The Office of Local Government (OLG) publishes a Model Code of Meeting Practice (the Model COMP) to assist councils to adopt a uniform set of meeting rules consistent with the Act and the Local Government (General) Regulation 2021. The 2025 Model COMP was published by the OLG on 29 August 2025.

The 2025 Model COMP enables councils to hold public forums and determine the rules and timing for their conduct.

Here at City of Newcastle, the Public Voice and Public Briefing process is a well-established and effective mechanism for facilitating public forums. It allows members of the public and/or our staff to address the Council on matters relevant to our functions. These sessions are conducted as a Committee of the Whole in accordance with our Code of Meeting Practice, providing an opportunity for questions but not for decision making.

We are committed to regularly reviewing its policies to ensure they remain relevant, current, and aligned with best practice. The Policy is scheduled for review under our standard review cycle. In addition, it is timely to review the Policy in connection with the release of the 2025 Model COMP.

A revised version of CN’s Public Voice and Public Briefing Policy (the Draft Policy), including tracked changes and detailed comments explaining the rationale for each amendment, is in the Document Library.

A clean version of the Draft Policy is also included in the Document Library for ease of reference.

A copy of the CN’s current Policy is available on our website.

We are seeking community feedback on the Draft Policy. The public exhibition period commences on Wednesday 29 October 2025. You can submit your feedback by completing the form below.

Submissions are open until 5pm on Wednesday 26 November 2025.

We will review submissions received during the public exhibition period. A summary of submissions will be included in a report to Council in December 2025. If no submissions are received, the Draft Policy 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.