Request to speak at a Council Meeting

Get involved in Council Meetings by asking a public question or making a public comment.

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To participate at a Council meeting please complete the 'Request to Speak form' at the bottom of this webpage.

Please register to speak by 4 pm on the day of the meeting. If you cannot register online, manual registration forms will be available upon entry to the Town Hall for in-person submissions.

Attending In Person:

Council meetings are held at the St Kilda Town Hall, 99a Carlisle Street, St Kilda. Doors open at 6 pm for the meeting to commence at 6.30 pm. (entry via the portico entrance to the Town Hall).

Please do not attend a Council meeting if you are feeling unwell or experiencing flu-like symptoms.

Participating Virtually:

Registrations to speak virtually close at 4 pm on the day of the meeting. Any virtual registrations received after this time will not be accepted. Virtual meeting access will be hosted via Microsoft Teams and can be joined via internet connection on any device or dialled into via phone. You will be required to download the Teams app if you are joining the meeting on a smartphone.
(For privacy reasons, only audio will be heard, the video will not be displayed at any time during the meeting).

Each speaker may speak for three minutes, the chair reserves the right to limit the speaking time to two minutes for a particular item if there are five or more speakers. Please bear this in mind when preparing your submission.

Watching Council Meetings from home

Council meetings continue to be live-streamed to allow our community to watch the meeting online. Members of the public can access the live-stream via our live stream website or Facebook page.

Meeting protocols

Public questions or submissions to agenda items must not exceed three minutes in duration. (The chair reserves the right to reduce speaking time to two minutes if there are more than five speakers for a particular item). Meetings at the City of Port Phillip frequently attract a large number of speakers. Therefore, we recommend preparing for a two-minute time limit for your submission.

If speaking at a Council meeting, you must state your name and suburb for the record. Please note your name will be published in the Minutes of the meeting published to Council's website and your audio will be streamed live and recorded to be made available via Council's Facebook live and webcast site.

A question or submission may be disallowed by the Chair if the Chair determines that it:

relates to a matter outside the duties, functions and powers of Council
is defamatory, indecent, abusive, offensive, irrelevant, trivial or objectionable in language or substance
deals with a subject matter already answered
is aimed at embarrassing a Councillor or a member of Council staff
relates to a matter which will be, or is likely to be, considered in a closed meeting
relates to any matter which Council considers would prejudice Council or any person.

Any member of the public addressing Council must extend due courtesy and respect to Council and the processes under which it operates and must take direction from the Chair whenever called on to do so. The Chair may order and cause the removal of any person, who disrupts any meeting or fails to comply with their direction.

Members of the public must not disclose another individuals personal or confidential information including information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable, such as a person’s name, address, or any piece of information that is not publicly available and is considered private.

Asking a question during Public Question Time

Members of the public can ask questions on general matters other than those relating to a topic that is on the agenda.

Questions submitted to Council must be:
- submitted in writing in via the below request to speak form prior to 4 pm on the day of the Council meeting.
- Questions may be asked of Council and may not be directed to individual Councillors.
A brief summary of each question and the response provided will be recorded in the minutes. Responses to questions taken on notice will be made publicly available on the Council website.

Submissions to agenda items

Members of the public are asked to focus on agenda items under consideration.
Questions made on agenda items may be taken up by a Councillor when the item is considered.
Speaker names will be recorded in the minutes, questions and comments will be streamed live and recorded to be made available online.