paul mallett proposes the roll out of additional ‘digital democracy’ technology to enhance civic participation and deepen engagement with the community. See also paul’s call for greater investment in digital tools to engage young people.

paul mallett acknowledges the current use of technology by the City of Launceston to communicate and engage with the community. At the time of writing the Council supports free wifi in some locations, has a digital platform for reporting local issues with infrastructure, uses Youtube to live stream and provide an archive of council meetings, uses social media to share updates on events and infrastructure projects, and uses a community engagement portal to seek community feedback on strategies and action plans. The Council also uses smart sensors on infrastructure, and uses 3D modeling technology in planning.

In addition to the above, paul mallett supports the application of technology to strengthen civic engagement, improve transparency and enhance decision making.

Po: Could the City of Launceston introduce a “Where are my rates spent?” online dashboard that shows monthly progress on the annual action plan and budget/spending (written in plain-language showing pressures and options considered)? Could this level of transparency use some of the learnings from the United Kingdom where councils have to report (Local Government Transparency Code 2015) via interactive online tools to show detailed spending breakdowns, data on supplier payments over a set value, senior officer salaries, and contracts awarded.

Po: Could the City of Launceston schedule and run “digital town halls” multiple times each year to engage the community in online questions and answers – particularly at times of high public interest such as budget and rate setting, and the discussion of contentious development and planning issues.

Po: Could the City of Launceston coordinate “digital town halls” with clusters of schools and engage online directly with students on a planned basis annually to promote civic understanding and for elected leaders to attune to the views of children and young people (inline with the Convention on the Rights of the Child – Article 12: Children have the right to share their opinions on things that affect them, and they must be taken seriously).

Po: Could the City of Launceston extend it’s use of Youtube (or appropriate streaming service) to enable community members who are unable to attend the full council meeting to engage online at the appropriate time for their 2 min representation. (Currently the Youtube streaming of Council Meetings has comments disabled and there is no mechanism to participate in real time in the meeting without being physically present. This is often prohibitive for community members as the timing of agenda item discussions is unpredictable and determined by the length of debate of preceding agenda items).

Po: Could the City of Launceston enable community members to vote on local issues or referenda online via a secure online mechanism. Whether the outcome of the community vote would be binding would need to be explored, however more direct democratic processes on contentious issues may be worth exploring.

Po: Could the City of Launceston use platforms to crowdsource ideas and proposals, permitting community members to submit, discuss and vote on local projects? Could this apply to the budget setting process? On proposed revenue saving measures and alternative budget proposals? Could an “online simulator” be developed to enable community members to “try and balance the budget” and better understand the challenges facing council officers and elected officials when setting annual budgets.

Po: Could the same ‘crowdsourcing’ platforms noted above be used to surface innovative ideas from the community? Or give voice to school age children via the Student Design Awards?