Wyndham residents will soon be able to watch council meetings from the comfort of their home.
Wyndham council will start live-streaming its council meetings “as soon as practicable” in 2017, following a unanimous vote at Monday night’s meeting.
For those who can’t sit through the live-stream, fear not: the council will also be making the recordings available for download via the council website following each meeting.
The council currently makes audio recordings of its meetings, which residents can purchase for $15.
Cr Intaj Khan first brought up the idea with Star Weekly in October last year, saying at the time that council should be recording and live-streaming its meetings to encourage professionals, families and other people who wouldn’t otherwise attend a council meeting to see their elected representatives in action.
Cr Khan said it was great to see the idea come to fruition.
“It’s important [to do this] because not many people can make a 7pm meeting, and a lot of people don’t know what’s happening in our city,” he said.
“We do so many good things … they will be able to know how we’re making decisions.”
Cr Kim McAliney said the move was a sign of the times.
“I believe a number of councils are already doing this,” she said.
“It promotes transparency, accountability and good governance, and those who aren’t able to attend [a council meeting] in future will be able to have a look at what we’re doing online.
“It opens up a whole new avenue to engage with our community and they will have greater oversight of the decisions that affect them.”
Cr Peter Maynard added: “Council officers will be writing policy relating to this so that it’s used in the right way, and not used for grandstanding and carrying on.”
