| Question | Response |
|---|---|
| What services do you believe are most important for the ACT? | Support for the community to undertake environmental repair work. The local natural environment is the main reasons Canberrans love living here. Existing not-for- profit environmental groups ( Catchment Groups) receive little substantive and secure funding to support their communities. This is creates uncertainty and limits the potential for true and valuable community engagement in caring for the local environment. Providing these services will facilitate a range of social, economic as well as environmental outcomes. |
| How can the ACT Government deliver current services more efficiently and productively or to better meet the needs of Canberrans? | Canberrans are very keen to engage in environmental and heritage activities, particularly when run by the community. Reliance on government staff for land stewardship does not achieve adequate outcomes. Devolve services to existing community groups to facilitate an empowered and enabled community. This will have ongoing benefits in community wellbeing and will allow the ACT to fulfill it's potential in sustained improvements in the natural environment. |
| Are there particular services that you think the ACT Government can improve? | ACT can improve services by 'stepping back' to allow community leadership in the delivery of environmental programs. Community consultation in the ACT has been somewhat perfunctory (though is improving since the Better Suburbs process). Meaningful consultation requires participatory decision making and we would welcome this style of consultation in the future. Using existing networks to facilitate this type of process would yield a strong sense of engagement by the community and the Catchment Groups are situated perfectly to assist this process in regards to Environment issues. |
| What can the ACT Government do to make Canberra even more liveable? | Support community landcare activities in the Territory by directly and sufficiently funding Southern ACT Catchment Group to lead and deliver community based services in the South. Provide certainty of funding for 4-5 years (untied to annual budget funding) to provide continuity and undertake longer term community driven programs. |