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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-05-16 Daily Xml
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CITIZEN ENGAGEMENT PROJECT

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna) (14:55): My question is to the Premier. What is the citizen engagement project that has been started by his government?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (14:55): I thank the member for Kaurna for his question. I notice the typical laughter that breezes across the opposition when you talk about citizens and their engagement. Nothing could be further from their imagination than engaging citizens in the decisions that may affect their lives.

Mr Goldsworthy interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I call the member for Kavel to order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I have a strong view that government needs to keep finding ways of improving the way in which we engage with South Australians about policy development. Last Thursday, we found a new way, establishing an innovative citizens engagement project. The project will give a randomly selected citizens jury the responsibility of making policy recommendations on how Adelaide can be both vibrant and safe. Citizens juries have been successfully used elsewhere to investigate complex issues that have a direct effect on people's lives.

We have identified two priorities for South Australia. One is creating a vibrant city here in Adelaide and also ensuring our communities are healthy and safe. These two goals can coexist, including in Adelaide's night-time economy, but also, finding ways of ensuring that the two elements are able to balance the sometimes complex issues can involve some difficult trade-offs.

These solutions will not be found only in new laws or in new government policies. They will be found in changed behaviours, changed attitudes and changed cultures. So, the solution will require a shift in more than just a few minds of the decision-makers, as generally is the case in debates in parliament. Placing these difficult problems in the hands of ordinary citizens will be part of a long process of changing attitudes.

The project will be run by two independent research organisations: the newDemocracy Foundation and the Australian Centre for Social Innovation. These organisations are well placed to deliver this project, but the process and its outcomes will be in the hands of a 40-person citizens jury chosen from a base of 20,000 randomly selected South Australians.

Once the jury is selected, members will meet over a 12-week period. They will define the issues and seek expert testimony from organisations that they identify as being important to their deliberation. The process will provide opportunities for broader public involvement. At certain times it will be open to members of the public in a similar fashion to court hearings. These dates will be advertised in the state government's YourSAy website.

Members of the public and interested parties will have the opportunity to make submissions, and further involvement will be facilitated through online discussions. Later this year, the citizens jury will finalise their report and the recommendations will be tabled in parliament.

This is an exciting initiative in community engagement. We do, I think, owe it to ourselves to find new ways of reaching the community. I strongly believe that taking mass opinion and then, through a process of deliberation and dialogue, turning it into considered public judgement is an important part of getting a strengthened and more effective democracy.

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