Local Government Hub
The Local Government Hub houses a range of community engagement resources to help engagement practitioners in this sector.
Practitioners will find a list of Local Government community engagement resources to help navigate the landscape, including:
Use the buttons below to skip to content type or simply scroll down the page to view the list of resources available.
To connect and be part of our community make sure you join our IAP2 Australasia Local Government LinkedIn group.
Bushfire Ready Neighbourhoods 2015
Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council
How Tasmania Fire Service used evidence-based practice to transform community education.
Communicating to and engaging with Aucklanders on the 10-year budget
Auckland Council
10-Year Budget 2014.
Buildings for our Community 2014
Randwick City Council
Genuinely seeking collaboration.
Uranquinty Community-led Planning and Exercise 2014
NSW SES
To embrace the concept of shared responsibility for disasters and as an antidote to combat otherwise stretched State Emergency Service and Wagga City Council resources during large scale floods in 2010 and 2012.
Talk of the Town 2010 Community Summit – Housing Future
Warringah Council
State Metropolitan Strategy – 10,300 dwellings by 2031.
Tablelands Community Plan 2021
Tablelands Regional Council
Unique communities working together.
Plan your Brisbane
Brisbane City Council and Articulous | 2019 Core Values Awards
Brisbane is changing. New industries, new jobs, new technologies and new export relationships are creating a new world of opportunity for Brisbane.
Community Engagement in Australian Local Government: The Practice and its pressures
Institute for Public Policy and Governance: University of Technology Sydney | 2020 Core Values Awards
Community engagement has become an imperative of Australian local governments.
Planning for 2050
City of Sydney | 2020 Core Values Awards
Commencing in 2018, the City of Sydney undertook an extensive community engagement program to support the development of a new Community Strategic Plan to 2050.
Meters gained – Barwon Water partners with Birregurra community
Barwon Water | Community | 2021 Core Values Awards
Barwon Water (Barwon Region Water Corporation) is Victoria’s largest regional urban water corporation.
Whakahekerau – Rakiātea Rautaki Tai: A community’s vision for a resilient coast
Dunedin City Council and WSP | Planning | 2021 Core Values Awards
The St Clair – St Kilda Coastal Plan engagement process is a rare example of a community-centred approach to climate adaptation.
Logan Community Vision
Logan City Council and Articulous | Planning | 2021 Core Values Awards
The City of Logan is changing. It is experiencing its fastest rate of growth in its 40-year history, with more than $18 billion in planned infrastructure and improvements to be delivered over the coming years.
A future vision for Ray Tay
Port Stephens Council | Planning | 2021 Core Values Awards
An under-represented town gets the attention and love it needs to add vibrancy to its streets and to build town pride.
Tāmaki Reserves Engagement Strategy
Mad Ave Community Trust, Resilio Studio, Auckland Council Community Facilities | Planning | 2021 Core Values Awards
The purpose of the Tāmaki Reserves Engagement Strategy is to provide a strategic and operational framework to Auckland Council, its partners and contractors when engaging Tāmaki communities on redeveloping local reserves.
Cafe-Based Led Engagement in Country Towns
Riverview Developments | Planning | 2021 Core Values Awards
A deliberate approach was taken to engage the small rural communities in their existing social hubs – the local café!
Stirk Park Skate Park Co-Design
Port Stephens Council | Planning | 2021 Core Values Awards
A City of Kalamunda project within the Perth Hills of Western Australia.
Citizens’ Jury Workshop facilitated by Max Hardy
2016 IAP2 Australasia Conference
Citizens’ Juries are changing the way democracy is done in South Australia by creating a new balance between experts and the public. Max Hardy explored the theory behind Citizens’ Juries and we heard from a panel of speakers who shared their experiences as the Authority, a Jury facilitator, an Expert Witness and a Jury Member. Using an online tool, Articulous Communications crowd sourced live questions for the panel.
