Bid to make Environment Canterbury meetings more open closed to the public

Thursday, 30 March 2023

Beaming the goings-on from Environment Canterbury’s offices to the world could be some time off, after council staff suggested an attempt to livestream meetings may need to go to next year’s long term plan process (File photo).

An investigation into making the regional council more open to the public by livestreaming meetings will be kept secret 'due to ongoing commercial sensitivity'.

Environment Canterbury (ECan) is responsible for the largest geographic region in the country and manages 70% of New Zealand’s fresh water resources.

Its 16 councillors, elected in 2022, are part of only the second democratically elected cohort since the turbulent dismissal of the entire council in 2010.

Last month, councillor Joe Davies put forward a notice of motion requesting staff investigate ways to livestream council meetings.

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Environment Canterbury councillors are only the second group of Canterbury Regional councillors to have been voted in by the public since the government dismissed the entire council in 2010, replacing them with commissioners. (File photo).

ECan meetings are streamed to staff and councillors via video conferencing software, which members of the public can access on request.

But Davies wanted to see the meetings livestreamed and open to all, something he called a “small but a symbolic step” in encouraging public participation and engagement.

Technology has “transformed our democracy, and the trend will only continue,” Davies told the council .

Councillor Joe Davies wants to see enhanced public engagement with his push for “digital democracy” at Environment Canterbury (File photo)

Encouraging community engagement is a key council objective, he said. “How better to do that than to invite our people in – from any place, at any time – from Waikari to Erewhon, from Middle Valley Road to Stewart’s Gully?”

But when the notice of motion came back to council this month, the report became one of seven items placed into public excluded – meaning neither members of the public or media could be present at the meeting when it was discussed, read the report or subsequent minutes.

ECan cited the Local Government Act in restricting access to the information, and says the livestreaming investigation “will not be released due to the nature of the report and the ongoing commercial sensitivity”.

Councillor Andrei Moore pushed to get the Waipuna Halswell-Hornby-Riccarton Community Board meetings online, with the City Council setting up livestream channels for all community boards in 2022 (File photo).

Days later, ECan agreed to release a one-page summary which says council staff found livestreaming “may require a consultation process with the 2024-34 Long Term Plan and trigger a separate procurement process”, and states the current arrangements exceed legislative requirements by recording meetings and making audio files available.

Davies, who made digital democracy a key plank of his election campaign,said even if the council is meeting legal requirements, “it doesn’t meet the social norms of 2023”.

“The technology has already evolved to where it’s become the new normal.

'It ought not be a complex and convoluted process,” he said.

In 2021, Christchurch councillor Andrei Moore lobbied for community board meetings to be livestreamed.

During the Covid-19 lockdowns, community board meetings were run on Zoom, with limited numbers of members of the public able to join on request, resulting in some being locked out of meetings.

Moore was told it would require a lengthy annual plan process to get the meetings online.

“But the short answer is it doesn't. There just needs to be the will to do it.”

He encountered stiff opposition, including one colleague who told him he was “destroying” the community board by pushing for livestreaming.

But Moore said streaming has been “one of the best things we've ever done” leading to better outcomes and a huge upswing in public engagement.

“We went from two or three people watching our meetings in the public gallery, to having anywhere between 50 and 200 watching our meetings on our YouTube channel.”

A bare-bones solution could get ECan meetings online for a cost of about $1000, though Moore said kitting out a council room “properly” would be “more challenging”.

“But if ECan wanted they could be livestreaming their meetings in the meantime with less fancy technology.”

Moore is so convinced of the importance of improved public engagement, he has offered to livestream ECan meetings himself and to buy ECan a camera “as a gift to democracy”.

“If genuine public engagement is something that is a priority for ECan, they will livestream their meetings. And if it is not a priority, then I think it should be, and I think ratepayers would agree.”

All Christchurch community board meetings have been streamed since February 2022.

The Christchurch City Council has been livestreaming meetings since 2013. The Selwyn District Council livestreams its meetings, while the Waimakariri District Council does not, but uploads audio to a podcasting platform within 24 hours, and expects to livestream in the near future.

Local Government New Zealand chief executive Susan Freeman-Green said councils were encouraged to make their meetings “as accessible as possible” so decisions are made in “an open and transparent way.”

It was increasingly common for councils to livestream meetings, she said, but could be “expensive and logistically challenging for some councils”.