in terms of what we’re there to discuss,” he said.
“I had some friends up in Queensland who watched it and my son overseas actually saw it and they thought it was terrific.”
The move could also improve councillor behaviour in the chamber, with councillor Tony Mileto seeking to limit mobile phone use to breaks.
“People were disappointed that there were some councillors who were using mobile phones during the live streaming, which they thought was unprofessional,” he said.
“The feedback I received is that councillors may not be concentrating as well as what they should if they’re texting on their phones while there’s a meeting going on.”
The council will go to expressions of interest for businesses with expertise in audio and visual recording.
The Central Western Daily ran on online poll on recording council meetings – 62 per cent supported live-streaming, while 31 per cent supported either a video or audio recording released after the meeting.
Only 7 per cent believed recordings should not be made available to the public.