PUBLIC Question Time (PQT) at Bass Coast Shire Council meetings is a long-held right for our community.

It is fundamental to open and transparent governance at Council. 

We are fortunate to have it, as not all communities are permitted this right.

Since 2016 successive Bass Coast Shire Councils have imposed tighter restrictions on this right. 

In 2022 some former Councillors even attempted to remove this right altogether. But a strong community pushback left Councillors in no doubt that the community was opposed, and the attempt failed.

In many ways, public question time can be the most important aspect of open democracy and community participation at Council meetings. 

Even Council itself acknowledges that PQT is the only opportunity for community members to put public questions to Council meetings.

But now we see that public question time is under attack once again. 

The recently elected Council is proposing changes that will largely remove public questions from Council meetings. 

Their proposed changes will disenfranchise many community members across the shire.

It seems your Councillors do not have appropriate respect for community questions, and regard PQT as nothing more than a tedious chore for Council.

Without community participation via PQT the Councillors and senior bureaucrats might just as well hold Council meetings in private among themselves alone.

Our community has little time to act to protect this fundamental democratic right, Submissions close on Thursday, July 17.

Will you express your opposition to Councillors placing further restrictions on this fundamental right?

Kevin Griffin, Wonthaggi