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Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987

Local authority meetings

46: Meetings of local authorities to be publicly notified

You could also call this:

"Local authorities must publicly announce their meeting dates and times so you can attend if you want to."

Illustration for Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987

You need to know when local authority meetings are happening. Local authorities must tell the public about their meetings. They must do this between 5 and 14 days before the end of each month.

If a meeting is happening after the 21st of the month, the local authority can tell the public about it between 5 and 10 working days before the meeting. You can find out about these meetings by looking for public notices. Local authorities must also tell you where and when the meetings are happening.

Sometimes, local authorities might have emergency meetings that they cannot tell the public about in advance. In these cases, they must tell the public as soon as they can. They can do this by putting a notice on their internet site or in another way that makes sense.

If a local authority forgets to tell the public about a meeting, they must tell you about it as soon as they can. They must also say what happened at the meeting and why they did not tell you about it beforehand.

Some groups, like school boards, do not have to follow these rules. But they still have to make sure that parents can find out about their meetings. You can find more information about school boards in the Education and Training Act 2020.

Other groups, like the New Zealand Conservation Authority, the National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee, and the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee, do not have to follow these rules either. You can find more information about these groups in the Conservation Act 1987 and the Animal Welfare Act 1999.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM123080.

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45A: Application of this Part to certain local authorities, or

"Some local authorities, like boards of inquiry and special tribunals, follow special rules."

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Part 7Local authority meetings

46Meetings of local authorities to be publicly notified

  1. Subject to subsection (2), every local authority shall, not more than 14 days and not less than 5 days before the end of every month, cause to be publicly notified a list of all meetings of that local authority scheduled to be held in the following month, together with the dates on which, and the times and places at which, those meetings are to be held.

  2. Where any meeting of a local authority is to be held on or after the 21st day of any month, the local authority may, instead of causing that meeting to be publicly notified in accordance with subsection (1), cause that meeting to be publicly notified not more than 10 nor less than 5 working days before the day on which the meeting is to be held.

  3. If an extraordinary or emergency meeting of a local authority is called and cannot be publicly notified in the manner required or permitted by subsections (1) and (2), the local authority must cause that meeting and the general nature of business to be transacted at that meeting—

  4. to be publicly notified as soon as practicable before the meeting is to be held; or
    1. if it is not practicable to publish a notice in newspapers before the meeting, to be notified as soon as practicable on the local authority’s Internet site and in any other manner that is reasonable in the circumstances.

      1. Repealed

      2. No meeting of any local authority shall be invalid merely because that meeting was not publicly notified in accordance with this section.

      3. Where a local authority becomes aware that any meeting of that local authority has not been publicly notified in accordance with this section, that local authority shall, as soon as practicable, give public notice that that meeting was not so notified, and shall, in that notice,—

      4. state the general nature of the business transacted at that meeting; and
        1. give the reasons why that meeting was not so notified.

          1. Nothing in subsections (1) to (6) applies to a board constituted under subpart 5 of Part 3 of the Education and Training Act 2020, but every board must take all reasonable steps to ensure that parents (within the meaning of that Act) of students enrolled at schools that the board administers can readily find out, within a reasonable time before those meetings, where and when meetings of the board are to be held.

          2. Nothing in this section applies to—

          3. the New Zealand Conservation Authority established under section 6A of the Conservation Act 1987:
              1. Provincial Patriotic Councils:
                1. the National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee established by section 62 of the Animal Welfare Act 1999:
                  1. the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee established by section 56 of the Animal Welfare Act 1999.

                    Notes
                    • Section 46: substituted, on , by section 4(1) of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Amendment Act 1991 (1991 No 54).
                    • Section 46(3): replaced, on , by section 30 of the Local Government Regulatory Systems Amendment Act 2019 (2019 No 6).
                    • Section 46(4): repealed, on , by section 30 of the Local Government Regulatory Systems Amendment Act 2019 (2019 No 6).
                    • Section 46(7): replaced, on , by section 668 of the Education and Training Act 2020 (2020 No 38).
                    • Section 46(8)(a): substituted, on , by section 11 of the National Parks Amendment Act 1996 (1996 No 4).
                    • Section 46(8)(b): repealed, on , by section 7 of the Children's Health Camps Board Dissolution Act 1999 (1999 No 141).
                    • Section 46(8)(d): added, on , by section 196(1) of the Animal Welfare Act 1999 (1999 No 142).
                    • Section 46(8)(e): added, on , by section 196(1) of the Animal Welfare Act 1999 (1999 No 142).