Mutual Responsibilities Between Elected Representatives and Partythe incorporated association referred to in clause 40(1) Bodies, Officers and Members

1. All Greens public officean elected office in a council or parliament-holders* have a responsibility under the constitution and this bylaw to report regularly to relevant party bodies* and to the Greens membership generally and within their own constituencies. Office bearers also have a responsibility to provide reports and information to elected public officeholders.

2. Reporting regularly is an important means by which public office-holders remain accountable to the party.

3. It is expected that all public officean elected office in a council or parliament-holders of the party will attend State Conference whenever possible, and provide a verbal report, which will be listed for discussion.

4. At each regular meeting of State Council, a verbal report from the federal parliamentarians representatives, the state parliamentarians representatives and the local government representatives will be listed for discussion. Where no representatives are in attendance, a written report must be submitted.

5. Partythe incorporated association referred to in clause 40(1) members should not assume that, acting as individuals, they have any special or privileged access or rights in relation to elected representatives as compared to constituents generally. Similarly, elected representatives, while they have special expertise and knowledge, have no more right than other members to direct the work of Partythe incorporated association referred to in clause 40(1) bodies.

Reporting and Liaison Requirements

1. The reporting arrangements need not be mechanical or prescriptive, but must ensure that:

   1. in the case of public officean elected office in a council or parliament-holders, the relevant bodies are provided with a verbal report (default) or written report (if attendance is not possible), which should aim to cover:

      1. main activities undertaken;

      2. key decisions made as a public officean elected office in a council or parliament-holder;

      3. major issues which are pending;

      4. the planned approach to these issues; and

      5. issues in which they are involved where their position is likely to involve considerable public controversy or are likely to be controversial within the Partythe incorporated association referred to in clause 40(1). In these circumstances, wherever possible, a report should be provided in sufficient time to allow relevant party bodies* to consider the issue when that consideration will still be relevant;

   2. in the case of office-bearers of relevant regions or branches, relevant public officean elected office in a council or parliament-holders are advised of the views of relevant party bodies, about matters within the current work or priorities of the public officean elected office in a council or parliament-holders, faithfully and in good time, particularly where issues have become or are likely to become controversial within the Partythe incorporated association referred to in clause 40(1).

Definitions

*In this bylaw:

“Public officean elected office in a council or parliament-holder” means a State or Federal Member of Parliament or an elected local government representative.

“Relevant Partythe incorporated association referred to in clause 40(1) body” and “relevant office-bearers” means as follows:

Position	Relevant Party body	Relevant office-bearers	Conditions
State or Federal Members of Parliament	State Council; State Executive; regions and branches within constituencies	State Convenor (or where not available, State Secretary); regional and branch convenors within constituencies.	Reporting to State Office Bearers will satisfy requirement of reporting to regional and branch office-bearers, except on issues of specifically local concern.
Local Government representative	Relevant branch	Relevant branch convenor (or if absent, regional or branch secretary)	Also to report to State Convenor on issues which have state-wide significance or may establish de facto Greens “policy”

Modification History

Action	Body	Date
Approved	State Council	2009-06-21
Amended	State Council	2019-02-23