Community Information Sessions: ‘Water for the Future’
‘Water for the Future’ is a ten-year Australian Government initiative to prepare Australia for a future with less water. The program will help to secure water supplies for Australian households, businesses, farmers, rivers, waterways and wetlands by investing $12.9 billion in projects to improve irrigation efficiency, reform the water market and buy back water entitlements from willing sellers in the Murray Darling Basin.
The Sefton & Associates approach
The Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) engaged Sefton & Associates to facilitate Community Information Sessions for the program, alert stakeholders and communities to the opportunity for funding and support, and alleviate uncertainty about water issues. We were appointed on the basis of our familiarity with the development of the new Basin Plan, and our close connection with – and understanding of – the communities involved.
In 2009, we began a series of facilitated information sessions in locations across the Murray-Darling Basin. The sessions targeted a wide range of stakeholders with a vested interest in water use in the area, such as corporate and family irrigators, dryland farmers, irrigation user groups, catchment management authorities, local governments, state governments, Indigenous communities, conservation groups and relevant local businesses such as banks and accounting firms.
We helped to ensure the success of the sessions by:
- Advising on structure and content
- Briefing our client on the social, economic and cultural realities of the locations, so they were well prepared and informed prior to each session
- Leveraging our understanding of regional communities, as well as our personal and professional networks, to identify relevant stakeholders in each location and encourage them to attend
- Providing event management support, and
- Facilitating the sessions in a way that encouraged mutual information exchange, giving both participants and departmental representatives the opportunity to listen, learn and discuss the issues.
This program has demonstrated the impact that information sessions can have when they are managed by people with specialist expertise and a deep understanding of local communities.
The sessions were very well attended, with participant numbers and feedback exceeding the client’s expectations. DEWHA has now asked us to roll out another series of sessions across the four states in the Basin area, and the model will be replicated for similar sessions in Australia’s capital cities.
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