Deep Democracy – The Lewis Method with Martin de los Rios
2016 IAP2 Australasia Conference
The Lewis method of Deep Democracy (also called Co-resolve), builds a safe environment that enables challenging conversations to take place and supports all voices and views to be heard. Participants of this interactive session experienced a large group dialogue, deep democracy style, with Martin De Los Rios.
Impacts of engagement on political decision making Dr Wendy Russell
2016 IAP2 Australasia Conference
Impact on decisions, also expressed in terms of influence and commitment, is central to good engagement. It is embodied in the core value: public participation includes the promise that the public’s contribution will influence the decision. So, when engagement does not have impact, is this because of bad practice? Or because of factors beyond practitioners’ control? This presentation with Dr Wendy Russell discussed how engagement design and practice interacts with the complex political and social contexts of engagement to lead to impacts.
The world at our feet with Joel Levin and Working toward inclusive governance in Indonesia with Aldi Muhammad Alizar
2016 IAP2 Australasia Conference
The development of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals brings a specific focus to the need to build more inclusive and engaging societies. Aldi Muhammad Alizar explored the experience of working at the Asia Pacific Forum on Sustainable Development and some of the challenges while considering the question… Are we thinking big enough in our sector? Joel Levin explored the implementation of the paradigm of development for Indonesia. The shift has contributed to an increase of civic engagement in local developments.
Challenging Engagement with Tony Clark
2017 IAP2 Australasia Conference
Communicating effectively and reaching difficult to target audiences can be one of the most challenging issues we all face. We live in a diverse and cross cultural society with a myriad of beliefs, challenges and views – engaging effectively is difficult and in many cases confronting and sadly in many cases not addressed or tacked on as an extra.
A Fair Shake – Participatory Budgeting Breakout
2018 IAP2 Australasia Conference
Behind the scenes of participatory budgeting with Kimbra White, MosaicLab; Jeremi Moule, Deputy Secretary, Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet; and Helen Christensen, IAP2.
Engaging with First Nations
2018 IAP2 Australasia Conference
Developing cultural competency to unlock shared learning with Tanya Koeneman, Specialist Policy Advisor, NSW Department of Planning and Environment. Finding common ground with Corie Taylor, Senior Consultant, Indigenous Sector Practice Climate Change and Sustainability, EY Future of First Nations engagement with Noel Niddrie, Managing Director, Winangali.
From drab to fab: Tapping into the fun side of Youth Engagement
2019 IAP2 Australasia Conference
Three years ago, Central Coast Council become one of the largest Local Government Areas in NSW, which presented us with a big challenge: How do we engage with the vast range of local perspectives and needs encompassed in such a large geographic area? Our response to this challenge is Let’s Talk, a place-based program that is designed to make it local, make it relevant and make it inclusive.
Mingle: Creating vibrant communities, building genuine neighbourhood connections & the tips to get you there
2019 IAP2 Australasia Conference
Have you heard of Asset Based Community Development? Come and find out how it is being implemented within local communities in Canberra. The Mingle Team will lead you in an interactive session, sharing the challenges and opportunities in grass roots community development. You will experience the importance of building connections – in a fun and interactive way.
Unlocking the value of local connections relationship based engagement
2019 IAP2 Australasia Conference
The increasing focus in health policy on ‘person centred care’, ‘consumer engagement’ and ‘community engagement’ belies the strange reality that although healthcare services exist for people, the processes and systems constructed to deliver healthcare often shift the focus from people and what makes them well, to less personal and more functional interactions. In this environment, a business as usual approach to the delivery of healthcare is unlikely to enable the aspirations of consumer and community engagement.
Demystifying Deliberative Engagement and the new Victorian Local Government Act 2020 – part 1 | 2020
Q&A-style conversation with practical information about deliberative engagement and how to adapt your approach to engagement to satisfy the new Victorian Local Government Act 2020.
