Earlier in 2026, Victoria's Legislative Council Environment and Planning Committee tabled its report from the Inquiry into Community Consultation Practices.
The report contains 28 recommendations and a clear message:
The standard of engagement in Victoria isn't consistently good enough, and the existing frameworks to guide better practice are often not followed.
We've sat with this report for a while and carefully considered it. Overall, we believe the findings are fair. Most of what's recommended reflects basic standards that most engagement professionals and practitioners are trying to achieve.
Given the Victorian Public Engagement Framework was already in place before this inquiry, and it's clear it wasn't consistently applied, the next question is:
what will make things different this time?
No matter how sound the recommendations or how strong the framework, if they aren't implemented there's a bigger cultural problem to address. Here's what stands out for us, and what it could mean on the ground for Victorian government and beyond.
Reports and frameworks aren’t enough on their own
It's a common pattern: a framework is developed, principles are articulated, and then, frustratingly, it's forgotten. At best, implementation tends to be patchy.
Often, the conditions required to deliver to the standard set aren't in place. When engagement falls short, it's not necessarily because people don't want to do well or aren't trying. There can be real constraints, including:
time pressure
limited resourcing
internal complexity
shifting political pressures
unsupportive leadership
a lack of capability.
Achieving change on this scale is a much bigger task than a policy or framework update. Those documents tell people what to do, but they don't ensure action. There are complexities to address, such as why and how engagement is implemented, and how we hold the right people to account.
This change would require a big investment
To truly shift, we believe Victoria needs a statewide change and capability-building program, and a deeper examination of what values underpin good engagement. This program might be multi-pronged, for example the development of a code of ethics with a meaningful and well-funded accountability mechanism.
Independence and accountability are required
Some independent oversight is required to get these improvements off the ground. The Victorian Auditor General’s Office published its Public Participation in Government Decision-Making: Better Practice Guide in 2015 and followed up with two dedicated public participation audits in 2017. We believe that this kind of independent scrutiny is needed.
We are hopeful that the inquiry's new mandatory reporting requirement is attempting to fill that gap.
The report explores several issues that reflect real engagement practice. Examples of two of these that we see regularly on the ground:
1) The inquiry's recognition of random lottery selection and deliberative models is significant. Representativeness is important, and the method you use to get there matters.
Self-select recruitment models can create real risk. Even if the final selection round is randomised, if the initial expression of interest campaign is open, problems can crop up. An open campaign can work under some circumstances, but often this step is conducted poorly, resulting in the final group being drawn from a small, skewed pool of citizens who are mostly known to the organisation.
We see the fallout from this. Processes can be dominated by powerful voices, and that behaviour can escalate to the point where other voices withdraw entirely. At worst, participants feel intimidated and their views never make it into the room.
Done well, random stratified selection means not only do new and often unheard voices make it into the process, they have a chance to be heard. This is far more representative of the everyday people the group is meant to represent.
2) The report also finds that Engage Victoria activities can oversimplify complex issues and generate lower-quality feedback, and calls for a mandatory guide for departments using the platform.
It's easy, when teams are stretched, to cut and paste a digital process, collect a lot of individual responses and tick the box. But government shouldn't see this tool as a substitute for genuine engagement. This platform is leveraged best when it meaningfully complements other methods.
What THE FINDINGS MEAN for the Victorian Government sector
Clear reporting against the framework requires demonstrating not just that engagement happened, but that it was designed to genuinely influence decisions, with an evidence trail and a clear account of how participant input shaped outcomes.
For those working in Victorian government, we'd encourage an honest assessment of how your team is performing now and what gaps need to be filled.
If you have an upcoming project, consider questions like:
How can we engage early enough so people can shape thinking before options narrow?
Are we being transparent upfront about what is and isn't negotiable? And therefore what the real problems are?
Are we building in opportunity for quality, shared conversations rather than relying on surveys and digital-only channels?
How will we recruit participants and what is the most robust approach we can invest in?
Have we allowed genuine time for people to become informed, consider options and grapple with trade-offs?
Do we have a public commitment to closing the loop?
What capability gaps do we need to be honest about?
Are we choosing methods because they’re right for this problem, or because they’re what we always do?
If public servants can inch practice forward over time, the scepticism communities now bring to engagement with government begins to shift.
Beyond Victoria, the landscape is shifting in every sector
If you work in an organisation accountable to communities, stakeholders, customers or consumers, you're seeing (or about to see) a shift.
What's happening in Victoria is part of a broader pattern of change – an evolving expectation that organisations must do engagement better
Across Australia, higher standards for engagement are becoming formalised, regulated and standardised.
The direction is consistent: show how engagement was representative, evidence-based and shaped outcomes, or it will affect your approvals, tenders and regulatory assessment.
A few examples:
The Australian Energy Market Commission's Enhancing community engagement in transmission building rule change requires transmission businesses to engage communities earlier on major projects, with evidence of outcomes, not just process.
In 2024, the Australian Government released National Guidelines for Community Engagement and Benefits for Electricity Transmission Projects, setting nationally consistent expectations for early engagement, community benefits and First Nations participation.
In South Australia, all councils must align their policies with the new Local Government Community Engagement Charter, gazetted in December 2025.
In New South Wales, the Renewable Energy Planning Framework now includes formal benefit-sharing and engagement guidance for wind, solar and transmission proponents.
In July 2023, IPART released the Water Regulation Handbook, expecting NSW water businesses to actively involve customers in developing pricing proposals aligned to customer preferences.
In 2026, the NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure updated the Undertaking Engagement Guidelines for State Significant Projects, requiring upfront and ongoing engagement and demonstrating how it shaped the project.
In Victoria, the Essential Services Commission's PREMO water pricing framework continues to put customer engagement at the centre of water price regulation, with standards continuing to rise for water corporations around the quality of engagement requirement meet ratings set in this document.
How well placed are you for this change?
We work alongside government and organisations in every sector to provide honest, trusted advice and steer you in the right direction as standards and expectations shift. If you'd like to talk through what these changes could mean for your team, department or organisation, we'd welcome the conversation.
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