General News
18 November, 2025
Staff, councillor contact curbed
NEARLY 30 Tablelands Regional Council officers will no longer be able to give information or advice to councillors after amendments to a current policy were adopted.
The Acceptable Requests policy now restricts councillors from talking about council business to staff below the level of manager, and requires councillors to email all requests for information to general managers or managers and copy in the chief executive officer.
The written requests must also include the purpose for wanting the information.
When the policy was adopted late last year, councillors could approach 46 officers who were in roles such as the senior planner, coordinators and supervisors, but now only 17 positions can provide advice or information.
According to the policy, councillors can engage in conversations with staff but only about non-council matters.
Not all councillors agreed with the change, with Cr Maree Baade and Cr Kevin Cardew making their position clear and voting against the changes.
“I’m not supporting this change – I have gone back through my emails and looked at the people who have helped me the most to perform my role in the community,” Cr Baade said.
“I’m putting my questions and queries in through the executive assistant and when I get comments back from members of staff and I’ve got follow-up questions, I generally do have that conversation with them.
“I find that very beneficial and I think that this policy will restrict my ability to seek that help and information from people I most often interact with, and this reduces my ability to perform the role for which I have been elected.”
Cr Cardew agreed, saying the restrictions were not needed.
“I agree 100% – as a councillor, I feel that our roles are being diminished, and diminished further and further. I keep getting regular comments from the general public saying ‘what are you there for?’, ‘what good are you?’, “What do you do?’
“I like having interactions with some of the staff – and I haven’t heard any (issues) from staff when I’ve been talking to them.
“I want to be able to keep the levels in the current policy. It was put in place not long ago for that very reason.”
CEO Nikola Stepanov explained in great detail why the policy change was required, saying the amendments would “bring the TRC to a standard that’s consistent with nearly every local government in Queensland”.
The policy amendments were based on external expert advice and would ensure that councillors did not deal with staff at lower levels which represented a “power imbalance”.
Changes were also made to the Councillor Contact with Consultants, Developers and Submitters Policy and a new policy, which gives guidelines for dealing with lobbyists, was also introduced at the latest meeting.
In explaining why changes were needed for the contact with consultants, developers and submitters, Dr Stepanov said the amendments were aimed at “lifting the standard up because current policies are not best practice”.
“If I’m going out to meetings and people are brazen enough to offer me a bribe, then that’s really brazen so this (policy) is a way to make sure you’re protected as well,” she told them.
“So it’s really about keeping everything clean and above board so there can be no questions asked.
“In some cases, in emails I have received, councilors are advocating a particular position and, whether that’s to a developer or a submitter, that’s not your role,” she said.
“If I see something….and it looks like you may be advocating on behalf of a developer or a submitter, I need to alert your attention to that. Where I see those interactions, I am required to report it.”
Crs Cardew, Baade and Spanos voted against changes in both policies.
