Paul Thanks for the link. As I thought, it is a Motherhood statement that would be difficult to enforce because this preamble to the principles: “(b) any action that is taken under this Act to be taken in a way that— (i) is consistent with the local government principles; and (ii) provides results that are consistent with the local government principles, in as far as the results are within the control of the person who is taking the action” So the out is they just have to say, it was not within my control.

Like with the transparency word in the principles. Councils can have closed meeting under the Section 275 of the Local Government Regulation 2012: https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/view/html/inforce/2018-02-18/sl-2012-0236#sec.275 One of the reasons they can have a closed meeting is: “(h)other business for which a public discussion would be likely to prejudice the interests of the local government or someone else, or enable a person to gain a financial advantage”. Perhaps Im reading this wrong but it seem that a councilor can arrange to have a closed meeting (no transparency ) if a person can gain a financial advantage.