A direct correlation exists between the absence of meaningful community engagement in Kingborough’s land use policies over the past two decades and the volume of perverse outcomes those policies have produced. The Biodiversity Offset Policy, the LCZ nomination, and the Trees on Private Land Bylaw were all developed without genuine consultation with the communities most affected.
No land use policy, strategy, or bylaw will be adopted without direct, meaningful community consultation. Expert input is necessary, but it is not sufficient.
I have peers on council whom I respect who believe Kingborough over consults, and that as elected officials we should trust our own judgement, act swiftly, and get on with the job. I understand the argument, and in some cases I have sympathy with it. But my own experience points in the other direction. The greatest damage to the relationship between council and community over the past decade has come from moments when we failed to consult or failed to communicate, not from moments when we consulted too much.
Ask yourself a simple question. Do councils get into more trouble for over communicating with their community, or for under communicating? The answer to that question tells you exactly where the solution lies.
As Mayor I will institute the following:
- Mandatory community consultation before any land use policy, strategy, or bylaw is adopted
- Consultation must directly engage affected landholders, rural residents, and relevant local industries, not just subject matter experts
- All consultation processes to be publicly reported, with responses and outcomes documented
- Council must always remember who it works for. Significant planning and zoning changes must never again be pushed through without adequate community input
Residents are not an afterthought in the governance process. They are the reason for it.
