On September 23, councillors voted to keep live-streaming on the council website rather than having the recordings uploaded at a later time, despite defamation concerns.

Cr Steve Ring said he liked the fact that council was live. He appreciated the concerns regarding defamation but he was more concerned with council being criticised.

"At the beginning of a council meeting we make it clear that this is being broadcast and people should take notice of that and be aware of the risk of defamation," he said.

"My concern is if there are delays... we might be criticised for doctoring."

He said there had been claims in the past, with accusations that the administration may have tampered with audio.

"Editing or deleting information, that's what concerns me," he said.

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All councillors agreed that transparency was key for council meetings.

"If we're live, we're live, if we're not it does look like we're trying to hide something," Cr Deanna Goodsell said.

Cr Maree Statham said it was acceptable to use live streaming as it was modern technology.

"It's 2019. We are having a pretty good run here and I think people are enjoying watching the live stream," she said.

"At the moment it's transparent and we need to have a transparent council."

General manager Graeme Faulker said unfortunately the councillors had taken the ceasing of live streaming as targeting them, what they say and the transparency of it.

"That's not the genesis of this.

"We just want to protect the council and ratepayers of this community... but as the GM I'm happy you've all been warned," he said.

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