A Code of Meeting Practice (COMP) provides a set of rules that apply to council meetings to ensure they are open, accessible, orderly, effective and efficient.

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 Office of Local Government (OLG) Model Meeting Code (Model COMP), within 12 months of an election, following public exhibition and consultation.

In July 2025, we placed our 2025 draft COMP on public exhibition. During the exhibition period, the OLG released an updated 2025 Model Code of Meeting Practice (2025 Model COMP) that introduced a number of changes to mandatory provisions.

As a result, we are now required to revise our COMP to align with the 2025 Model COMP and re-exhibit the draft before adoption. All NSW Councils must adopt a COMP that incorporates the mandatory provisions of the 2025 Model COMP by no later than 31 December 2025.

The Draft COMP (found in the Document Library) incorporates the mandatory clauses from the 2025 Model COMP (shown in black font) and includes the following:

• Additional clauses and terminology changes to align with our practices, procedures, and language. These are shown in tracked changes and/or identified with alphanumeric references (e.g. 3.2B) in blue font.
• Previously adopted City of Newcastle specific clauses that are now proposed for deletion. These are retained for reference and appear in black font with strikethrough.
• Non-mandatory provisions from the 2025 Model COMP. These appear in red font and are shown in tracked changes where deletions or amendments are proposed.
• Detailed comments are provided throughout the document to explain the rationale for each change.

A clean version of the Draft COMP is also found in the Document Library for ease of reference.

A copy of our current COMP is available on our website.

We are seeking community feedback on the Draft COMP. The public exhibition period runs from Wednesday 29 October 2025 until Wednesday 26 November 2025. You can submit your feedback by completing the form below.

Submissions can be made up until 5pm on Wednesday 10 December 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 December 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

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.