Busselton City council meeting broadcasts to be kept for five years

Improved transparency when it comes to council matters are at the heart of changes made this month to rules governing livestreaming of City of Busselton meetings. While meetings of the council have been recorded since 2019, council policy is they have to remain available for only three months. But at their most recent council meeting on February 21, Busselton’s councillors agreed that the videos will now be kept public for at least five years. They also agreed to remove the ability for the presiding member to stop the livestream. The changes come ahead of a new section of the Local Government Act covering electronic broadcasting (livestreaming) and video and audio recording of council meetings becoming compulsory on January 1, 2025. More than 350 people are listed as subscribers to the council’s YouTube channel and more than 180 views of the most recent council meeting were logged within 24 hours of it closing. The changes to the livestreaming policy were approved, with an amendment, unanimously. Council meetings can be watched at youtube.com/@citybusselton/streams.