Public Values and Government Decision-Making: An Investigation of Stakeholder Perceptions of Public Participation in Natural Resource Management Planning

Hill S¹*, Zammit C¹, and Cockfield G²

1. Land Use Research Centre, Faculty of Sciences, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia
2. Department of Economics and Resource Management, Faculty of Business, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

Public participation and consultation in environmental policy development and natural resource management planning is widely accepted as a desirable goal. However, participant disillusionment and alienation are indicative of recurring and emergent problems with contemporary public participation processes. Consequently, policy and planning processes often inadequately incorporate public values into decision-making and contribute to an undermining of trust in government. This study investigates participant’s perceptions of a public participation process and what makes a good process. We implement an adaptive theory approach and Q-Method with participants of a recent consultative water allocation management planning process to identify and understand individual and group perceptions, expectations and satisfaction of public participation. The results indicate four distinct discourses that capture participant’s expectations and satisfaction with the case study process and four discourses that represent participant’s perceptions of what makes a good process. Despite consensus on some themes the study reveals that participants and stakeholders maintain a diversity of expectations and perceptions of public participation that are distinguished by their interest group membership and orientation. The reported discourses are largely distinguished by differing perceptions concerning the degree of government versus community control and ownership of the process and outcomes. We identify a number of process principles that characterise participation and discuss how different interests perceive them and what this means for the design and evaluation of public participation processes.