by Just following up from my posting the other day about online community engagement getting a ringing endorsement from Kristina Keneally the NSW Minister for Planning, I have now been able to locate the transcript of the interview (thanks to the Minister’s office) and the relevant sections are below.
Kristina Keneally talking to Deb Cameron re “The future of Sydney”
Comments about consultation
[Approx 4 minutes into the interview]
Deb Cameron: How do you give community a say at the same time as being totally aware that it’s your decision?
Kristina Keneally: I’m really pleased that you asked this question, because it goes to the heart of something that I’m quite passionate about, and that is how do we improve community consultation?
“There is a view that somehow when a major project is determined by the State Government that the community is not involved. I would point out that we get some 14,000 submissions per year to the approximately 100 Part 3A projects we put on exhibition. Those are the major state significant projects.
“But I think we can improve the way community consultation is done, whether it is through a State Government approved project or one done by the local council.
“We’ve got the tools with the internet now, to have transparent, interactive bulletin boards. What if we had a consultation process where the proponent had to have a bulletin board? People asked their questions, the proponent had to answer them. People could see what other people had asked. People could engage with each other, in fact, in debates?
“That would be a really productive way to do community consultation and so I’m looking at how we might be able to use an interactive model for some of our big projects coming up, because I think that’s the future of how we engage with the community.
“We will always still do the traditional style of consultation because not everyone is on the internet, because you have to provide a variety of ways for people to interact with the planning system – everything from the Town Hall style meetings through to the written submissions. But I think there’s a real opportunity here with the technology available to have a modern, consultative, interactive consultation process.
[Approximately 26 minutes into the interview]
Deb Cameron: I’ll look forward to that bulletin board idea. What’s the timeframe on that?
Kristina Keneally: “Well I’ll flag here today, maybe an exclusive for you Deb, that I would like to use that for our consultation on the Bays Precinct, that is the White bay, Glebe island, that precinct nearby Anzac Bridge where we want to do some future planning. I think it’s a fantastic project and it’s a fantastic way to kick off a more consultative, interactive form of consultation. We’re working on it right now.
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