Page 17 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 9 February 2010
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The submissions make the problem for the community quite clear. For instance, CPR said:
Consultation is meaningless unless those who are being consulted with are being listened to and have a rational chance of being heard. Consultation in the ACT is lip service.
The CPR submission was then summarised:
During this entire power station fiasco—this Government has never acknowledged the concerns of the community, never praised or supported the efforts the community put into responding and compiling researched and accurate responses to this development, attending meetings and engaging …
Indeed many have said: “If you spoke up, you got vilified. If you spoke up, you got attacked.” If the basis of consultation is to be seen to be doing something, which it appears to be from this government, and that you attack anybody who dares to question you—and the Chief Minister is legend for attacking those that dare question him—then we are never going to get anywhere.
The problem for the government is that it does not seem to have learnt its lesson. We saw that recently with the fiasco of the purchase of Calvary hospital and the sale of Clare Holland House. It was a deal started in secret. The committee comments on this: the government has not learnt its lesson and lip-service is still only being paid. It is very important that the government gets it right. It is very important that the government understands that the community does care. Paragraph 6.15 of the report says:
Although the Government claims to have responded quite significantly to issues relating to consultation, the Committee notes concerns about the recent consultation concerning the purchase of Calvary Hospital and the sale of Clare Holland House. The Committee believes that the Government breached their own community engagement guidelines which state that major policy initiatives should be consulted over a twelve week period. However, the Government only consulted over six weeks and a day. The policy also states that consultation should avoid school holidays yet the October school holidays fell within the consultation period.
So for all of the noise and all of the press releases from the government it is quite apparent that, several years after the power station debacle, the government continues to make these mistakes. It hurts the community; it affects the community. The government must ensure that it gets it right. Proposals and the consideration of proposals should be bread and butter issues for government. Government should have processes in place to allow it to consider them accurately and expeditiously. Paragraph 3.5 of the committee’s report states:
The Auditor-General recommended that to enhance accountability and to provide clarity to the community and private sector about the requirements associated with a request for strategic project facilitation status, that the ACT Government, in consultation with relevant agencies, should develop and adopt criteria to define a strategic project and the strategic project facilitation process. The
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