Page 2136 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 21 June 2011
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We would like to promote a participatory approach in order for the community to understand the potential implications and impacts of government decisions but also to understand all the information and the difficult decisions that are before cabinet and the government in terms of how we respond to them. We understand that community engagement has real benefits for the ACT government and, indeed, for the community, through accessing new ideas, sharing skills, knowledge and experiences and also developing a clearer understanding of each other’s priorities, needs, expectations and capacity to deliver.
This will enable the government to inform the community about proposed policies and actions, respond to issues raised by the community, provide the opportunity for the community to voice an opinion on government proposals, invite the community to submit proposals for consideration and also work more closely with the community to shape policy options and priorities.
Genuine engagement is measured on a qualitative, not a quantitative, scale and the number of participants and the volume of their contributions do not of themselves measure the degree of engagement or indicate the extent to which the process is adding to open and transparent government decision making.
First and foremost, a demonstration of the way this government engages with the community is the extensive work towards planning a vision for ACT’s future. In 2008 we released The Canberra plan: towards our second century. This document built on the 2004 release of the Canberra plan, outlining for all Canberrans the areas of focus for the government in working to keep Canberra a great place to live. In preparing the Canberra plan, the government spoke extensively with Canberrans and with interest groups within the community about their vision for the ACT’s future.
However, there can be no clearer example of our commitment to open and transparent planning and decision-making processes than the Canberra 2030 time to talk process. The entirety of that process was conducted in the public domain. We utilised different engagement tools and methodologies, ranging from seminars and surveys to workshops and community forums, shopping centre displays, random surveys, online forums, blogs and other forms of social media to ensure that we were reaching all population groups within the community. We also released the report’s finding in full, along with all the supporting data in electronic form. We involved as many Canberrans as possible in this discussion about what people valued about Canberra and what they would like to see Canberra become by the year 2030. The government now intends to ensure the views expressed through time to talk are fed into policy development.
These time to talk consultations were a great success and a great credit to the openness and transparency that this government seeks to promote. What better way than to involve the people in the decisions about their future and then to have them able to see direct action being taken as a result of their feedback.
Another example of longer term strategic planning that involves active discussion with stakeholders is the ACT government’s infrastructure plan, the second iteration of which will be released shortly. In this plan we have worked with industry, business
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