Media response - Council meeting attendance

Published on 09 October 2023

Approach from The Age

I’m working on a story about councillor attendance rates at council meetings, both in-person and online.

  1. How many meetings in a sitting year does your council have?
  2. How many of your councillors attended meetings in-person this sitting year?
  3. Have there been councillors who have not attended more than three meetings this council year?
  4. Has COVID affected the attendance rate of councillors at meetings, both in-person and online?
  5. What is the council doing to encourage attendance rates at meetings?
  6. Is the council concerned about some of its councillors not attending meetings (both online and in-person) or attending sporadically?
  7. What action can council take to ask a councillor to forfeit their position who isn’t coming to meetings? I.e how many council meetings can a councillor miss before they must forfeit their seat.

Response

In the 2022/23 financial year Monash Council had 14 meetings, this was made up of 12 regular monthly meetings of Council and two additional meetings. 

Monash Councillors collectively attended 93.5 per cent of these meetings. Both online and in-person attendance is allowed under the Monash Governance Rules, so this is not split out when recording attendance.

There are a range of reasons why a Councillor may not be able to attend a meeting. With a strong attendance rate of close to 95 per cent, there no need for measures to further encourage attendance at Monash. Nor is there evidence that COVID is playing a role in attendance above and beyond other illnesses.

For inclusion, not attribution

Under the Victorian Government’s Local Government Act 2020, a Councillor ceases to hold office if they are absent from Council meetings for a period of four consecutive months.

Issued: 9 October

To: The Age

Quoting: Cr Tina Samardzija

 

 

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