Council Meetings Hub

Golden Plains Shire has Governance Rules which provide procedures for decision making and the conduct of Council meetings, including for public participation and election of a Mayor and Deputy Mayor. 

Governance Rules. 

A copy of the unconfirmed minutes will be made available online by the Friday following the meeting at the link below. These minutes are then confirmed at the following Council meeting and subsequently published as confirmed.

Confirmed minutes from previous meetings from recent years are also available at the link below. For minutes from meetings prior to 2016, please call 5220 7111 or email [email protected].

Meeting Minutes

A copy of the agenda for the next Council Meeting will be made available here the Friday prior to the meeting. Previous Meeting Agendas are also available at this link.

All council meetings are open to the public to either attend in person or view via livestream, with the exception of when the Council decides to close the meeting to the public (in-camera meetings) in certain circumstances. Attending council meetings can be a good way to understand how Council makes decisions.

While council meetings are an opportunity to observe the Council at work, they are not the place for members of the public to informally address councillors.

Council welcomes members of the public to ask questions on any Council related matters. If you have a question to ask at a Meeting of Council, it must be written and received by 10am of the day of the meeting.

The person who submitted the question, or their representative, must be present at the meeting or available on Zoom to ask their question. 

Options for submitting a question include:

• Complete an online form;
• Submit a form by email to [email protected]; or 
• Deliver a form to the Council Offices

Complete Online Form

Download Form

Any member of the public addressing the Council must extend due courtesy and respect to the Council and the processes under which it operates and must take direction from the Chairperson whenever called upon to do so. For more information on participating in Public Question Time, please view the following documents:

There is always the opportunity to informally speak with Councillors either before or after a Council Meeting.

Any person may lodge a written submission as a submitter, objector or applicant, and may also request to speak at the relevant Meeting of Council in regards to:

• A planning matter (for example, a planning permit application) where the person is the applicant or has previously made an objection in accordance with The Planning and Environment Act 1987
• A matter where Council called for submissions under sections 55 to 56 of the Local Government Act 2020 (e.g. the council budget) and the presenter has previously made a formal submission
• A matter where Council called for submissions under other legislation
• A matter where Council called for submissions under a Council Policy

No time will be allocated to presentations on any other agenda items. Any member of the public addressing the Council must extend due courtesy and respect to the Council and the processes under which it operates and must take direction from the Chairperson whenever called upon to do so.

COVID-19 Update: 

Due to COVID-19 and related changes to Council meetings, public presentation and submissions can be presented virtually at meetings. The maximum time limit of five minutes still applies.

Register to make a presentation

Opening Declaration

• The Chair will read the vision and an Acknowledgement of Country.
• The Chair will lead the Councillors into an acknowledgement to the Wadawurrung and Eastern Maar Peoples, the traditional custodians of the land in Golden Plains Shire.

Apologies and Leave of Absence

• The Chair will ask if there are any apologies of Councillors. If there are, it will be moved and seconded to accept any apologies.

Confirmation of Minutes

• The minutes of the previous Council meeting are then moved and seconded by Councillors if they are true and correct. If any changes need to be made to the minutes, they are noted at this time and must be agreed to by a majority of Councillors.

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

• The Chair requests Councillors to nominate if they have any conflict of interest with any of the agenda items. Conflicts of Interest for Local Government and Councils and defined in The Local Government Act 2020 (the Act), sections 126 to 130. Under the Act, if a conflict does exist, it is classified as either a direct or indirect conflict. The Councillor concerned must describe the type of conflict of interest. This then means when the item is discussed by Council that the Councillor with a conflict of interest must leave the chamber for the period of debate and during the vote. The Councillor will be advised when the resolution has been voted upon so that they can re-enter the chamber. Their period of absence will be noted in the minutes.

Assembly of Councillors

• As per the Local Government Act 2020, sections 63 to 64 – Assembly of Councillors means a meeting of an advisory committee of the Council, if at least one Councillor is present, or a planned or scheduled meeting of at least half the Councillors and one member of Council staff, which considers matters that are intended or likely to be –

(a) The subject of a decision of the Council; or

(b) Subject to the exercise of a function, duty or power of the Council that  has been delegated to a person or committee –

But does not include a meeting of the Council, a special committee meeting of the Council, an audit committee meeting established under sections 53 to 54, a club, association, peak body, political party or other organisation

Any written record of an Assembly of Councillors is declared at the Council Meeting.

Public Question Time runs for a maximum of 30 minutes at Council Meetings. Council welcomes members of the public to attend the meetings and ask questions on any Council related matters. A person can ask a maximum of two questions at a single meeting. All questions must be written and received by 10am of the day of the meeting. The person who submitted the question, or their representative, must be present at the meeting to ask their question. For more information on Public Question Time or to submit a question, read the above Attending, Asking Questions and Presenting at a Council Meeting section.

This section forms the main part of the agenda and comprises reports submitted by Council Officers in which Recommendations are made to the Council for consideration. The Recommendations as set out in the Agenda are simply proposals to the Council for its consideration. The Council may adopt these Recommendation, amend the Recommendation, determine a completely different course of action, or it may decline to pursue any course of action.

A Notice of Motion has been put forward by a Councillor to be considered as part of the agenda. They require a decision to be made about a particular matter at the meeting rather than calling for a report to come back to Council.

Members of the community can lodge a petition with Council. A petition presented to the Council will be assessed as soon as practical and the petitioners advised of the outcome. If the assessment of a petition requires more than one month, the petitioners shall be advised of the reason for the delay in assessment and the expected duration.

This section allows for matters of an urgent nature to be considered by Council. As no prior notice has been given for relevant issue, Council must vote on whether or not the issue will be considered, and a two-thirds majority must be achieved.

Some Council meetings will contain material that will be discussed “in camera”. This means that the information is confidential and all members of the gallery and media must leave the chamber. Information that is confidential is defined under section 3(1) of the Local Government Act 2020.

The ‘in camera’ part of the meeting is at the end of the meeting so that the gallery does not have to wait for the meeting to re-adjourn. This does not preclude the Council from moving ‘in camera’ at any stage during the meeting.

The Chair requests Councillors to nominate if they have any conflict of interest with any of the agenda items. Conflicts of Interest for Local Government and Councils and defined in The Local Government Act 2020 (the Act), sections 126 to 130. Under the Act, if a conflict does exist, it is classified as either a direct or indirect conflict. The Councillor concerned must describe the type of conflict of interest. This then means when the item is discussed by Council that the Councillor with a conflict of interest must leave the chamber for the period of debate and during the vote. The Councillor will be advised when the resolution has been voted upon so that they can re-enter the chamber. Their period of absence will be noted in the minutes.