Canberra has a growing population and the ACT government undertook a community consultation process as a pilot project for participatory budgeting in the city. Participants were asked to consider budgeting priorities for Canberra's suburbs.
Problems and Purpose
Canberra is expected to be home to 500,000 people by 2030. This increase in population will require changes to public services and land use, among other things [1]. In 2018 the ACT government undertook a program of community and deliberative engagement to help develop the Better Suburbs Statement, a vision for Canberra’s city services in the future.
The focus on suburbs is particular to Canberra because the city was purposefully designed as a series of town centers, suburbs and districts. Most suburbs have their own center with shops and services and the suburbs are an important and distinct aspect of living in Canberra. The Better Suburbs statement covers issues such as domestic animal management, public amenities, libraries and general infrastructure and services [3].
The multifaceted engagement program took place in three phases including surveys, kitchen table discussions and a deliberative forum. The final day of the deliberative forum also functioned as a participatory budgeting trial to allocate funding for play spaces in three of Canberra’s suburbs [4].
Background History and Context
In recent years the ACT government has convened a number of deliberative style engagement processes in Canberra on issues such as housing and social care.
Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities
The Better Suburbs program was convened by the ACT government. The deliberative forum part of the program was facilitated by democracyCo, including the participatory budgeting trial.
Participant Recruitment and Selection
The surveys and kitchen table discussions were open to participants from the whole community as well as stakeholders. Participants in the citizens’ forum was selected from an initial 6,000 invitations sent to households around Canberra. From the positive responses, a representative group of 46 citizens were selected. They worked with 25 representatives from government, industry and non-governmental organizations during the forum [5].
Methods and Tools Used
The Better Suburbs program involved a range of methods and tools, beginning with surveys and pop-ups to gather initial feedback which was used to develop a kitchen table discussion guide. These results were presented for deliberation at a citizens' forum of randomly selected citizens. The final part of the forum was dedicated to a trial run of participatory budgeting.
What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation
The first phase of the program took place in late 2017 and involved gathering initial feedback on city services from the community through the deployment of a survey, an online discussion board, social media interaction and pop-up sessions in the town centers [6].
The views gathered from the first phase were used to develop a kitchen table discussion guide incorporating feedback on city services and as designed to help the government better understand the community’s priorities for services. People could download the guide along with a guide on hosting a kitchen table discussion, and then drop off their feedback at a local library or online [7]. Kitchen table discussions are self-organized, informal conversations that can be hosted by anyone interested in a convenient setting.
Results from both the survey consultation and kitchen table discussions were then fed into the deliberations of a citizens’ forum. The forum took place over four days, with a final fifth day dedicated to the participatory budgeting trial.
The first day of the forum began with a bus tour with commentary from city officials. Later on, participants considered what they’d learnt from the bus tour and heard a presentation on the city’s services. On the second day the forum continued to build their knowledge about Canberra’s services with presentations from the Transport Canberra and City Services (TCCS). As well as presentations, TCCS staff facilitated small group deliberations and insights were recorded on large boards that participants could refer to later on in the process. The third day included an exercise to explore the connections between different services and business using balls of wool, to visually express the complexity of the network. The forum were then presented with the results of the kitchen table discussions. By the end of the third day the forum had begun to collate some recommendations for the Better Suburbs Statement [8]. Work on the recommendations continued on the fourth day, with participants working in seven smaller groups to finalize the statement. The forum also discussed their experiences and aspirations for the community’s relationship with the ACT government, and heard a presentation about the overall role of the Better Suburbs statements and what would happen with their recommendations following the forum [9].
The fifth day of the citizens’ forum was dedicated to discussing and prioritizing spending for play spaces in Canberra. An additional ten participants with involvement or expertise on the issue joined the existing forum participants. The day involved learning about the importance of play spaces to children’s development and health and from community representatives who had petitioned the government for improvements to play spaces in their areas. Participants then worked in small groups to allocate spending categories for the $1.9 million (AUD) that was available for the play spaces. As well as the spending allocation, some of the small group deliberations worked on developing priorities for play spaces such as optimal locations [10]. During the day the forum also presented their Better Suburbs statement to a government minister.
