News in brief

City of Sydney Council advised against live streaming

A motion to live stream all City of Sydney Council meetings was voted down by a rescission motion on Monday, August 25. The motion was originally put to Council by Liberal Councillor Edward Mandla. It was passed on its initial hearing, but Deputy Lord Mayor Robyn Kemmis requested a rescission motion, at which the vote was reversed. Council then proceeded to request a preliminary study into the feasibility of live streaming council meetings. The Corporate Finance Properties and Tenders Committee produced this study this week. “Few councils (less than 5 per cent of LGAs in Australia) are currently live streaming Committee and Council meetings. Additionally, in recent years, a number of Councils have ceased or rejected/not progressed proposals for the streaming of Council and Committee meetings,” the committee concluded. Based on these issues, as well as issues of cost, the committee recommended that council reject the live streaming proposal. The matter will be addressed by council when it meets on Monday, September 15.

Going Home Staying Home in review

A groundswell of community action has resulted in a formal review of the NSW Government’s Going Home Staying Home reforms. Criticised for using competitive tendering to replace specialist homelessness and crisis services with generalist homelessness services, the reforms have been the subject of heated debate over the last six months. Last week, the office of the NSW Ombudsman announced that it would be conducting a formal review of the reforms. Among the most outspoken politicians opposing the reforms, Shadow Minister for Housing Linda Burney has welcome the review but thinks more can be done to address the issue. “Women need to be confident that they will have somewhere to go in the horrific circumstances of domestic violence or sexual assault – and that’s why we are welcoming the Ombudsman’s involvement in this review.”