'Likely unlawful': Rangitīkei District Council backtracks on holding meetings behind closed doors

The Rangitīkei District Council did not live-stream last week's Finance and Performance committee meeting - something a law professor concluded was likely unlawful. Photo / NZME

The Rangitīkei District Council has changed tack on holding council committee meetings behind closed doors during Alert level 2 - a move a law professor said was likely unlawful.

The council informed the Chronicle last week that a reporter would not be able to attend Thursday's finance and performance committee and full council meetings, due to alert level 2 restrictions.

Both Rangitīkei full council and council committee meetings are currently being held predominantly via Zoom due to the small size of the council chamber, with only a few elected officials attending the meeting in person.

As part of those restrictions, both the media and the public are prohibited from watching the meetings in-person, with the council instead live-streaming the meeting of the full council to social media.

But last week's Finance and Performance Committee was planned to be held behind closed doors, without a live stream or a recording of the meeting to be made public.

After a discussion with the Chronicle, the council reached a compromise, offering to post a recording of the meeting online after its conclusion, but it said a live stream would not be possible.

Dr Dean Knight, an associate professor at Victoria University's Faculty of Law, said the unwillingness to live stream the meeting was likely unlawful.

"A temporary amendment to the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 regulates access to meetings that are public — that is, not public-excluded — during the pandemic. It directs meetings be broadcast live 'if it is reasonably practicable," Knight explained.

"Given the Council is video-recording the committee meetings and is also live broadcasting full Council, it's difficult to see any legitimate reason for not live broadcasting the committee meetings."

The council accepted that it should have made the meeting more accessible, and said all future committee meetings will be live-streamed while under Covid-19 restrictions.

"It is important to us that we are transparent in our decision-making to our community, so while we are under alert level restrictions we will follow this process for any committee and council meetings that are held in our Council Chamber," group manager for democracy and planning Carol Gordon said.

Gordon did not respond to questions asking why the council made the call in the first place to not live-stream the meeting.