Public consultation, when done properly – over time, actively engaging with the right community groups to retrieve useful data that can be genuinely used to inform decisions – is a brilliant tool.
Too often in modern processes, it’s about protecting jobs. Being seen to be right. Not putting yourself in the firing line. Laying low.
Public consultation and engagement process is commonly structured in a way it is no more than a lame excuse for no other reason than to hoodwink the public into believing they’ve been involved in some sort of decision-making process.
Rather than “here are the facts, we’d like to know what you think”; it’s become “here is our decision and here’s why you should agree with it”.
One week of public consultation cannot possibly inform any sort of decisions. Three weeks is highly questionable.
Whether it be council, state government or federal government agencies, there are well-researched processes that can effectively involve the general public in decision-making processes.
There are parks designed by children, community spaces influenced by groups who use them. There are numerous positive examples.
Yet, we continue to see holes in the system when it comes to the Coomera Connector.
Whether the engineers who recommended the current route through Eagleby Wetlands are right or wrong doesn’t matter.
What matters is that they seem so worried about being wrong, that they won’t allow the public into the process in order to prove themselves right.
That any aspect of research should remain confidential is an insult to democracy.
Unless commercial negotiations have begun, there is no reason to move into confidence.
Instead, we go through a facade of box-ticking which the government will use in a public relations spin exercise to make us believe we had the opportunity for input.
The process stinks of hypocrisy at the highest level. If the government wants to engage, it should be doing so with the utmost of transparency.
