Kangaroo Island, off the coast of South Australia, faces unique challenges to provide public service to its small population. The local authority undertook two Citizens' Juries to firstly identify an ideal governance structure for the island, and secondly to consider how this could be achieved.
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Problems and Purpose
Kangaroo Island is a small community off the coast of South Australia with a permanent population of just 4,500 people. A large portion of the island is protected as a nature reserve or national park and it is a popular destination for visitors for its unique flora and fauna. This geography creates challenges for delivering public services to the island’s residents [1].
Two citizens’ juries were convened with the aim of understanding how the local government could better service the community. The first jury aimed to identify an ideal governance structure for the island, whilst the second considered how this might be implemented in practice [2].
Background History and Context
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Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities
The Kangaroo Island juries were convened by the Kangaroo Island Futures Authority and delivered by democracyCo, a well-established practitioner in South Australia. The juries were part of a state-level initiative called Change@SA which delivers 90-day long projects.
Participant Recruitment and Selection
Participants were recruited for the juries through a call in the local newspaper, from which a representative sample was chosen. The final sample were all islanders and contained a high proportion of young people [3].
Methods and Tools Used
What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation
The first jury took place in 2013 and considered ‘how can government and community work together now and into the future to make life on Kangaroo Island the best it can be?’ [4]. Its findings were presented to the local authority and officials from the South Australian state government.
The second jury took place over two months in 2014 and met four times, focusing on the question: ‘what is the most appropriate citizen based governance model for the delivery of government services on Kangaroo Island?’ [5]. Prior to the jury convening, a number of community workshops were also carried out and the views from these were fed into the jury, as well as the 2013 jury’s recommendations. The jury also had access of a wide range of information and written material accessed through a dropbox folder, and heard from a number of relevant experts and officials, included elected politicians from the island the governance experts [6].
Influence, Outcomes, and Effects
The Kangaroo Island Council Strategic Plan 2014-2018 mentions the juries as being part of the consultation process for the plan, but does not provide further details about which recommendations.
In 2018, an opinion piece from the Mayor of Kangaroo Island implies that at least some of the jury’s recommendations for a governance structure have not been implemented and calls on the state government (South Australia) to honor the jury’s recommendations.
Analysis and Lessons Learned
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See Also
References
[1] Government of South Australia (n.d.). Project 2: Government Service Delivery on Kangaroo Island. Better Together SA. Available at: http://bettertogether.sa.gov.au/project-2-government-service-delivery-on-kangaroo-island
[2] democracyCo (2019). Citizens Juries: Kangaroo Island Governance. Available at: https://www.democracyco.com.au/our-projects/citizens-juries-kangaroo-island-governance/
[3] Government of South Australia (n.d.). Project 2: Government Service Delivery on Kangaroo Island. Better Together SA. Available at: http://bettertogether.sa.gov.au/project-2-government-service-delivery-on-kangaroo-island
[4] The Islander Online (2013). Citizens' Panel presents its findings. Available at: https://www.theislanderonline.com.au/story/1982933/citizens-panel-presents-its-findings/
[5] Kangaroo Island Citizens' Jury (2014). Kangaroo Island Citizens' Jury Final Report. Available at: http://www.democracyco.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/KI-Final-Report-V2.pdf
[6] Ibid.
