Council Meetings

Agenda Briefings are held at 5.30pm in the Council Chamber at the South Perth Civic Centre on the third Tuesday of each month* in the week preceding the Ordinary Council Meeting.

Members of the public can address Council at Agenda Briefings on items on the agenda using the ‘Request for a Deputation to Address Council’ form which should be submitted no later than 24 hours prior to the meeting. 

* There may be exceptions to when Agenda Briefings are held due to public holidays, local government elections and the Christmas/New Year holiday period. Please refer to the scheduled meetings list for the most up to date information.

Ordinary Council Meetings are held at 7pm in the Council Chamber at the South Perth Civic Centre on the fourth Tuesday of every month*.

Members of the public can ask questions of Council at Ordinary Council Meetings using the ‘Public Question Time Submission’ form which should be submitted no later than 24 hrs prior to the meeting.

Members of the public are encouraged to attend all these open meetings of the Council. 

Council Meeting agendas can be viewed online or in hard copy format at the Civic Centre and City Libraries by 5pm on the Friday before the scheduled Council Meeting.

* There may be exceptions to when Ordinary Council Meetings are held due to public holidays, local government elections and the Christmas/New Year holiday period. Please refer to the scheduled meetings list for the most up to date information.

Special Council Meetings are called on an ‘as needed’ basis and as a result, it is not possible to predict in advance when meetings will be held.

Notice of Special Council Meetings, along with the agenda will be advertised in the community newspaper, on the noticeboard at the Civic Centre and libraries and on the City’s website by 5pm the Friday before the scheduled meeting.

Members of the public can address Council and ask questions of Council at Special Council Meetings on matters on the agenda using the appropriate forms and submitted no later than 24 hrs prior to the meeting.

Members of the public may address the Council at an Agenda Briefing Meeting or a Special Council Meeting on items on the agenda by means of a Request for a Deputation to Address Council.

Public Question Time is available for members of the public to ask questions at the beginning of an Ordinary Council Meeting, or at a Special Council Meeting when questions relate to items on the agenda. 

Questions may be heard at the commencement of an Ordinary Council Meeting (or Special Council Meeting only on items on the Agenda) at the appropriate item titled‘ Public Question Time'.

Public Question Time is available for asking questions, not for making statements or long preamble/post script. A short preamble for contextual understanding is acceptable.

Any person who completes and submits a ‘Public Question Time Submission’ form, with at least 24 hours’ notice, may be received at the meeting.

Complex questions requiring research shall be submitted seven (7) working days prior to the meeting in order to allow the City sufficient time to prepare a response.

Questions may be accepted in writing at the meeting (forms provided in the Chamber foyer) by placing the form in the ‘Public Question Time’ tray provided in the Chamber no later than five (5) minutes prior to the commencement of the Council meeting. Any questions submitted at the meeting will be taken on notice and an answer provided in the Minutes of the next Ordinary Council meeting.

Members of the public are encouraged to submit questions to the Administration for response as correspondence. This can be done by email to enquiries@southperth.wa.gov.au or by post to the City of South Perth, Cnr Sandgate and South Tce, South Perth WA 6151.

Public Question Time is declared closed following the expiration of the allocated 15 minute time period, or earlier if there are no further questions. The Presiding Member may call a motion to extend Public Question Time for no longer than 15 minutes at the end of the expired 15 minutes.

The Presiding Member may, at his/her discretion:

• Accept or reject the question and his/her decision is final
• Make a determination where there is concern about a question being offensive, defamatory or the like, in which case, it will not be published
• Nominate a Member of the Council and/or an Officer to answer the question
• Treat questions as correspondence
• Take a question on notice, in which case the response will be provided in the Minutes of the next Ordinary Council meeting.

No debate or discussion will be permitted on any question or answer.

A summary of all questions (except those rejected) and the responses will be recorded in the Minutes.

Members of the public must be in attendance at the Council meeting to which they have submitted a question(s) for response. If this is not the case, the questions(s) will not be acknowledged at the meeting but treated as correspondence by the Administration and the question/response will not appear in the Minutes.

Members of the public may address Council on items for which they have an interest at an Agenda Briefing or a Special Council Meeting only on items on the Agenda.

Any person or group who completes and submits a ‘Request for a Deputation to Address Council’ form with at least 24 hours’ notice may be received as a Deputation unless the Presiding Member decides otherwise.

• A deputation is not to exceed five (5) persons, only two (2) of whom may address the meeting (spokesperson), although others may respond to specific questions from Members;
• A deputation is not to address Council for a period exceeding 10 minutes without the agreement of the meeting; and
• Additional members of the Deputation may be allowed to speak with the leave of the Presiding Member.