Brisbane City Council has voted to give its chief executive more powers to remove comments made in chambers and prevent council officers from being named in public meetings.
The proposal was made at this week's meeting, the last for the year.
In 2005, the council introduced Hansard-style minutes that include a transcript of weekly meeting proceedings.
The chief executive is allowed to "edit transcripts created during the process of producing the minutes of a council meeting prior to those minutes being confirmed by council".
However, the chief executive must ensure "any editing does not result in inaccurate representations of the proceedings of the council meeting".
The Meetings Local Law 2001 prohibits councillors from referring to council officers by name except when complimenting them, and the move to allow the chief executive to remove names was made to strengthen that provision, according to Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner.
The proposal also suggested allowing the chief executive to "remove any words from the transcript which the chair of council requested to be withdrawn during the corresponding council meeting".
"As council is producing such a complete record of the meeting, consideration must be given to the publication of material where it may have legal implications, commercial impacts or other similar matters," a council spokesperson said in a statement.
"You can attack the administration but do not attack council officers and name them in those attacks," Cr Schrinner added.
Move doesn't follow Commonwealth
While University of Queensland law and politics expert Graeme Orr said the move was lawful and better done by the chief executive than a political party representative, he said it "was not desirable".
"It took a long time for parliamentary proceedings in the form of the Hansard to become verbatim transcripts [in federal parliament] for reasons of accountability of elected officials and openness of debate," he said.
"The rule in the Commonwealth Parliament is that even highly disorderly remarks are not expunged.
"And when occasionally it's suggested they should be, that would be up to the whole chamber, not just one person."
'Doesn't pass pub test'
However, council's Labor Opposition leader Jared Cassidy said the proposed changes did not "pass the pub test".
"On what planet did someone come up with this proposal, and how did they think it was OK?" he asked.
"Councillors are accountable to their communities and bound by the code of conduct.
"Let's not forget that the Lord Mayor has the power to direct the CEO. We need more accountability, not less."
CEO now 'politicised'
Greens councillor for the Gabba Ward Jonathan Sriranganathan said the proposal was not something he supported.
"The CEO is appointed by the LNP and has become a politicised role, so I don't think it's wise to grant the CEO of his delegates the power to edit meeting transcripts to remove comments made by a councillor without that councillor's express support," he said.
Dr Orr said the council chamber would "remain open to the public and journalists and streamed and recorded online".
