Camera IconThe City of Perth council has knocked back a request to expand the use of AI. Credit: City of PerthCity of Perth knocks back staff plea to use AI for recording council meetings amid rising workloadMichael PalmerPerthNow - Central9 May 2026, 2:00amCopy linkShare storyA request for City of Perth workers to be able to use AI to keep up with their workload amid a drop in staff numbers has been rejected.Staff have recently started using Microsoft Copilot to help record elected member engagement sessions and budget workshops.They wanted to expand its use to record the city’s audit, risk and improvement, CEO performance review, and policy, legislation and governance committee meetings.A report to the council said this would help staff cope with current resource constraints as preparing accurate minutes could require “substantial effort”.But the council voted 4-5 against the idea at its April 29 meeting over concerns about accuracy and questions over who could access the recordings.The proposal was first presented in March but held over until last month after deputy Lord Mayor David Goncalves wanted elected members to be able to access confidential copies of audio recordings or transcript for “governance or verification purposes”, and for city records of recordings, transcripts and notes, subject to confidentiality rules.A staff report at the April 29 meeting said recordings and transcripts were considered “working materials”, which under the Local Government Act council members were not automatically entitled to.“If a council resolution conflicts with the Act (or any other written law), the written law prevails, and the resolution is invalid to the extent of the inconsistency,” it said.“This means the administration cannot release information that is inconsistent with that allowed by the Act, even if council adopts a position or policy to release it.”This did not dissuade Cr Goncalves, who said at the meeting humans must always be able to check the record.He agreed AI could support efficiency but not replace governance.“It does not replace the minute taker and it does not replace the responsibility that we place in our administration and most importantly it should never replace our own ability to verify what has happened,” Cr Goncalves said.“AI’s, as no doubt people have experienced, can hallucinate. It can misattribute. It can hear the wrong person say the one thing and attribute it to another. It can drop context. It can summarise incorrectly.“Those risks are manageable but only with human oversight.”Thousands of West Aussies to miss out on $100 Budget payment<img src="https://images.perthnow.com.au/publication/C-22255179/4357a42951cf070ce908067421aa64cc03922a1d-16x9-x1y0w2446h1376.jpg?imwidth=194&impolicy=pn_v3" alt="With millions of Western Australians pondering what they will do with their $100 handout from the Cook Government, one group is set to miss out from the funding." class="css-tl044d-StyledNoScriptImage-StyledImage eu9mom10" />‘Dramatic’ reason why Aussie influencer won’t drive her car<img src="https://images.perthnow.com.au/publication/C-22256680/c938a3d84397d826aa5fea47251792a4366c2454-4x3-x262y0w1232h924.jpg?imwidth=194&impolicy=pn_v3" alt="Latisha Clark took to TikTok and Instagram on Thursday to share that she had been getting around in a ride-share vehicle after she found a bug inside her car." class="css-tl044d-StyledNoScriptImage-StyledImage eu9mom10" />Governance and policy manager Charlie Clark said if legislation did not allow the city to provide working documents, a freedom of information request would have to be made.Cr Viktor Ko said he was extremely cautious about using AI and wanted to know who would be responsible if minutes recorded by AI were found to be wrong.Cr Goncalves’ proposal was rejected 2-7.Lord Mayor Bruce Reynolds said he wanted to maintain minutes being taken by hand.“Whilst the intent to streamline minute-taking is understood, minutes have been recorded by this council in a consistent and traditional way for many years without a problem,” he said.“I recommend we just continue with the status quo. It’s not broken and then we can move on to more important issues within the city.“Administration have indicated that they’re happy to do it by hand because of the grays that have emerged.”Cr Raj Doshi said using AI would support the city’s staff, while Cr Catherine Lezer said it was a “common sense change” that would make things simpler and transparent.Cr Goncalves said the city could do it the “traditional way” and hire a minute-taker.It was revealed earlier this year job offers at the city were being knocked back.Copy linkShare story