Invercargill City Council meetings will be live streamed from today, beginning with the council meeting at 3pm.

The council's communications adviser Daniel Tobin said the today that the council chamber technology has been upgraded with the latest in video and audio equipment, bringing the council in line with other local government bodies around the country. 

The meetings scheduled to be streamed are full Council, as well as two committees: Performance Policy and Partnerships, and Infrastructural Services. 

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Today's full council meeting will address new media protocols designed to improve the public perception of the council following a tumultuous six months of spats between councillors and mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt.

Following an independent review into the council's governance ability, council staff have drafted new 'media protocols' setting out that "elected members agree to focus on council issues and activities when speaking to the media, rather than the actions or decisions of other elected members or staff".

Earlier this month, chief ombudsman Peter Boshier released a report that made six recommendations and suggested 34 courses of action that the council could take to improve its official information processes under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act.

Boshier suggested livestreaming as one of the many courses of action the council could do to improve the flow of information to the public.

"The Council should continue to livestream meetings, which ensures an accurate record of the public portion of a meeting is immediately available.

"Furthermore, the Council should revisit material heard in the public excluded portion of meetings for release at a later date (when the

withholding grounds no longer apply), and record the reasoning when a decision to exclude the public is made," Boshier said in his report. 

Read more here: Invercargill council's media muzzle