The Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government has launched a report into how Australia’s communities are embracing the potential of community governance.

 

The findings have practical implications for the development of a community governance approach and a recognition that community governance requires new ways of working and new ways of understanding the roles of the different parties.


For Local Government


Finding 1 Local government's communities have a stronger expectation that they will be involved in decisions which affect them, and this may influence the way in which individuals vote.


Finding 2 Size and geography both matter.


Finding 3 A community governance approach changes the roles of elected members, from a purely representative democracy model to one where community input is sought issue by issue.


Finding 4 It is critical that all parties are well informed.


Finding 5 A community governance approach highlights the importance of ensuring that the council is able to hear all the voices within the community and not just the traditional 'squeaky wheels' or other loud voices.


Finding 6 In all councils it is councillors who have ultimate responsibility for the council's policy on community engagement but there is a need to tailor actual delivery to the circumstances of the individual council, other pressures on elected members, and the council's culture and structure.


Finding 7 Most councils involved in the study have recognised in different ways the need for community capability building initiatives and community governance often amounts to a process for decision-making about a particular place or places within the larger area served by a council.


Finding 8 Place-based management virtually amounts to a prerequisite for a genuinely effective and comprehensive approach to community governance, and there is likely to be a growing trend for councils to look at reorganising their structures to reflect this.


Finding 9 There is likely to be tension between state government planning, for example planning directed to allocating anticipated population increases within metropolitan centres, and a community governance approach. The former is a top-down approach to imposing decisions on individual communities and the latter a bottom-up approach expressing the community's preferences. Finding 10 Councils adopting a community governance approach recognise the need for three separate roles: around decision-making and implementation, facilitation, and advocacy. Finding 11 The development of community governance as discussed in this report should remain free from statutory direction.



For Community banking

Finding 1 Community banking can be seen either as a stand-alone phenomenon specific to a particular sector and firm, or as a specific example of a more general case; how communities can retake a measure of control over services which in recent years have been centralised away from communities because of issues such as economies of scale (cost cutting), regulatory intervention etc. Seen in this latter way, community banking suggests other possibilities for community delivery of market-based services.


Finding 2 It seems likely that the community reinvestment activity of community bank branches will become an increasingly important contributor to community governance within their catchments. Finding 3 There is a growing recognition of the importance of having good information about the nature of community need, and different means for addressing it. This is likely to result in increased collaboration between local government and community banking.

 

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS


The evolution of community governance is now a significant development both within local government and through other networks such as community banking. It clearly reflects a growing interest on the part of communities in being much more closely involved in decisions which affect them. The likelihood is that this interest will underpin a continuing shift towards a community governance approach. It is therefore important to draw on learning from this project to determine what can best be done to facilitate the further evolution of community governance. In particular, the emerging relationship between local government and community banking provides a useful way of identifying the pivotal role of local government as the 'soft infrastructure' within the community with the capacity required both to identify the community's needs, preferred options and priorities, and to provide the necessary research and policies.


Within local government, the development of community governance has benefited from the freedom which individual councils have had to develop their own responses to its development as they have perceived it. It is important that this freedom from legislative direction remains – there is no 'one size fits all' approach to community governance, and there is enough diversity amongst different councils to make it clear that finding tailored local solutions will often be the best approach.


At the same time, an understanding of the very real strength of being able to develop solutions unique to the circumstances of individual councils needs to be tempered with recognising the benefits of sharing experience, and identifying common issues which are best approached collectively.


The report finds that consideration should be given to the following:

  • A further review of the respective roles of elected members, management and community organisations in community governance with the objective of sharing experience and considering whether there are specific changes required. Such a review would best be undertaken by or on behalf of the sector itself rather than by a higher tier of government.

  • Establishing processes and mechanisms by which councils (and others) involved with community governance can share their experience. This could include an interactive website as a means for documenting current practices and facilitating discussion of the issues arising.

  • Professional development and capacity building programs for elected members, council management and community groups who may be involved in community governance activity.

  • A study of success factors for community governance from a community perspective, exploring the conditions under which communities succeed in establishing community governance as a genuine way of working.

  • Ongoing engagement with the community banking network in order to support its community governance potential. This may be best achieved by working collaboratively with Bendigo’s Community Banking Strategic Advisory Board.

  • Examination of the extent to which complex regulatory frameworks represent a barrier, or at least a disincentive, to the further development of community governance. One way forward may be to learn from councils and communities who are seeking to overcome these barriers.


For a full copy of the report download from www.acelg.org.au