Panellists
- Hannah Duncan-Jones, Director Responsible for the Implementation of the Local Government Act 2020, Local Government and Suburban Development Group, Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions
- Sharon Redmond, Project Manager, Legislation Implementation, Local Government Victoria, Local Government and Suburban Development Group, Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions
Moderated by Amy Hubbard – Capire Consulting Group and IAP2 Australasia Director.
Topics
- An overview of the relevant changes to the Victorian Local Government Act
- What the new legislation is aiming to achieve
- How to correctly align engagement with IAP2 principles (the IAP2 Spectrum and IAP2 Core Values)
- Where to find out more
Demystifying Deliberative Engagement and the new Victorian Local Government Act 2020 – part 2 | 2020
Q&A-style conversation with practical information about deliberative engagement and how to adapt your approach to engagement to satisfy the new Victorian Local Government Act 2020.
Panellists
- Max Hardy, Director, Max Hardy Consulting
- Emanuela Savini, Doctoral Student and Industry Fellow, Institute for Public Policy and Governance, UTS
- Georgie Meyer, Team Leader Community Engagement and Partnerships, City of Melbourne
Moderated by Amy Hubbard – Capire Consulting Group and IAP2 Australasia Director.
Topics
- What is deliberative engagement
- What makes deliberative engagement different from engagement?
- Deliberative engagement in the context of the Victorian Local Government Act
- How to achieve deliberative engagement with lower budgets
- Building capacity for deliberative engagement in councils
- Insights from the field
- Key tips from the thought leaders/experts
You can view a copy of our panel’s answers to a few extra questions that were asked here.
Presentations
Engaging with Diversity with Stephanie MacDonald
2019 NZ Symposium
How can we be more inclusive of our diverse communities in our engagement practices?
This forum will focus on supporting Engagement Practitioners to explore how they can be more inclusive of our diverse communities in our work in a safe professional setting.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
How the Christchurch Earthquakes turned Town v Gown into Town with Gown with Marie Byrne and Dr Billy O’Steen
2019 NZ Symposium
This presentation explored the opportunities and challenges faced in growing the student and community relationships from the immediate post-earthquake, extending to where they are at eight years on.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
How engagement shaped the Christchurch Heritage Strategy 2019-2029.
2019 NZ Symposium
Heritage is often viewed as traditional and conservative, and has the ability to be incredibly divisive. This workshop will provide you with a ‘toolkit’ on how meaningful engagement can be achieved, with ideas on processes that can give community voices a central role and actually change the way things are traditionally done.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Masterclass: Engaging in Indigenous and Culturally Diverse Environments with Michelle Feenan
2019 NZ Symposium
The Masterclass explores what needs to be considered and re-calibrated when engaging in remote Aboriginal communities within Australia. The subject is deeper than a cross-cultural or cultural competency focus. Michelle explores how the IAP2 Core Values and the framework for planning and implementing an engagement process (Design, Plan and Manage model) relate in a remote indigenous context.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Engagement during Crisis – Ethnic Communities response during COVID -19
2021 NZ Symposium
The Office of Ethnic Communities (OEC) share the initiatives that were implemented to ensure the ethnic people in the Northern Region were engaged and supported with COVID-19 information and resources particularly during lockdowns. The presentation covers how the communities contributed to the response and key learnings of effective ways of supporting the diverse ethnic communities during crisis.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Keynote Panel: Engaging with Diverse Communities in a post-COVID-19 world
2021 NZ Symposium
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has added another layer of inequality and inequity for some of our communities. The economic, social, cultural, mental and physical struggles and challenges faced by these groups have exacerbated the status quo. How do we as engagement practitioners ensure the barriers to public participation for these groups are reduced or eliminated?
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Keynote Presentation: Pathways to good engagement practice by government
2021 NZ Symposium
There is a clear rationale for government undertaking good community engagement. This enables decision-making that delivers more robust and legitimate policy outcomes – and is integral to building a relationship of trust between the government and the public. The challenge for government has been how to build pathways to good community engagement practice.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Keynote Presentation: What meaningful child participation can look like in Aotearoa in 2021
2021 NZ Symposium
Judge Andrew Becroft, Children’s Commissioner.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Pecha Kucha Sessions
2021 NZ Symposium
Engagement with communities in the Marshall Islands: Lessons and Challenges – Ashlie Carlyle, Senior Associate – Planning & Engagement, Beca Limited.
