Governance Rules

Civic Centre Building

At the April 26 meeting, Council adopted the new Governance Rules, which are available here:

Governance Rules(PDF, 507KB) 

You can also:

Background

Council reviewed its Governance Rules and proposed to make several amendments. Draft amendments were approved by Council (29 November 2022 meeting) for public consultation. 

The proposed Governance Rules were further amended, with additional time for community review.

Council proposed the addition of Section 42(d) to clarify where a Councillor is attending a Council Meeting virtually, the Councillor will be taken as present at the meeting when their camera is turned on.

Consultation was extended to 14 March 2023 to take in the addition.

More information Shape Monash - Governance Rules

Council Meeting:

Report to Council - 29 November 2022(PDF, 778KB)

Council meeting Decisions (item 4.5)(PDF, 299KB)

Watch Council meeting video recording (item 4.5)

Under the Local Government Act 1989 councils were required to have a local law that governed the conduct of its meetings.

Under the new Local Government Act 2020, a council is now required to have Governance Rules to govern the conduct of Council meetings and meetings of any delegated committee the Council may establish.

The Governance Rules also govern the process for the election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor and the disclosure of conflicts of interest and incorporate Council’s Election Period Policy.

The Governance Rules must provide for a Council to:

  1. consider and make decisions on any matter being considered by the Council fairly and on the merits; and
  2. institute decision making processes to ensure that any person whose rights will be directly affected by a decision of the Council is entitled to communicate their views and have their interests considered.

A council must ensure that a process of community engagement is followed in developing or amending its Governance Rules.  If the amendment only involves the adoption of a good practice guideline issued by the Minister for Local Government, the community engagement process is not required to be undertaken.

Queries regarding Governance Rules may be addressed to Renee Russell, Coordinator Governance, on 9518 3514 or councillorsupport@monash.vic.gov.au