On the issue of “secret committee meetings”, I had a look at the situation around the nation, to see how widespread it is. Here is what I found (I think I have it right, or close to it):
Q: Does a strata committee/council need to give a committee/council meeting notice to all lot owners as per NSW?
ACT: No.
NT: No.
QLD: Yes/No. No if using the Small Schemes Module for 6 lots or less.
SA: No.
VIC: No.
TAS: No.
WA: No.
It really does seem that NSW and QLD (for 7 lots or more) are the odd states out. If this is strata “secrecy” then it’s a widespread national issue and it has been for a long time. I can’t quite see the national crisis.
IMO the intention of the legislature, as used by most of the nation, is to allow a committee to get on with its job without too much red tape formality. Some of the various legislatures also read that way – at least to me. There are several checks and balances that already limit a committee’s authority. And an OC/BC can further limit them if it wants to.
Requiring the formality as per NSW would mean, in one of my OCs in VIC, on a busy week, the issuing of 4 or 5 notices of committee meetings because, on a busy week a new issue comes up nearly each day. How would the committee be able to deal with that requirement? And how long would it take to get the committee decisions made? Even the practicality of where to hold formal in-person committee meetings can be troublesome if an unknown number of owners is allowed to attend. OCs don’t all have common areas big enough etc. Zoom is around now but not everyone in an OC might use it.
Maybe there needs to be a 2-tiered approach? Minor decisions of the committee can be made without informing/inviting all owners but major decisions must have the formality. So a committee could actually get on with doing its job reasonably efficiently for most matters. But how to set the tier? It can already be set if an OC/BC wished to set it – except that the decision would become a GM decision.
I do agree that committee decisions should be transparent. Some of the other states do require that committee decisions (minutes) are sent to all owners. But up to 5 times a week? I don’t know about that.
I would say that if a lot owner wants to see the minutes of any committee decision, it should be made available to them ASAP without question and without having to make them go through the process of inspecting the OC’s records. A minor change to various state legislatures should be able to do that.