Local Government Act 2020

A Council or delegated committee must keep a meeting open to the public unless the Council or delegated committee considers it necessary to close the meeting to the public because a circumstance specified in subsection (2) applies.

The circumstances are—

the meeting is to consider confidential information; or

security reasons; or

it is necessary to do so to enable the meeting to proceed in an orderly manner.

If the circumstance specified in subsection (2)(b) or (2)(c) applies, the meeting can only be closed to the public if the Council or delegated committee has made arrangements to enable the proceedings of the meeting to be viewed by members of the public as the meeting is being held.

For the purposes of subsection (3), the arrangements may include provision to view the proceedings on the Internet site of the Council or on closed circuit television.

If a Council or delegated committee determines that a meeting is to be closed to the public to consider confidential information, the Council or delegated committee must record in the minutes of the meeting that are available for public inspection—

the ground or grounds for determining to close the meeting to the public by reference to the grounds specified in the definition of confidential information in section 3(1); and

an explanation of why the specified ground or grounds applied.

In this section—

in the case of a Council meeting or a joint meeting of Councils—

attendance in person by members of the public; or

a meeting that is broadcasted live on the Internet site of the Council; or

any other prescribed means of meeting; or

in the case of a meeting of a delegated committee or a joint delegated committee—

attendance in person by members of the public; or

a meeting that is broadcasted live on the Internet site of the Council; or

a meeting that is recorded and published on the Internet site of the Council as soon as practicable after the meeting; or

any other prescribed means of meeting.