Page 2923 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 September 1994
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MS SZUTY (3.41): In addressing this matter of public importance today, I would like to refer to a paper entitled Consulting with your community - A guide to effective and equitable community consultation techniques for local government and associated organisations. This booklet was written and compiled by Sue Maywald for the community consultation project and was funded under the Commonwealth Government's local government development program and sponsored by the Local Government Community Services Association of South Australia. On page 3 of the document, a series of underlying assumptions and principles are set out - 18 in all - and it is worth quoting the first principle, which reads:
Each consultation should be organised to be:
equitable - that is, shown to be 'fair and just in facilitating access to people most often excluded from influencing decisionmaking processes'
effective - that is, it establishes goals and objectives for change which are most likely to be useful and acceptable
efficient - that is, adequately resourced, with clear aims and objectives, and coordination of economic and social planning.
Also included in the appendix are three ideological approaches to consultation which are founded on personal values and ideals. I quote from the introduction to this section:
Each model assumes a different interpretation of decisionmaking, power and influence, and has different preferred methods of working and consulting with individuals in communities. A brief interpretation of how these beliefs affect our working relationships with others is included.
The three approaches which are talked about are, first of all, the bureaucratic or elitist approach; secondly, the pluralist or social democratic approach; and, thirdly, the structuralist or radical approach. From what I have seen of the ACT Government's Towards a Consultation Protocol: A Discussion Paper Seeking the Views of the Community on a Draft Protocol for Consultations Between the ACT Government and the Community, it seems to be modelled on the first approach, which is the bureaucratic or elitist approach, which is actually defined in this paper as follows:
This view sees working with communities as developing cohesion and community spirit. Problems are tackled because hitherto services have been unplanned and uncoordinated. Planning is seen as apolitical and carried out by a neutral and objective administration.
decisionmaking is affected by the assumptions that professionals' decisions are made apolitically. Representative democracy is seen as the only way to reflect community needs and develop a general consensus in the community.
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