Ballarat’s council question time will remain open for business, after councillors overturned a recommendation to have questions submitted in writing.
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Proposed laws would have meant the City of Ballarat meeting chairperson – usually the mayor – was able veto a question if it doesn’t relate to matters on that week’s council agenda.
When the motion to change the local law came up at 10.30pm on Wednesday night, a hush came across Ballarat’s eight present councillors, with none wanting to move the proposed motion to change question time.
As part of the local law proposed by officers, all questions would have been submitted in writing to City of Ballarat before 10am on the day of an ordinary meeting. They would be read out by a council officer at a meeting, with no public submissions to be made.
Councillor Grant Tillett, who moved an alternate motion preserving question time, said the public “needed the right to put themselves in the firing line, to put their point of view”.
“It’s a fundamental right,” he said.
I understand the intent of the officers, but we’ll be pilloried to hell and accused of all sorts of cover ups if we do anything different from what we’ve been doing.
- Councillor Grant Tillett
City of Ballarat's safety, risk and compliance services manager Cameron Montgomery said the changes were to “ensure council meetings are for decisions and decision-making, not for community engagement”.
Councillor Jim Rinaldi told the council chamber “we have a system that is not broken”, so he was “very confused” with the proposal.
Members of public can currently make a three minute presentation on an issue slated on the council agenda.
Councillor Ben Taylor was the only councillor to vote against public submissions remaining the same. He said in contentious moments, council can get “clouded by what that person has brought forward to us, sometimes we feel it’s new information”, resulting in development delays such as those seen at the Ballarat Orphanage site.
While current local laws state public questions should be as “brief as possible”, if changes were approved, a question could not have been longer than 150 words.
Councillor Daniel Moloney said it was “critical we maintain that ability for people to come in and ask questions without going through unnecessary rigor”.
“[Written questions] depersonalise the situation. It’s not a perfect situation and can be quite messy, but it’s a democratic, open and transparent approach,” he said.
Council officers stated the reduced question length would mean questions were “answered in a timely and efficient manner and to ensure that as many people as possible have a chance to ask questions at meetings”.