Questions come under question

COUNCILLORS approved restrictions on public question time at Monday night’s City of Greater Dandenong council meeting – alongside a time extension for their own reports.
The Meeting Procedure Local Law changes limit each person to three questions per meeting.
The CEO will now only read out a question if he determines it’s not asked to embarrass a councillor or council officer and doesn’t repeat a question already asked.
Only 300 words will be read aloud and debate or discussion will be permitted only for clarification.
“I do regret that we are restricting public question time, but I do accept that the changes are moderate,” councillor Matthew Kirwan said.
Councillor Sean O’Reilly said making anything unlimited opened it to abuse, and residents could get answers to their questions in a more timely manner through calling or emailing the council.
Other changes included extending councillor report time from two to four minutes and distributing the agenda to the public at noon the Thursday before a meeting, instead of the Friday.