Hands-on-head rule for Melbourne council

A Melbourne council that's sick of councillors' "political bickering" has introduced a hands-on-head rule to bring order to its meetings.

Monash City Council on Tuesday night agreed that councillors will place two hands on their head to raise a point of order and one hand on their head for a procedural motion.

The move comes after meetings started to run over time as councillors used points of order simply to be disruptive, Mayor Geoff Lake says.

The past three meetings ran until 3am, midnight and 11.30pm respectively.

"They (councillors) clearly don't want to put their hands on their head like kindergarten kids," Mr Lake told AAP on Wednesday.

"But rather than letting someone launch into a diatribe that goes on for a couple of minutes, this allows the chair to get straight to the point."

While not all councillors are thrilled with the new rule, the mayor says after it was passed on Tuesday night no points of order were raised and the meeting proceeded smoothly.

"One councillor indicated he wouldn't be putting his hands on his head, but I welcome that, because if he's not putting his hands on his head he won't be making any points of order," Mr Lake said.

Councillor Theo Zographos argues the rule was rushed through and should now be a key issue at the upcoming council elections in October.

"Last night it was very disturbing what was passed, using powers that a dictator would find useful," he told ABC radio.

"In Monash council democratic debate is being shut down."

The mayor says it's a "shame" the hands-on-head rule was needed and he hopes it can be relaxed in a few months - if behaviour improves.

The changes are expected to cut meeting times by at least one hour.