ONLINE FORUMS

REPORTING HISTORY
With over a decade’s experience working with the public sector, GAP understands that each government project has a unique set of concerns. Call us to discuss how to get your minister or head of department blogging, widen the reach of a public education campaign or improve your next public consultation.

Strata Laws Online Consultation (2012). With the support of NSW Fair Trading, GAP facilitated a highly successful online consultation on strata laws from 15 December 2011 to 29 February 2012. Hosted on the Open Forum website, the consultation saw 1,230 individual comments on four key questions and 25 blogs. Overall, almost 600 suggestions for procedural change or law reform were put forward by participants. The most cited issues concerned the procedures and standards of governance in strata, antisocial behaviour, pets, smoking and parking. GAP’s final report on the consultation fed into the next phase of the NSW Government’s strata legislation reforms.

Queensland Office for Regulatory Efficiency (2011). In April 2011, GAP worked with the Queensland Office for Regulatory Efficiency to assist them in their role as part of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Business Regulation and Competition Working Group on their consultation What areas of Regulation should COAG target for Reform? The National Regulatory Reform Survey coordinated by GAP on Open Forum ran for 11 days. Out of the submissions received through this process, 17 were highlighted by the Queensland Treasury for further discussion, and 7 recommendations were selected for inclusion in the Treasury’s Addendum 1: Sectoral Reforms Stream Discussion Paper; Business and Community Online Survey delivered to the Government.

“Market mechanisms for recovering water in the Murray-Darling Basin” Online Consultation (2010). GAP’s experience in digital community engagement was crucial in an online consultation regarding the Draft Report “Market mechanisms for recovering water in the Murray-Darling Basin” hosted and facilitated by GAP on behalf of the Productivity Commission.

National Human Rights Online Consultation (2009). GAP won a tender offered by the National Human Rights Consultation Committee within the Attorney-General’s Department to facilitate the National Human Rights Online Consultation (NHROC). It was the 3rd online consultation trial conducted in partnership with the AGIMO, and the 1st outsourced by government to an independent supplier. Through Open Forum, GAP engaged a broad cross-section of the Australian community in a conversation regarding options for protecting and promoting human rights, receiving 12,622 visits from 8,932 people from 57 towns and cities across Australia in the online consultation’s six weeks of operation.

Australian Government Consultation Blog: Online Survey (2007). Open Forum was the online platform for a research project, led by the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO), to gather public opinion regarding new emerging avenues of citizen and government interaction. The results of this research were summarised in two GAP reports, “Shaping Government policy” and “Fostering Citizen – Government Interaction”, which informed the AGIMO guidelines in this area.

If you would like to discuss a particular project, please contact us on +61 2 8303 2420 or by email.