FAQs

Council is making use of resources provided by the NSW Ombudsman to develop an Unreasonable Customer Conduct Policy. The Policy aims to help us support wellbeing and safety within a secure environment for staff and councillors. It provides scope to allocate customer service resources fairly for all Council customers.

This type of policy is increasingly commonplace in government agencies, organisations and not-for-profit organisations across Australia. It is based on the NSW Ombudsman's Managing Unreasonable Complainant Conduct model policy and procedure.

Unreasonable customer conduct is explained in detail in the Policy document and we encourage readers wanting to know more to read the full document.

Most of Council's customers act reasonably and responsibly, even if they are experiencing distress, frustration or anger about a particular matter. Council has many thousands of positive and productive customer service interactions in person, by email and phone every year.

There are however a very small number who behave in ways that are inappropriate, unacceptable or compromises the health, safety and security of Council staff, other customers or the customer themselves. 

Please refer to Schedule A of the Policy document for examples of unreasonable conduct.

Council could issue a warning to an individual and if this behaviour continues, we may restrict access as per the restrictions outlined in Schedule A of the Policy.