Changing Perth for the better - Dialogue with the city
September 2003 saw the Department host the biggest-ever community consultation exercise of its type in the southern hemisphere: Dialogue with the city.
Before Dialogue, there had never been a concerted single effort to get broad, yet representative, community opinions on the future for the whole of Perth.
Months in the planning, Dialogue brought more than 1100 people from many walks of life together to make decisions that will shape the growth of Perth and its surrounds for the next 30 years.
Dialogue with the city was modelled on the public participation exercise undertaken in New York to plan how the September 11 tragedy would be commemorated at the Ground Zero site.
It aimed to go much further than previous community consultation - to start with facts and figures and give as many people as possible the opportunity to have an equal say.
Engaging the community
To ensure Dialogue was as effective as possible, one of the most ambitious community involvement efforts ever mobilised in Perth swung into action.
The Department conducted a survey of 8000 residents to gauge community attitudes about Perth¡¦s future; nine discussion papers were published to help inform people of the most pressing issues; online discussion groups debated vigorously; an art and essay competition engaged school children in the future of their city; and a massive information campaign brought the subject to the newspapers and letterboxes of residents all over Perth.
Media coverage included major features in The West Australian newspaper and a special live forum on Channel 7. Significant sponsorship support was also provided by AlphaWest, Sun Microsystems, AD Industries and BHPBilliton Iron Ore.
To ensure a range of truly representative viewpoints, the Dialogue team held listening sessions with youth, Aboriginal people and people whose first language is not English.
Selecting the 800 community participants involved a random community ballot and a massive information campaign through the media inviting people to nominate. Participants were chosen to reflect current proportions of age, gender and geographical location, as well as the broadest possible range of community interest groups.
Working together, more Perth people than ever before have helped to create the first phase of what will be a revitalised city.
The Dialogue vision
After a day of debate and discussion, the Dialogue participants achieved a groundbreaking consensus for Perth's future. They wanted:
- A green, clean environment with access to beaches, rivers and forests;
- Integrated transport to allow people to move around easily;
- Local centres with services and facilities close to home;
- A lifestyle that offers freedom of choice and quality of life; and
- Protection of groundwater catchment areas to preserve clean water for the future.
Building on Dialogue
A team of around 58 people from government, industry and the community are now directly involved in fleshing out the broad principles to map our way forward to achieve the Dialogue dream. The 'Network City' strategy is the action plan through which the outcomes of Dialogue with the city are being implemented, and a draft planning blueprint will be ready for discussion in 2004-05.
An innovative $1.5 million grants program was launched by the Western Australian Planning Commission in May 2004 to help local councils replicate the Dialogue process within their own municipal boundaries, to have even more people contributing their views towards improving our city.
Read More...
Read more about Dialogue with the city under An award-winning agency and People and communities
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Read more about Network City under People and communities (cont....)
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