Data

General Issues
Planning & Development
Specific Topics
Natural Resource Management
Public Amenities
Location
Sunbury
Victoria
3429
Australia
Scope of Influence
City/Town
Links
Overview of the Sunbury's Water Future community panel
OECD Innovative Citizen Participation project page
Start Date
End Date
Ongoing
No
Time Limited or Repeated?
A single, defined period of time
Purpose/Goal
Make, influence, or challenge decisions of government and public bodies
Develop the civic capacities of individuals, communities, and/or civil society organizations
Approach
Consultation
Total Number of Participants
35
Open to All or Limited to Some?
Limited to Only Some Groups or Individuals
Recruitment Method for Limited Subset of Population
Stratified Random Sample
General Types of Methods
Deliberative and dialogic process
General Types of Tools/Techniques
Facilitate dialogue, discussion, and/or deliberation
Recruit or select participants
Propose and/or develop policies, ideas, and recommendations
Specific Methods, Tools & Techniques
Survey
Roundtable Discussion
Workshop
Focused Conversation
Panel Discussion
Deliberation
Civic Lottery
Legality
Yes
Face-to-Face, Online, or Both
Face-to-Face
Types of Interaction Among Participants
Discussion, Dialogue, or Deliberation
Express Opinions/Preferences Only
Information & Learning Resources
Written Briefing Materials
Decision Methods
Opinion Survey
Communication of Insights & Outcomes
Traditional Media
Primary Organizer/Manager
MosaicLab
Type of Organizer/Manager
For-Profit Business
Funder
Budget of Western Waters and Melbourne Water
Type of Funder
Non-Governmental Organization
Evidence of Impact
Yes
Types of Change
Changes in how institutions operate
Implementers of Change
Stakeholder Organizations

CASE

Sunbury's Water Future Community Panel

January 14, 2022 friedel.marquardt
August 3, 2020 Joyce Chen
July 2, 2020 Jaskiran Gakhal, Participedia Team
June 27, 2020 Jaskiran Gakhal, Participedia Team
June 27, 2020 Joyce Chen
General Issues
Planning & Development
Specific Topics
Natural Resource Management
Public Amenities
Location
Sunbury
Victoria
3429
Australia
Scope of Influence
City/Town
Links
Overview of the Sunbury's Water Future community panel
OECD Innovative Citizen Participation project page
Start Date
End Date
Ongoing
No
Time Limited or Repeated?
A single, defined period of time
Purpose/Goal
Make, influence, or challenge decisions of government and public bodies
Develop the civic capacities of individuals, communities, and/or civil society organizations
Approach
Consultation
Total Number of Participants
35
Open to All or Limited to Some?
Limited to Only Some Groups or Individuals
Recruitment Method for Limited Subset of Population
Stratified Random Sample
General Types of Methods
Deliberative and dialogic process
General Types of Tools/Techniques
Facilitate dialogue, discussion, and/or deliberation
Recruit or select participants
Propose and/or develop policies, ideas, and recommendations
Specific Methods, Tools & Techniques
Survey
Roundtable Discussion
Workshop
Focused Conversation
Panel Discussion
Deliberation
Civic Lottery
Legality
Yes
Face-to-Face, Online, or Both
Face-to-Face
Types of Interaction Among Participants
Discussion, Dialogue, or Deliberation
Express Opinions/Preferences Only
Information & Learning Resources
Written Briefing Materials
Decision Methods
Opinion Survey
Communication of Insights & Outcomes
Traditional Media
Primary Organizer/Manager
MosaicLab
Type of Organizer/Manager
For-Profit Business
Funder
Budget of Western Waters and Melbourne Water
Type of Funder
Non-Governmental Organization
Evidence of Impact
Yes
Types of Change
Changes in how institutions operate
Implementers of Change
Stakeholder Organizations

Across 5 sessions from May to June 2019, the 30-35 members of the Sunbury's Water Future community panel deliberated topics and solutions surrounding future water management. These included recycled water and stormwater, catchments and waterways, climate change, and urban growth.

Problems and Purpose

Sunbury is a growing city, with its population expected to double in the next 20 years. To meet the challenge this would pose for water supply and management, and to develop and Integrated Water Management plan, Western Water (WW) and Melbourne Water (MW) sought to engage with the community to hear from Sunbury about how to combat the issue. This involved two phases. The first involved wide community engagement through a survey and face-to-face community discussions. This led to the development of a Wider Engagement (Phase 1) report [1], which was used to inform the second phase. The second phase involved deliberation through a community panel. The panel was tasked with providing WW and MW a range of recommendations for how to meet this need [2].

Background History and Context

As Sunbury is a growing city that is expecting large population growth, the city is facing challenges with how best to meet increased water supply and management. To develop and Integrated Water Management Plan, Western Water and Melbourne Water undertook two phases of community engagement to hear from the community and incorporate their recommendations into the plan.

Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities

Western Water (now Greater Western Water)

Melbourne Water

Participant Recruitment and Selection

35 panellists were recruited through random stratified sampling. This was done by Nivek Thompson of Deliberately Engaging. Panellists were randomly selected to represent the population, and varied in age, abilities, culturally, linguistically and home ownership. Due to the odd number of participants, there were 18 male and 17 female panellists.

Methods and Tools Used

Expert presentations

Q and A sessions

Rapid rotations - experts went round to the smaller groups and spoke with them for 10 minutes before moving on to the next group.

Ranking recommendations

Super majoritarian voting for final recommendations

What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation

The panel had two guiding principles for developing their recommendations:

  • "Climate change is a fact and as such will impact rainfall and other climate events in the Sunbury region,
  • The costings of recommendations were not to limit panellists' thinking" [2]

Using a set of criteria the panel established themselves, they came up with nine recommendations (plus three minority recommendations). These criteria and recommendations can be viewed in the panel's report [2].

The panel met five Saturdays for full-day deliberations over two months.

During deliberation, participants split off into smaller groups to discuss issues before coming together in a big group again.

While not happening during this deliberation process, young people were also consulted at the KidX Youth Forum about Sunbury's water future a few months before.

Influence, Outcomes, and Effects

Western Water and Melbourne Water committed to reviewing the panel's recommendations and getting back to them within three month's of the report's submission. They also committed to continuing to engage with the community in future around water management.

Both water companies endorsed the panel's nine recommendations and they are being used to develop options for the Integrated Water Management (IWM) plan [1].

A response report was released in September 2019 by Western Water (WW) and Melbourne Water (MW). The report notes that WW and MW commit to providing annual updates on progress to community panel members and outlines a community engagement roadmap from September 2018 to beyond 2024 [3]. The response report also outlines how WW and MW understood each recommendation (including minority recommendations), any challenges to its implementation and what they will do about it.

Analysis and Lessons Learned

See Also

Melbourne Water's YourSay page has video summaries of each of the five days of deliberation.

References

[1] Melbourne Water, Sunbury's Water Future, Community Engagement, available at: https://yoursay.melbournewater.com.au/Sunburys-Water-Future/community-engagement

[2] Sunbury's Water Future Community Panel Panel Report (2019) [pdf], available at: https://www.westernwater.com.au/assets/volumes/general-downloads/sunburys-water-future-community-panel-report.pdf

[3] Western Water & Melbourne Water (2019, Sunbury's Water Future: Response to the Community Panel's recommendations, available at: https://hdp-au-prod-app-mw-yoursay-files.s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/9715/7170/3215/01-263_Sunburys_Water_Future_Response_FINAL.pdf

External Links

Notes

Data was sourced from OECD (2020), Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions: Catching the Deliberative Wave, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/339306da-en.