Ordinary Council meetings have time allocated as “public question time” to give members of the public an opportunity to ask questions about the activities of Council. There are however some conditions that have to be met which are prescribed by the Local Government Act 1993 or detailed in Council policy.

General Conditions

• Up to 30 minutes, if required, is allotted for public question time however at the end of the allotted time Council may decide to allocate additional time
• A member of the public intending to ask a question is to announce their name before asking a question
• Debate will not be allowed on any question that is asked or the answer to that question

Questions without notice

When you attend an ordinary Council meeting you will be invited to ask questions by the Chairperson however:

• The Chairperson must not allow you to ask a question that does not relate to an item of business on the agenda
• You are to put your question succinctly and without argument
• The Chairperson will exercise his/her discretion in deciding whether you should be allowed to ask more than 2 questions
• The Chairperson will decide the order in which questions are to be asked and may rotate the order between different members of the public if they have more than one question to ask
• The Chairperson may refuse to accept a question but he or she must give reasons for doing so
• The Chairperson may ask that you put your question in writing (ie on notice – see below) to be answered at a later meeting
• Neither your question, nor the answer to your question, will be recorded in the minutes

Questions on Notice

You can give written notice to the General Manager that you intend to ask a question at the next ordinary Council meeting. A “question on notice” can be about any of Council’s activities and:

• Must be received by the General Manager at least 7 days before the next ordinary Council meeting (ie usually the Sunday of the week before an ordinary Council meeting held on a Monday night)
• You must be present at the Council meeting to ask your question in which case:
•       You will be provided with an answer to your question
•       Your question and at least a summary of the answer will be recorded in the minutes

Please make sure that you provide your telephone contact details when you submit a question on notice.

If you wish to send your question on notice by e-mail please send it to gccmail@gcc.tas.gov.au. You are advised to submit your question as soon as you can so that you receive an acknowledgement before the prescribed deadline (1^st dot point above). If you haven’t heard from us within a few hours of sending us your question please contact the Governance & Performance Department on 62166323.