Broadcast Porirua Council meetings says Shaw

Council meetings should be broadcast live on the Council's website, says Councillor Robert Shaw.

"This is how we can improve the quality of debate at meetings. If the councillors are watched they will watch what they say. We saw last night that councillors were just scoring political points without regard to the practical management of the council."

To many councillors either say nothing or repeat the obvious.

The voters in the elections are going to be bombarded with promotional material and they will not be able to tell the good from the bad.

If meetings were broadcast voters would over a period of time learn more that was of use to them.

People would understand the council more if they could also watch the officers give advice to the council. They would better understand the environment in which the council operates.

Porirua City would also get better media coverage if journalists could do their work from their own homes.

The initial cost of 4 static cameras and one directional microphone would be less than $20,000.

We just need a simple system that works.

Only one custom made gadget needs to be installed and it needs a wire to any computer that is on the councils existing network.

The broadcast unit could be mounted in the ceiling with a camera pointing in each direction. The four cameras would each produce a picture that would appear together on an web page along with the sound.

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