Public Speaker Registration Form

Submit this form to Council no later than 4.30pm on the day of the Council Meeting.

Audio/Visual link requests must be submitted by 9:30am on the day of the Council Meeting.

Enquiries: Phone 02 6368 2104

Audio/Visual link requests must be submitted by 9:30am on the day of the Council Meeting.

I have read and understand the Conditions, Conduct and Unacceptable Behaviour at the Public Forum details as set below.

The information supplied by you is private information for the purposes of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act. Your information is being collected by Council and may be used in the future to provide feedback on any issue raised. The information will not be used for any other purpose, and you can elect not to provide particular details, however your name and the topic for discussion must be supplied.

The maximum speaking time is five minutes per speaker. The Public Forum will run for 15 minutes. At the discretion of the chair, more time may be provided for a speaker.

Speakers must identify the item of business on the agenda of the council meeting the person wishes to speak on, and whether they wish to speak ‘for’ or ‘against’ the item. Speakers at public forums must not digress from the item on the agenda of the council meeting they have applied to address the council on.

Should there be more than one person wishing to address Council on an issue, those persons are to nominate one person to represent the group (applicable only if the 15 minutes are exceeded).

The Public Forum cannot be used to request reports, nor used to address matters in the minutes of an earlier meeting or other matters already dealt with at the meeting.

Persons speaking in the Public Forum may, with the permission of the Chair, use appropriate materials or documents to support their position, but may not table documents to be actioned or use electronic presentations.

Please be advised that this is a public forum, and speakers need to be aware that they have no protection from action in response to any comments they may make.

Speakers will abide by Council’s Code of Conduct when addressing the Council, Committee or Forum.

The Code of Conduct incorporates integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and respect.

The Public Forum does not provide private parliamentary privilege to speakers, Councillors or staff.

Speakers are expected to behave in a manner that does not cause any reasonable person unwarranted offence or embarrassment act lawfully honestly and to exercise a degree of care and diligence in the comments made observe the highest standards of honesty and integrity, and to avoid conduct (verbal/actions) that might suggest any departure from the key principles of conduct avoid any behaviour that could be deemed to be an act of disorder or misbehaviour such as insults or personal reflections on or imputes improper motives when discussing others not behave in a manner that might be considered to be threatening to or harassment of Councillors or Council staff

Unacceptable behaviour at the Public Forum

Persons who conduct themselves in a manner considered by any reasonable person, to be disorderly, will be expelled from the forum in a similar manner as that provided under the Meetings Regulations for Council and Committee meetings (Section 258) Local Government (General) Regulation 2005.

Should the behaviour of a speaker and/or audience be such that the Mayor/Chairperson of the forum deems if necessary to discontinue a particular section of the forum, then the following will apply: speaker and/or persons will be asked to discontinue the offensive behaviour; speaker and/or persons may be asked to leave the building where the meeting is being held; a Police Officer or any person authorised for the purpose by Council, or the person presiding may, by using only such force as is necessary, remove the person/persons from the building and if necessary restrain that person from re-entering the building; the person may be advised to correspond in future with Council via mail or email and/or Council’s appointed legal representative