The Naracoorte Lucindale Council is selling itself short by not livestreaming all its council and committee meetings to the public.
That’s the view of Cr Craig McGuire, who told the council meeting in June that the community wanted to know what was going on in their council.
Cr McGuire said he noticed that the special council meeting on budget and the previous council meeting (May) had 3400 views online.
“I am questioning, and a lot of people are saying why it (the council meeting) wasn’t online when we went to Lucindale,” he said.
“I know what the intentions are within the chamber; they are good intentions.”
He said the council has spent $70,000 on livestreaming equipment, and it needs to be used.
“I was just hoping that we have spent $70,000 on this livestreaming equipment, people are watching it, that’s a lot of views in two council meetings.
“But we are still going to Frances and Lucindale, and they don’t have this setup.
“I would just like the council to reconsider perhaps even going to Lucindale and Frances for a meet and greet instead, but the livestreaming has taken off, and I just feel we are selling ourselves short, and the community really wants to see what’s going on.
He said we need these discussions to continue.
“The SEG meeting is coming up. I feel it should be livestreamed as well.
“There is great discussion in that meeting, and I feel the community is missing out on that as well.”
Responding to Cr McGuire, mayor Patrick Ross said even though the council misses two meetings in a year (not livestreamed), they were “incredibly transparent in the chamber”.
The discussions were taken on board.
The council spent $72,472 to purchase the livestreaming equipment.
In February 2023, the council engaged Horder Communications Solutions to supply and install the live streaming and recording systems in the current council chambers.
The previous council had included $40,000 in its budget to enable meetings to be livestreamed, but that never happened.
This council added $32,472 to the current budget allocation of $40,000 to bring the total budget to $72,472.
This article appeared in the Naracoorte Community News.