🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <p0chiscn7mpecgcoe35rvtbek47qa17a43@4ax.com>, 
stanr@whatyouneedmelbpc.org.au says...
> On Sun, 21 May 2000 04:36:21 +1000, Peter Mackay
> <peter.mackay@bigpond.com> wrote:
> 
> <SNIP aus.org.efa>
<UNSNIP>
So where does community consultation come into all this? Surely instead 
of making a decision to build Gungahlin without adequate transport 
corridors and thereby ensuring that the issue would eventually be 
resolved through conflict, the government of the day could have worked 
with the existing residents of North Canberra and the future residents of
Gungahlin to find a consensus outcome?

If the residents of O'Connor could not be persuaded to accept a freeway 
passing through nearby bushland, then what on earth is the point of going
ahead with building a town that demanded that such a freeway would 
eventually have to be built? Isn't this government arrogance, to ride 
slipshod over the desires of its citizens?

It is not just a matter of filling in survey forms and tabulating the 
results -- people are quite capable of fooling themselves that black is 
white on surveys -- but of polling the community and then debating the 
results to highlight any logical flaws. If the logical conclusion of 
building a new town is that new freeways need to be built, then this fact
should be highlighted and made known to all, with planning based on this 
need for freeways and not upon some fiction that it will all work out 
alright in the end.

If only there were some mechanism to force governments to listen to the 
community apart from the rare intervals when elections are held. The next
ACT election isn't until late next year. What government decisions will 
be made in the meantime?

One aspect of community debate, as seen in a crude form in this forum and
on the letters page of newspapers, is that with enough participants the 
truth eventually emerges. People with good arguments use them, and people
with poor arguments find they are left with egg all over their faces. 
Given enough time for discussion and research, a community consensus 
emerges.

The republic referendum was an example of this on a national scale. The 
issue was debated long and hard and in the end the community made a 
decision. It is important to note that this decision was not what one 
would expect if one relied solely on the news media, or the loudest 
voices in the debate. In the end, the people decided, and what could be 
fairer than that?

It strikes me that with the growing acceptance of the Internet we have 
the potential for a community consultation and discussion mechanism. I am 

by no means alone in such thinking, and already there are several sites 
that purport to poll the community. http://www.publicdebate.com.au/ is 
one such, flawed in that it allows people to vote several times over, but
certainly showing the way.

Eventually governments are going to have to take notice of the community. 

To whoever is still reading this, I ask whether you would like to be able
to vote on significant issues without having to wait until an election 
(when you essentially get a very limited choice, and diverse issues are 
lumped together in party platforms), and to be able to speak out in 
public against policies or government decisions that you think are wrong.

I think that most people would like to vote on issues important to them, 
even if they do not make any public comment. It is high time, in our 
supposedly democratic society, that the wishes of ordinary citizens 
prevailed, rather than those of the loudest, or richest, or best-
connected. I think that this is something that we, as an Internet 
community, should explore.


> 
> Why is this in aus.politics - seems very local to me - stick it in
> Canberra.  And what is aus.org.efa - seems to be about a computer
> technology conference for computer contractors.

Looks like you didn't read it, Stan. And as for Electronic Frontiers 
Australia, I think electronic democracy is right up their alley.

-- 

Cheers! Peter Mackay

peter.mackay@bigpond.com
personal opinion only