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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (23 September) . . Page.. 3106 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

Community consultation, in relation to social policy issues:

(i) inquire into processes of community consultation for:

- the development of legislation;

- the development of policy; and

- maximisation of community participation in Assembly processes; and

(ii) identify and report to the Assembly on effective means of community consultation.

On 21 September 1995 the committee presented to the Assembly a discussion paper on the matter. The discussion paper identified the following key elements of good community consultation: The process is systemic and systematic; there is adequate time and resources for both government and community agencies; the process is transparent; meetings are well facilitated to ensure participants have the opportunity to state their views; the process ensures broad representation of all those who are interested or who will be affected; the process has the capacity to provide and obtain specific information; the process is appropriate for the target group - this may require innovative approaches; there is a shared understanding of the objectives and expected outcomes of the consultation; organisers and facilitators have a genuine commitment to the process; and, finally, there are monitoring and evaluation mechanisms in place. Further, the discussion paper pointed out that the use of a consultation protocol and trained facilitators greatly enhances the success of community consultations.

Based on the comments received on the discussion paper and comments received during its other inquiries, the committee notes that there is still much work to be done concerning community consultation processes on social policy issues. The committee's main findings were as follows: There are many avenues for community consultation in the ACT. In fact, some claim to be overconsulted. The committee found that information on government advisory committees and consultative committees or councils was not well publicised or easily available to the public. The committee requested this information in writing, which proved to be a time-consuming task for government agencies. Now that this information has been compiled, the committee suggests that the Government update it every six months and make it publicly available.

The committee found some evidence of duplication of consultation efforts among government agencies. For example, at one stage three agencies were doing separate consultations on the same piece of land. Duplication affects the community's enthusiasm to contribute and leads to cynicism about the process and should be avoided. The committee believes that the Government should require agencies or sections of agencies to research the consultation already undertaken on the subject before embarking on a new consultative process.

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