During Hilltops Council's ordinary monthly meeting, the council voted in favour of rescinding its most recent Code of Meeting Practice reverting to the previous Code approved by the council on 14 January 2025 pending further clarity from the Office of Local Government or the Office of the Minister. This motion also noted the resolution of the NSW Legislative Council carried on 26 May 2026 rescinding the Model Code of Meeting Practice. Hilltops Shire Council's Mayor Brian Ingram introduced the motion during the mayoral minute and sad the resolution of the Legislative Council was put forward by Dr Amanda Cohn and took it where it needed to go. Cr Ingram said he, along with the general manager and two other councillors attended a summit in Sydney several weeks ago with representatives of other councils and members of the NSW government. Cr Ingram said he put forward the question at the summit about rescinding some of what was in model code of meeting practice introduced this year, in particular the section which abolished the ability to have briefings, prior to the Council. Despite the response to the question at the summit from the relevant Minister (of Local Government), a motion was tabled by Dr Amanda Cohn of the Greens to disallow the new Code of Meeting Practice was passed by the upper house Council voted in favour of the motion to revert o the previous Code approved by the council on 14 January 2025 pending further clarity from the Office of Local Government or the Office of the Minister, 10-0. In an address via Facebook after the Hilltops Council meeting, Cr Ingram said the code of meeting practice was rescinded and they go back to the old code of meeting practice for the time being, which for him the major part was the return of the briefings. Following both the NSW Legislative Assembly's resolution and Hilltops Council's resolution last week, the NSW Country Mayors Association's (CMA) Chairman Mayor Rick Firman OAM expressed concern that councils across NSW must now wind the clock back on the implementation of the 2025 Local Government Model Code of Conduct as a result of the passing of the government's disallowance motion. “It is unfortunate that our representatives in the NSW Parliament were unable to negotiate the introduction of an amendment to the Code of Meeting Practice to allow attendance at meetings by audio-visual link," Mayor Firman said. "While we understand that talks were underway for this to occur, they had dragged on for some time resulting in the Disallowance motion,” he said. “The CMA has, since the introduction of the new Code, lobbied consistently for a reversion to the previous arrangements whereby councillors who were unable to attend a meeting in person could do so by AVL. “Many of our members were also deeply dissatisfied with the new Code’s requirement that councillors could no longer hold briefings in private. The CMA also lobbied for this to be returned to the Code, our members strongly believe that councillors must have the opportunity to explore, learn and investigate proposals before council without third-party scrutiny," Mayor Firman said. "Decision-making by councillors should be informed, and sometimes this must be done by way of private briefings where matters can be aired without fear or favour,” Mayor Firman said. The new Local Government Code of Meeting Practice was introduced last year, it included numerous changes from the previous Code including removing the ability of councillors to attend meetings via AVL, the only exception being natural disaster and banning private briefing for councillors. The removal of both was decried by councils across NSW. The loss of attendance by AVL was seen as restricting councillors’ abilities to represent their communities and for the possibility of misuse because council meetings could be deliberated scheduled for times when some councillors would not be able to attend in person. While the loss of private briefings was seen as restricting councillors’ opportunities to be better informed about the matters under their consideration.
