Tuesday, 22 May 2012
About | Contact Us | Careers | Feed
Advertisement
Follow us on Twitter 
| Join us on 
Citizen Engagement
Australia uses dedicated solution to consult public
Western Australia’s Department of State Development is using Objective Corporation’s uEngage technology to enable and encourage public consideration of and comment on a major government economic development initiative.
The department is the proponent for a 2500 hectare, multi user precinct and a port in the State’s far northern Kimberley region to provide for liquefied natural gas processing and export, using gas resources in the offshore Browse Basin.
Before such a project can proceed, both State and national government environmental agencies will assess whether the potential environmental, heritage and social impacts of the project have been properly assessed and that appropriate management plans are in place.
As part of this process, detailed scientific investigations, impact assessment studies and management plans have been developed and published for public comment, as a draft Strategic Assessment Report.
Gail McGowan, Department of State Development Deputy Director General told FutureGov, “The uEngage system enables members of the public to focus specifically on those aspects of the report in which they are interested and to comment on them – even at the level of individual paragraphs. Alternatively, they can use the technology to comment on the proposal as a whole. “
When the Department has considered, and prepared responses to, public comment, the final report will be submitted to State and national approvals agencies for consideration and recommendations.
“uEngage was identified as the preferred system, because it provided a convenient way for members of the public to navigate easily through the large report and to lodge comments online,” McGowan added.
“Importantly, it also enhances the department’s capacity to sort, analyse and respond to the issues raised.”
Rate this article
Add your comment
Most highly rated
Better learning with web 2.0 and virtual worlds
In a visit to Ngee Ann Secondary School yesterday (22 July), FutureGov found students deeply ...
Students take a green stance with social media
Ngee Ann Secondary School’s students are on a bid to “change the world” with ...
Will Facebook profiles replace govt web sites?
It’s all the rage for ministries and agencies to have a Facebook pages these ...
1 Comments
On 1 April 2011 Marcus Tandy wrote:
It's always great to see the community getting the chance to engage online. However, I question whether the approach used here is appropriate. Contributors have to read a long and technical document and no attempt has been made to serve up the content in a manner that allows or encourages wider participation.
Ideally a more multi media approach would allow community members to focus on their patticular concerns without having to enter into a bureaucratic construct.
It will be interesting to see participation levels in this project but I suspect it will be limited to professional organizations because of the complexity of the site and information.
Nevertheless this is a step forward toward open engagement which I applaud.