Te Arawhiti Engagement framework and guidelines – John Henare, Manager Public Sector Capability and Engagement at Te Arawhiti.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Promoting Ethnic Diversity Engagement through partnerships with local councils
2021 NZ Symposium
This session covers the programmes the Office of Ethnic Communities (OEC) is involved in with local councils in advancing acknowledgement and celebration of diversity and creating social cohesion and sense of belonging by ethnic people within these organisations and the wider communities. It also covers ways of enhancing civic participation and leadership within the vulnerable communities.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Webinars
Holding Space for High Emotion Conversations
2020 Webinars
In times like these ones, fraught with polarisation, disconnection and the fear and anxiety that results from a global pandemic, how do you “hold space” for high emotion conversations? Chief Stormrider and IAP2 International Trainer, Stephani Roy McCallum joins Kylie Cochrane in this very special webinar to explore what holding space requires from you and some tips on how to do it.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
IAP2A Engagement Leadership Series: Leading deliberation – taking the next steps
2021 Webinars
Victoria’s Local Government Act was updated in 2020 and required councils to use deliberative engagement when developing their key strategic documents which are all due over 2021/22. This has meant that all 79 councils across Victoria used deliberative engagement in the last 12 months, many for the first time.
This webinar debriefs on this revolution in council engagement. What did they learn, what worked, what didn’t, what insights can we all take forward to improve our engagement practice?
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Creating a Framework for Citizen Engagement
2015 Webinars
The City of Melbourne, Australia, has been breaking new ground in engaging its citizens. Join us as Desley Renton of IAP2 Australasia shares the achievements and lessons learned of her Citizen Engagement Framework project, which has received 2014 Core Values Awards as Project of the Year from IAP2 Australasia and IAP2 International.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Evaluating your P2 Process
2015 Webinars
Michael Quinn Patton and Charmagne Campbell-Patton of Minnesota-based Utilization-Focused Evaluation will describe embedded developmental evaluation and offer a P2 example. Dr Julia Abelson of McMaster University in Ontario is one of the leaders in the field of P2 evaluation and a project she led to develop an evaluation tool received the 2014 IAP2 Canada Core Values Award for Research Project of the Year. She and Geoff Wilson of the Capital District Health Authority in Nova Scotia led a pan-Canadian project to develop the Patient and Public Engagement Evaluation Tool, which is adaptable to a variety of P2 projects.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Meet the Authors – Public Participation for 21st Century Democracy
2015 Webinars
Longtime IAP2 member Matt Leighninger, executive director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, and Tina Nabatchi, associate professor of administration and public affairs at Syracuse University, have just published their book, Public Participation for 21st Century Democracy , and they’ll be joining us live to talk about the book and the issues it raises and give you new insights into activating the democratic, problem-solving potential of citizens.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Conflict Management and Evaluating P2 Processes
2016 Webinars
They’re two questions that often nag at P2 professionals: how to manage conflict and how to determine how effective a process is. The first White Papers commissioned by the IAP2 Canada Research Committee tackled those issues. Kate Nelischer, author of “Conflict Management and Public Participation”, and Karen Zypchyn, who wrote the paper on Evaluation
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Engagement Triangle and Innovative Visual Public Engagement from Its Geek to Me
2016 Webinars
Amy Hubbard, one of Australia’s most recognised stakeholder engagement consultants, will tell us about the Engagement Triangle, a tool to help identify the desired outcomes of community engagement based on the overarching objectives of informing decisions, building capacity and strengthening relationships. You’ll get a chance to see how this spatial tool translates into your own projects. Kalin Schmoldt of JLA Public Involvement will discuss how to get around the limitations of the human brain to convey difficult technical concepts, and sometimes, you just have to go low-tech to get the point across.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
P2 & Decision Makers
2016 Webinars
We often look at P2 from the practitioners’ point of view, we brought together three politicians who have embraced P2 and IAP2 principles in their decision-making process.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Participatory Budgeting and the Balancing Act
2016 Webinars
IAP2 joined forces with the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation. The NCDD’s Tech Tuesday features the platform Balancing Act – a tool for learning about the choices elected officials face as they create budgets. The tool allows participants to set budgets according to their own priorities and preferences, BUT they also have to balance spending and revenue. Balancing Act brings people and government officials closer together in an informed conversation about what priorities are in everyone’s best interests. This online tool also has a special application for participatory budgeting projects.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
‘Participatory Budgeting’ with Shari Davis and Luc Richard
2017 Webinars
It’s a novel concept: allowing ordinary people to have a say in developing public budget. But the concept is catching on, and Shari Davis of the Participatory Budgeting Project describes how PB has developed and shares some success stories of the concept. Shari was joined by Luc Richard, with the City of Dieppe, New Brunswick, who has had success quarterbacking a PB process in that town.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Is Your Organisation P2-Centric?
