Fresh consultation looms as Shire of Augusta-Margaret River leaders eye incoming challenges, growth

Shire leaders are eyeing the prospect of revising the local government’s keystone community plan while remaining mindful of potential community “consultation fatigue”.

New Shire of Augusta-Margaret River chief executive Andrea Selvey conceded burnout was a serious consideration in the revamp of the Community Strategic Plan, currently in place until 2040.

However, changing circumstances including the post-COVID-19 population boom, the housing crisis and a financial outlook which included wilting State and Federal Government funding — as well as statutory requirements — meant an overhaul was needed.

Speaking to the Times, Ms Selvey said the shire leaders needed to look at existing feedback and the input from past consultation sessions while making sure community outreach was effective in keeping the outlook fresh.

Key among those considerations included the lessons from the shire’s Community Perceptions Survey in which last year ratepayers punished the local government with a decrease in satisfaction across many key indicators.

While the 2019 mandatory Catalyse survey ranked the shire as WA’s 16th-best local government, it dropped to 26 out of 44 in the 2023 survey.

Ms Selvey said the review was based on perceptions among ratepayers and the shire had to improve the way it communicated.

“We’ve got to work out — and that’s where the deeper analysis of it needs to happen — are we communicating effectively and efficiently?” she told the Times.

“Because some of the work is being done, it’s just not perhaps communicated.

“So people ask us and tell us, this is something they value or they want, and we might do it, but it takes two years or three years to get to that point that we can implement something.

“We don’t close the loop. We don’t connect the dots for people. So sometimes that, I think, also leads to those perceptions.”

The shire also had a rich catalogue of community engagement to draw upon and the challenge would be how to “honour” consultation while investigating gaps.

Ms Selvey said there was always a financial juggle for the local government between what represented the aspirations of residents versus what they were willing to pay for.

In Geraldton, Ms Selvey oversaw an extensive consultation process in partnership with Curtin University which invited residents to an eight-week panel to garner feedback on issues facing the region.

While she didn’t anticipate something so complex for the CSP review, Ms Selvey reiterated the importance of getting the spread of feedback right.