Following the citizens’ forum, several follow up meeting were held. Spending allocation was finalized at a forum of 21 participants (from the original citizens’ forum) in September 2018, whilst a group of 10 met twice thereafter to make specific decisions on the allocation of money [11]. The breakdown of the spending allocation can be found here.
Influence, Outcomes, and Effects
The final Better Suburbs statement was publicly released in September 2018. The ACT government has provided a document on the rolling implementation of the priorities outlined in the statement for 2019-20.
Part of the budgeting allocation and discussions of the play spaces forum was around the importance of nature play. Following on from this, the government undertook further engagement with local schools and the community around the development of new nature play spaces in two locations in the city [12].
Analysis and Lessons Learned
Magical Learning Pty Ltd provided an evaluation of the Participatory Budgeting (PB) component of this process [13]. Along with various recommendations, the evaluation noted that the TCCS provided a good initial PB process in the ACT due to the jurisdiction's high engagement levels [13]. Some of the recommendations included continuing to undertake PB processes in the ACT, enabling an "online budget allocation tool" for citizens to vote on spending, using deliberative community panels for "discretionary capital funding", engaging in promotional media activities (including social media) to advocate for PB and educate the broader ACT community about it and its outcomes. (For the full list of recommendations, see the evaluation report, pp. 5-6).
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See Also
References
[1] DemocracyCo (2020). Better Suburbs, Australian Capital Territory. Available at: https://www.democracyco.com.au/our-projects/better-suburbs/
[2] ACT Government (2020). Better Suburbs. Available at: https://www.yoursay.act.gov.au/BetterSuburbs
[3] ACT Government (2020). Better Suburbs:m Phase 1 Consultation Recap. Available at: https://www.yoursay.act.gov.au/BetterSuburbs/Phase-1-Consultation-Recap
[4] ACT Government (2020). Better Suburbs. Available at: https://www.yoursay.act.gov.au/BetterSuburbs
[5] ACT Government (2020). Better Suburbs: Citizens Forum. Available at: https://www.yoursay.act.gov.au/BetterSuburbs/citizens-forum
[6] ACT Government (2018) Better Suburbs Community Consultation and Engagement Summary Report [pdf]. Available at:https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/hdp.au.prod.app.act-yoursay.files/3415/2642/9905/Better_Suburbs_Community_Consultation_and_Engagement_Summary_Report.pdf
[7] ACT Government (2018). Better Suburbs Kitchen Table Discussion Guide. Available at: https://www.yoursay.act.gov.au/BetterSuburbs/kitchen-table-discussion-guide
[8] ACT Government (2018) Better Suburbs Citizens Forum Weekend 2. Available at: https://yoursay.act.gov.au/BetterSuburbs/citizens-forum-weekend-2
[9] ACT Government (2018) Better Suburbs Citizens Forum Weekend 3. Available at: https://yoursay.act.gov.au/BetterSuburbs/citizens-forum-weekend-3
[10] Ibid.
[11] ACT Government (2018). Better Suburbs: Play Spaces Forum. Available at: https://www.yoursay.act.gov.au/BetterSuburbs#jl_magic_tabs__gix2
[12] ACT Government (2020). Better Suburbs: Nature Play. Available at: https://www.yoursay.act.gov.au/BetterSuburbs#jl_magic_tabs__gix2
[13] Magical Learning Pty Ltd (2019). Review of Participatory Budgeting 2018 Process. Available at: https://hdp-au-prod-app-act-yoursay-files.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/1315/5962/4427/TCCA_Participatory_Budgeting_Reveiew.pdf
External Links
https://www.yoursay.act.gov.au/BetterSuburbs
https://www.democracyco.com.au/our-projects/better-suburbs/