Local Government
9
Large Cities
2
Capital Cities
2
Regional or State Governments
2
National Government
0
Other Institutions
2
Local Government
9
Large Cities
2
Capital Cities
2
Regional or State Governments
2
National Government
0
Other Institutions
2
Community
Capital
Camberra
Population
24 992 370
Language
English
Currency
Australian Dollar
Indexes
Democracy
9
Full Democracy
Democracy
Democracy
9
Full Democracy
Democracy
Corruption Perception
13/180
Corruption Perception
Corruption Perception
13/180
Corruption Perception
Human Development
3
Very High
Human Development
Human Development
3
Very High
Human Development
World Happiness
11/156
World Happiness
World Happiness
11/156
World Happiness
Legislation Regarding the Regulation of Participatory Budgeting Experiences
There is no developed legislation on PBs across the country, nor has it been created at the level of states, towns, regions, or cities. Several PBs in Australia have involved 100% of a city's budget - from approximately $70 million to $5 billion. Local councils cannot legally delegate responsibility for these budgets. The extent of delegation is agreed upon in advance and is conveyed to constituents; but this is not regulated. However, local governments implementing more traditional PBs, which use only a small proportion of the budget, are not so restricted.
Outstanding Innovation
The Canada Bay (NSW) process was the 1st Australian PB implemented, allocating 100% of the local government budget in a more sophisticated way than a poll. Its focus was on prioritizing the range and quality of local public services, providing public trust and acceptance of priorities, trade-offs, and funding models. The two 100% implemented PBs in the city of Greater Geraldton (WA) combined face-to-face dialogue with deliberation, using a customized WhatDoWeThink (WDWT) online platform to facilitate decisions, which allows for real-time information gathering, processing, and editing with participant participation. The use of the platform helped to maximize transparency and combined thinking. Both PBs included obtaining public feedback on the process. The Melbourne (Victoria) PB was the 1st Australian PB implemented in a capital city, allocating the 10-year infrastructure budget of $400 million per year, $5 billion over 10 years. Its "charge" was to reduce the gap between the $1.2 million committed by the Council and its ability to fund those commitments. The PB of the City of Bayswater (WA), with a 100% service budget, AUD $84.5 million, implemented several innovations, specifically, whether there should be an overall increase / balance (maintenance) / decrease in service budgets. The PB process began with a broad community consultation, using Bang the Table's budget allocator tool, followed by a stratified sample of 30 Panel participants who debated and deliberated, over 2.5 days, to develop recommendations and rationale. In 2016, the South Gippsland Shire in Victoria adopted the PB as the 'Community Budget'. The process was later renamed the Community Capital Works Allocation project.
Principal Tendencies Detected
Australia has become known for its 100% PBs. These originated randomly selected panels (between 25 and 45 participants), stratified to represent the local population, that deliberated over a period of 4 to 8 days to recommend how the entire budget should be spent. In terms of digital practices, while most PBs used online platforms for proposal development, only the 2 PBs held in the city of Greater Geraldton used an integrated online platform to facilitate synchronous and asynchronous dialogue. Only two PBs (city of Bayswater, WA, and city of Melville, WA) used an online budget allocator open to the community at large. Overall, over 80% of all recommendations submitted by PB processes were accepted by Councils.
Other Information
Rather than adopting successful PB models from around the world, local and state governments in Australia have found other ways to involve citizens in budget allocation. These have included the "Australian PB" - representative / inclusive, deliberative and influential panels allocating 100% of budgets, as has happened in Cadana Bay, NSW; 2 in Greater Geraldton, WA; Bayswater, WA; and Melbourne, Victoria. Other initiatives, based on the citizen juries methodology, have included: Play Spaces Forum - Transport Canberra and City Services (to allocate $1.9 million for recreation spaces); the Marrickville infrastructure jury; and the Eurobodalla citizen jury. The more traditional PB models implemented involved online platforms for distributing the money, with residents developing projects and voting on preferences, implemented primarily by local governments, including the cities of Darebin and Melville, Penrith Council, and the South Gipsland Shire Council. PBs, were one-off initiatives and very few featured independent oversight and monitoring.
