Commissioner of the Public Inquiry into Central Coast Council, Roslyn McCulloch issued an apology at the commencement of the first successful full day of public hearings in Tuesday, October 5.
“Firstly, please let me apologise to the witnesses, their legal representatives and to the public for the temporary interruption to the proceedings,” McCulloch said, referring to three failed attempts last week to live stream hearings.
“The inquiry has gratefully received the assistance of information technology staff from the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment over the past week.
“Due to the difficulties which we encountered at the start of the public hearings, there has been a complete change in the technology.
“The hearing is now being conducted via Zoom, with a direct live stream available on the Office of Local Government YouTube page.”
Commissioner McCulloch said the technology had been tested over several days and the experts had a high degree of confidence that it would operate efficiently for the remainder of the public hearings.
She also corrected a statement made on September 28 to the effect that a video of the proceedings would be available on the inquiry website.
“In fact I was in error, the recording which was made by the transcription service was an audio only recording.
“In any event, the written transcript for both September 27 and 28 was uploaded to the inquiry web page and that practice will continue throughout the inquiry.
“I also want to clarify that copies of the submissions may be obtained via an application under the Government Information (Public Access) Act.
“It’s not simply an email to the inquiry.
“That will be vetted and assessed through the Office of Local Government and it will be subject to the provisions of that Act.”
Transcript, Oct 5
Central Coast Public Inquiry