The motion, brought forward by Deputy Mayor Jasmine Hill, highlights a procedural gap in the council’s current transparency framework. While the council resolved in March 2025 to establish a process for releasing confidential matters once secrecy is no longer required, the current system still relies on a case-by-case resolution for every individual item.

Key details of the motion include:

• A request for the CEO to report back on current administrative processes for identifying and recommending the release of confidential matters.
• An investigation into existing criteria, triggers, or indicative timeframes (such as a 12-month cycle) used to assess when confidentiality should lapse.
• The exploration of options for a more proactive or systematic release mechanism to ensure confidentiality remains a “temporary necessity” rather than a “permanent default”.

Cr Hill said the proposal follows concerns that the current ad-hoc approach lacks consistency and places an unnecessary administrative burden on the council to revisit past decisions manually. The resulting report is expected to be presented at the next Ordinary Council Meeting.