Northern Beaches Council is proposing to cut the amount of time residents and councillors will be allowed to speak at meetings and to ban photography anywhere near them.
This will be the second time the Northern Beaches Council has sought to limit the Public Forum that opens each Meeting where residents may speak to Motions or Items or present insights into matters directly impacting them and the community.
At the February 27 2018 Meeting the draft Meeting Code proposed abolishing the Public Forum but would still include the Public Address. Then it was proposed that, if the draft Code of Meeting Practice was adopted, the Public Forum would continue as a separate community meeting held five times a year in venues rotating across the region and not be part of the council meetings.
At that Meeting, amendments moved and seconded by Cr. De Luca and Ferguson meant the Vox populi would persist.
The same idea is again being regurgitated to see if anyone will salute.
On Saturday July 27 2024 Pittwater Greens Councillor Miranda Korzy said she opposed staff proposals contained in a draft Code of Meeting Practice, to cut speakers’ time during public forums and addresses from three to two minutes.
These had once been 5 minutes but had been reduced under the NBC.
Similarly, all councillors would be limited to speeches of two minutes during the meetings, unless they had proposed a motion, Ms Korzy said.
A ban on photography during meetings would also be extended to before and after, “whilst in the vicinity of the meeting location”, she said.
“Cutting speeches to two minutes might be a great relief for some, but the loss of those 150 words might prevent someone from explaining the intricacies of a complicated issue or describing a particularly pertinent example.
“Meetings often run from 6pm to 11.30pm, with many of us arriving home well after midnight, and I would dearly love to see them shorter.
“We’re all aware they deteriorate after about 9pm with participants getting tired, niggling at each other across the floor and losing concentration.
“However, the proposed solution, based on the idea of making meetings more efficient, will add to the slow curtailment of democratic debate.
“The root of the problem is that the council unavoidably has too much business on its agenda, due to its size since the forced amalgamation, and some councillors’ antics delay progress through the agenda.
“The open-ended ban on photography is also an incursion on democracy, and a nonsense when the council itself screens the meetings online.
“Councillors and members of the community would be prevented from focusing the lens on those attending, even outside the chamber, which would limit anyone snapping photos showing numbers of supporters for any issue.”
The council will vote on Tuesday to place the draft Code of Meeting Practice on Public exhibition.
- improve regionally significant open space, including links between bushland, parks, centres and waterways
- enable more effective public use of regionally significant open space
- improve access to a diverse mix of open space opportunities for the community of Greater Sydney and the Central Coast
- promote partnerships between state and local government
- support projects that demonstrate a commitment to improved outcomes for health, sustainability, climate change and communities.
- to provide and improve open space that supports housing supply.
Priority will be given to projects that increase and improve open space to support housing supply.
A large protected area of bushland and waterways, with a diversity of flora and fauna, high water quality and scenic value, that ensures protection of its natural environment and cultural values, conserves threatened species and communities, provides opportunity for a variety of recreational activities in a low-key natural setting, offers an educational asset and acknowledges its importance as a war memorial park.
IS THIS WHAT THEY CALL "STEWARDSHIP" ?Northern Beaches Council has the significant responsibility of caring for Manly Warringah War Memorial Park. Which, in recent years, has earned both "State Park" and "NSW Heritage" status because of its rich biodiversity values, as documented in this community initiated project https://manlydambiodiversityproject.orgIf you've visited the park recently you will have noticed a large swathe of ugly cleared vegetation (see above photos).This previously sensitive intact bushland was where small birds nested in safety, endangered pygmy possums found sanctuary and where wallabies had an unobstructed water source. Now, sadly, the ancient sandstone rocks are being drilled into to create footings for a $1.8 million plastic boardwalk.Some of Australia's top ecologists were involved in documenting wildlife and plants for the above linked to study. All of them recommended that there should be NO more fragmentation of bushland for tracks because of the negative impacts it was having on biodiversity. But it appears that yet again our Council would rather spend money on "infrastructure" than conserving this unique natural oasis. We have many many parks on the Northern Beaches but only one place where the natural bushland was specifically conserved to create Australia's only living war memorial. Imagine how $1.8m could be used to benefit our diminishing threatened species !!As the Save Manly Dam Catchment Committee we try and campaign to protect nature that cannot speak for itself (see Boardwalk Empire video in comments) and for the humans that love this wonderful wild environment. Sorry we failed you this time. Australia, not surprisingly, has the world's worst extinction rate.
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