2017 Webinars
Do you find it a challenge to convince your organisation to make P2 a priority? Despite the fact that organisations are being driven to commit to P2 by a combination of planning and legislation requirements, as well as community expectations, many organisations have not put public participation at the heart of its decision making and action. In this webinar Anne Pattillo presented the results of new international research and in-depth case studies to unpack how practitioners and organisations opened their hearts and practice to public-centered decision-making and action.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Making Engagement Meaningful with P2 Toolkits
2017 Webinars
Cristelle Blackford of CivicMakers, Abby Monroe of the City of Chicago, and Zane Hamm of the Centre for Public Involvement in Edmonton, talk about their successes in putting together kits specifically for particular projects. These kits are for people “closer to the ground” on certain issues, and by empowering and training them, can help overcome obstacles some of the challenges to a p2 professional, such as local distrust of governments or a government policy mandating P2 in a lot of instances.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Respect for Diversity, Inclusion and Culture
2017 Webinars
The first-ever winners of this award joined us to discuss how they approached two very different processes that all involved working across racial and cultural lines. Colleen Hamilton of EcoPlan International and Justin Beadle, the Chief Administrative Officer of the Village of Alert Bay, BC, alongside the ‘Namgis First Nation to create an Economic Development Plan called “Tides of Change”. The Plan covers tiny (4 sq km/1.5 sq.mi.) Cormorant Island, just off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island, where the two communities had lived side-by-side for decades without having much interaction.
The Saint Paul (Minnesota) Public School District was faced with the need to upgrade its facilities — some of which were a century old — to meet the needs of today’s students. More than that, the demographics in the Minnesota capital have changed dramatically, and any new plan had to take that into account. Tom Parent, SPPS Facilities Director, and former SPPS Trustee Anne Carroll, explain how they went about it.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Building P2 in your organisation
2018 Webinars
An ongoing challenge in Public Participation is not just to bring stakeholders to the table, but to build that culture of P2 within one’s organisation. The City of Edmonton dove into that notion in a big way, growing its internal public engagement department rapidly in the past year — and winning the IAP2 Canada Core Values Award as Organisation of the Year for 2018.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Handling Emotion and Outrage
2018 Webinars
The Great Divide. “Echo Chambers”. Thinking in silos. Mistrust of authority. It all comes with the territory for a P2 practitioner, and requires a special kind of approach, especially when these conditions manifest themselves unexpectedly. Any P2 process expects and encourages various points of view, so how do you deal with strong opposition and entrenched positions? Master Certified P2 Professional John Godec has many years of experience in dealing with such situations and has taken a deep dive into some of the psychology behind people’s attitudes.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Our Community Could Blow Up – – Do We Have Time For Some Quick Consultation?
