Dubbo Regional Council voted unanimously during an Extraordinary Meeting of Council on Tuesday 9 June to rescind the 2025 Model Code of Meeting Practice and readopt the previous Code following the vote by the NSW Legislative Council's to disallow the new Code on 26 May 2026.
All 128 councils in NSW are undertaking the same process.
Councillors had been against some of the changes to the new Code from the start, with a Notice of Motion adopted at Council's May 2026 meeting for the Mayor to formally contact the NSW Minister for Local Government requesting an urgent review and practical amendments to the mandatory provisions of the now-disallowed code, including public forum rules and audio-visual restrictions.
Mayor Josh Black said the previous Code had seemed to work for the community, with mandatory elements also working better for councils in regional areas.
"The changes brought in by the NSW Government late last year made it more difficult for residents to participate in the Public Forum and for our councillors to join meetings via Audio Visual Link when occasionally required due to work and family commitments."
Once adopted at the Extraordinary Meeting, the former Code of Meeting practice was put in place for the Standing Committee meeting, which was held at 5:30pm.
