The City is committed to ensuring that the community is as well informed as they can be on major issues, plans and projects. Where the community can influence part or all of a decision, that they are provided with the necessary information to form an opinion and opportunity to provide input through a community engagement process.

The City's Community Engagement Policy underwent a major review and rewrite when the Local Government Act 2020 came into force.

Community were invited to provide feedback on the draft Policy over a 4 week consultation period. The survey has now closed. Feedback received was be reviewed, and any relevant changes to the draft Policy were completed.

The Policy was presented to Council for endorsement at the April 22, 2024 meeting and was endorsed.

The Local Government Act 2020 requires that we undertake principles based community engagement. The six principles guiding City engagement are:

The Council and City are committed to:

• genuine Community Engagement that adheres to the principles of this policy;
• using the IAP2 Public Participation Spectrum to assist with selecting the level of participation;
• supporting equitable representation in community engagement for policies, programs and services that have a direct and significant impact on the public through the use of the equity assessment process;
• considering value for money, policy principles and scale of engagement required, in line with the IAP2 spectrum;
• providing the community with information that is clear, easy to understand and accessible to all people, and delivered in consultation with the Communications unit;
• clearly communicating which aspects of the engagement are negotiable, and which are not negotiable;
• using various techniques and approaches to maximise public participation within reasonable timeframes;
• prioritising the collection, analysis and use of gender disaggregated and intersectional data to ensure representative participation;
• informing the community about how their input has influenced the final outcome or decision, and;
• undertaking evaluation processes to learn from each Community Engagement experience and ensure continuous improvement of our consultation practices.

The City recognises that no single model or formula fits all situations. The method, extent and depth of Community Engagement will vary according to the scope and scale of the issue, strategy, budget or plan.