A Code of Meeting Practice (COMP) provides a set of rules that apply to council meetings.

The Office of Local Government (the OLG) published a best practice Model Code of Meeting Practice (Model COMP) in 2021 to assist councils to adopt a uniform set of meeting rules consistent with the Local Government Act 1993 (the Act) and the Local Government (General) Regulation 2021 (the Regulation).

City of Newcastle’s (CN) current COMP is based on the OLG's Model COMP with CN’s additional clauses generally depicted alphanumerically e.g. 5.2A. A copy of the current COMP is available on CN’s website.

Councils are required (under section 360 of the Local Government Act 1993) to adopt a code of meeting practice that incorporates the mandatory provisions of the Model Meeting Code no later than 12 months after their elections, following public exhibition and consultation.

Proposed amendments to CN’s current COMP are depicted in track changes.

The OLG is proposing to release a new Model COMP this Council term and further revisions will be considered once the OLG’s revised Model COMP is released.

We are seeking community feedback on the Draft COMP. The public exhibition period commenced on Wednesday 23 July 2025. You can submit your feedback by completing the below form.

The public exhibition period closes at 5pm on Wednesday 3 September 2025.

We will review submissions received during the public exhibition period. A summary of submissions will be included in a report to Council, along with the Draft COMP, in September 2025. If no submissions are received, the Draft COMP will be considered adopted without a further report to Council.

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Protecting your privacy

The City of Newcastle is committed to protecting your privacy. We take reasonable steps to comply with relevant legislation and Council policy.

Purpose of collecting personal details: Council is collecting this information to determine the local community’s views and opinions on the document outlined.

Intended recipients: Information provided as part of the consultation will be used as part of the investigation into the document, and may be included in future reports on the issue.

Storage and security: Information provided will be stored on Council's database and will be subject to Council’s information and privacy policies.

Access: Individuals can access data to check accuracy by contacting Council.