2018 Webinars
It may seem counter-intuitive: life and property are under immediate threat — say, from a pile of highly unstable explosives. Is now the time to sit down and engage the community on possible solutions? Shouldn’t we just step back and let the experts do their job? This is not a hypothetical situation, and Kristi Celicoand Doug Sarno, MCP3, had to deal with it. Did the community come up with a better plan? Were the consultations a boon — or a boom?
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Participatory Systems Change
2018 Webinars
Addressing many of today’s most pressing societal, economic and environmental problems requires both engaging broad public audiences and working with complex systems of institutions, actors and drivers.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Public Transportation and Public Participation
2018 Webinars
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Not Just Dragons: a model for inclusive engagement with communities of colour
2019 Webinars
Miranda Eng, senior consultant at Context research, shares recent collaborative work with community members from Vancouver’s Chinatown to co-create a model to guide culturally respectful planning and design of engagement processes.
Engaging cultural communities is crucial yet complex. When public processes have failed to be inclusive, we’ve seen civic distrust and a loss of community support for projects and plans. So what can inclusive engagement in cultural communities look like? How might we go beyond platitudes of ‘diversity and inclusion’? How might some tactics that we typically rely on be considered disrespectful?
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
What makes a top-notch project? Learn from the best of 2019!
2019 Webinars
Two projects that emphasised inclusion and reaching “seldom-heard” populations carried home top honours at this year’s IAP2 Core Values Awards, and this is your chance to learn from their success!
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Youth Shaping Cities
2019 Webinars
This session critically examines the underpinning theory and systemic barriers that continue to exclude youth participation, resulting in civic disengagement, lack of trust, and significant missed opportunities. By analysing case studies and sharing best practices, techniques, and tools, we hope to empower engagement practitioners to re-imagine and redesign their youth engagement practices.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Making Inclusionary P2 Part of the Organisational Structure
2020 Webinars
Often, community engagement is regarded as public meetings and other processes to help develop policies and programs. But what happens when an organization makes engagement part of its values? Mickey Fearn can tell you. This IAP2 Learning Webinar, is a “Charlotte Encore”, in which Mickey reprises his popular presentation from the 2019 IAP2 North American Conference in Charlotte, NC: Implementing Inclusionary Engagement as an Organisational Value.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
Beyond Inclusion – Equity in Public Engagement
2020 Webinars
How do we go beyond including diverse voices in public engagement, in order to meaningfully and equitably collaborate to address pressing issues of our time? In 2018, Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue was commissioned by IAP2 Canada to write a research paper on inclusion in public engagement. Following that project, the same team delved into a year and a half of additional research and community focus groups to put the research to the test and explore how to engage more diverse voices in decision-making.
IAP2 Australasia members, log in and watch the recording here.
IAP2 Australasia in the Wild – Energy Infrastructure & Community Engagement Conference
The IAP2A In-House team are all set up and ready to greet you at the 2024 LGAQ Annual Conference!
IAP2 Australasia in the Wild – 2024 LGAQ Annual Conference
The IAP2A In-House team are all set up and ready to greet you at the 2024 LGAQ Annual Conference!
The myth of the quiet country life – engaging with our busy rural and regional communities.
The myth of the quiet country life – engaging with our busy rural and regional communities. Renée Madsen looks at some of the myths about engaging with rural and regional communities, with tips for engagement in remote areas that aren’t as quiet as you’d think.
- LinkedIn Group: IAP2 Australasia Local Government Group
- Essential services commission: Community engagement resources
- Engagement Victoria: Co-design – Community engagement
- Granicus: Can deliberation renew democracy in digital world?
- Granicus: 5 reasons to open up your online community panel
- Participedia
- Articles here on Prof Lyn Carson’s website
- MosaicLab – A Short Guide to Deliberative Engagement for Victorian Councils
- new Democracy Foundation (nDF) – Enabling National initiatives to take Democracy beyond elections & numerous other resources
- OECD – Innovative citizen participation and new Democratic institutions – Catch the Deliberative wave
