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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 14 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 4971 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

that ongoing improvements are made in the consultation process right across all of our government programs. The development of this protocol is one of the steps in that process. This protocol has been agreed to by members of the community and senior government staff that are involved, and represents a commitment by the Government to open and consultative decision-making.

On 23 September 1997, Ms Tucker made a statement to this Assembly which arose from the conclusion of the inquiry into community consultation by the Standing Committee on Social Policy. I must say that most of the statement is completely out of date and might have been more appropriate if delivered three years ago. In fact, at one stage I thought that Ms Tucker was quoting from parts of the draft consultation protocol, which has been out for final comments for the past two months. Indeed, there is not much that the committee raised that has not been addressed by the Community Liaison Section in my department over the last eight months. In fact, if the committee was fully aware of the extent to which this section has gone to ensure major improvements in the consultation process, it would have had nothing much at all to say in its statement.

The Customer Involvement Unit is in the process of revising the consultation manual, which will be used in conjunction with the protocol, the consultation register and the database to make major and lasting improvements in the Government's consultation processes. Having compared the statement made by the Social Policy Committee with the consultation protocol, I felt that I had to bring to the attention of the Assembly the areas of concern that the committee expressed in its statement regarding the Government's consultation processes. I believe that they were misplaced. I will refer only to those parts of the protocol that relate to the recommendations and suggestions made by the committee.

The protocol states what government staff will need to consider when planning a protocol. They will be required to ensure that consultation occurs with specialist and specific groups when necessary. Indeed, the protocol states:

The stakeholders identified at the beginning of the process will assist in developing a more comprehensive list of citizens who will be, or could be, affected by decisions to be made as a result of the consultation.

The committee had recommended minimum consultation with peak groups and broader consultation with specialist and specific groups as necessary.

Government staff must now plan to use consultation techniques which not only relate to the consultation's objectives but allow maximum participation by the target groups by employing a range of appropriate mechanisms. The protocol states:

Consultation methods need to be appropriate to the outcome, the various stages of consultation and the target groups. The choice of methods should be made early in the process in collaboration with the initial small groups of stakeholders and be based on clear expectations of why particular groups are involved.

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