The Precinct Program and governance

The Precinct Program has indeed enhanced governance in Glenorchy inasmuch as the integration of community views has partly been achieved. The ability of the precinct community to develop and implement beneficial projects has also increased. Initially, and most significantly, the Precinct Program has broken down the traditionally separate realms of Council and community, as confirmed by a GCC representative:

I think a lot of people have had the perception in the past that Council is this entity that they can't crack. If Council says no then that just means no and there is nothing you can do to change that. It's very 'dig your heels in', that's how people have perceived Council, and so this system has really broken that down I guess

(GCC representative).

In addition, the official classification of the precincts as a special committee of Council leads to a greater responsiveness by Council representatives, enhancing relations between the community and Council:

It's like they have adopted that responsiveness if it comes through the Precinct System, this is internally, but if it comes completely externally, if it come from a ratepayer coming in, there can still be that intractability (GCC representative).

In this way, the Precinct Program can be seen to be dissolving the traditional

relationship between Council and community, characterised as 'service provider' and 'service receiver'. The ability of the Precinct Program to provide an arena in which debate and deliberation can occur among community members, and between the community and Council has also been achieved:

One of the things the Precinct has been able to do is to provide a forum, so there have been several meetings and there has been the opportnnity to actually learn the facts of the case and that, so that the people who came to the precinct meeting have passed those on I think ( communittj member). ₁

I think it works remarkably well ... I am favourably impressed . . . and at least the Precinct provides the mechanism for it [community-Council interaction] to happen, which is great

(community member).

The precincts also provide a forum in which complementary and competing views can be aired, where deliberation and discussion can take place, and

decisions made:

It has been a valuable airing place for people's issues and concerns

(community member).

The focus on the local area is an ad vantage:

Well, in part, getting closer to a grass roots sort of thing brings us closer to the people than being involved, rather than the bigger ones where they, the other people, the government or whatever are involved, and I am a believer in trying to involve local people on local things to have ownership, and with ownership comes pride (community member) .

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Council also benefits from the input of the Precinct Program, in that it provides for the integration of local concerns and perspectives into the decision-making process:

[The Precinct Program has] developed, or gone a long way to developing better communication and better understanding of all of the needs of all the community (CCC representative).

V\lhile the Precinct Program has improved the link between Council and the commnnity, numerous barriers still need to be overcome in order for the Precinct Program to approach the potential the framework allows for. Doubts about the legitimacy of information and views originating from the

Chapter 6 Local Governance and Democracy

I think it is important from Council's point of view to obtain

representative information in order to judge what the community thinks and what, so that we can alter our service levels, to reflect that. I am not sure if the Precinct System is all that good at giving

us that information (GCC representative). _•

\Alhile the Precinct Program does provide a forum for discussion and information transfer, the ability of precinct meetings to approach Habermas's ideal speech situation is eroded by several factors, such as the structure of the system:

I think the structure is stopping [precinct members] to a degree.

You have to follow such a prescribed form that there is no time really for that community dialogue to happen based on the particular issue - what is it, how can we think of creative solutions for this, how are we going to solve it? The structure really inhibits that (GCC representative).

I hate meetings, I think people hate meetings ... I think people hate going; I mean, meetings are a necessary evil (community member).

I think the precincts have become a bit too regimented (community member).

The negative aspects of the top-down implementation of the Precinct Program, and the current dependence of the Program on Council for support, is evident:

I think there is an element of the precincts feeling that they are taking on other people's agenda's other than there own . . . I think that in a way the whole Precinct Program has suffered from that because it wasn't bottom up driven, it was top down driven (GCC representative).

Also, the use of community development specialists and professional language serves to inhibit the ability of all parties to understand one another:

[In] some of the meetings that have been held with service

providers and community members, the community members just do not participate because you are speaking the service providers

language . . . [community members] are alienated by the language

The level of commitment by Council representatives to the Precinct Program also challenges efforts to increase the utility of the Precinct Program:

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. . . there is a fair bit of dissatisfaction with the overall operation of the Precinct System at the moment . . . the fundamental problems with the System, which goes back to the level of support or the commitment which Council has and the level of commitment by the community I guess, they are probably the two stumbling blocks (community member).

The Precinct Program has improved information flow between Council and the community, and has provided a forum through which community members may deliberate on issues and concerns arising in their regions. There are still doubts, however, about how well the present structure encourages participation, and levels of commitment from GCC representatives and community members. These challenges are manifest in other aspects of the Precinct Program, such as its influence on decision­ making processes of Council, which I explore in the next section.