It’s true that the sky won’t fall in if last week’s proposed changes to the Campbelltown Council code of meeting practice get the green light.
That’s because the reverse is also true: if councillor briefings end up being live streamed won’t mean the sky will fall in either.
In the long term, technology is irresistible and will win anyway, and live streaming will take place eventually.
And that’s always the way it works, no matter how hard some people try to stop or slow down progress.
They forget that it’s basically evolution and that makes change inevitable.
There were plenty of councillors who were also opposed to live telecasts of council meetings when the idea was first mooted just before the pandemic crash landed into our lives.
But it turned out to be a genius move, using technology to enable residents to watch council meetings without leaving their home – especially when they weren’t allowed to leave the home before of the restrictions imposed at the time.
Don’t forget planning panel meetings are also live streamed and have been for some time
But back to the council meeting of last week, which certainly got people talking around the town.
It’s worth pointing out that the live streaming changes were not the only part of the motion that went through.
Residents who check out the item on public exhibition will see that it also proposes to end “divisions’’ on council.
But these aren’t the kind of divisions one would normally associate with the word.
So, during meetings of council a vote is taken, and for a number of reasons a councillor will call for a “division’’, which means that council must record how each of the 15 councillors voted.
Macarthur Greens councillor Jayden Rivera suggested divisions be done away by recording how everyone voted every time.
Cr Rivera says recording how everyone voted every time would be very beneficial in the long run.
Perhaps, but now it’s up to you, the ratepayers, to have a look at the proposed changes and let council know what you think about it all.
