Community engagement in Australian local governments: a closer look and strategic implications

Abstract

Public input into decision-making through participatory and deliberative democratic practices has become a widely accepted and legislated responsibility of Australian local governments. At any one time, councils are leading submission processes, workshops and online surveys on a multitude of projects, ranging from long-term community strategic plans to public art projects. The increase in these practices has been exponential, leaving little time for critical reflection. The lack of empirical data to illustrate how community engagement is understood and practised in different councils has hindered sector-wide reflection. This paper presents the findings of the 'Local Government Community Engagement Census', a survey of 175 councilsapproximately half from four of Australia's eastern states. This sectoral snapshot provides a picture of how councils understand, prioritise and practise community engagement, allowing critical reflection, an interpretation of implications and suggesting areas for future research.

Community Perception on Smart Engagement: Case of Kubang Pasu Local Government

“…One of the issues is the importance of interacting and collaborating with the community to increase internal awareness and legitimation. Christensen and McQuestin (2019) presented the findings of a census probing community engagement practice in Australia's local government. Their study focused on the aspects of frequency of council engaging, council engaging approach, factors driving the council community engagement, engagement process, and council engagement method (14).…”

“…Christensen and McQuestin (2019) presented the findings of a census probing community engagement practice in Australia's local government. Their study focused on the aspects of frequency of council engaging, council engaging approach, factors driving the council community engagement, engagement process, and council engagement method (14). These aspects were considered important in designing smart engagement between the council and the community.…”

Australian local government’s contribution to good governance on major projects: increasing information, participation and deliberation

“…Community engagement seeks to increase inclusion and fairness. It is also part of the core business of local governments, required by legislation in every Australian state (Christensen and McQuestin 2019).…”

Examining digital participatory planning: Maturity assessment in a Small Dutch city

“…This undesirable attitude toward the participation concept might be due to a complex array of reasons that starts with not wanting to deal with opposition from the community and does not end with the extra workload often associated with the participation process. Christensen and McQuestin (2019) found that the time required for citizen participation is the biggest challenge facing governmental representatives while delivering participatory planning projects, which might cause resistance or dis-appreciation. Finally, in terms of the availability of IT resources and the familiarity of utilizing ICT to facilitate participatory planning, the city's level of maturity for introducing DPP was found to be adequate.…”