Community council meetings are a relic of the past and the organisations will need to change to serve Canberrans, the Chief Minister has said.
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Andrew Barr said it was not unusual more people wanted to engage with the government directly, following a dramatic shift in preferences, with elected Legislative Assembly members, the territory's public service or through online forms.
"I guess the 20th century town hall meeting is a relic of that century and people prefer to engage in other ways in the 21st century," Mr Barr said in question time.
Mr Barr had been asked what he believed the future of the ACT's community councils would be, after the Weston Creek Community Council was unable to find volunteers to serve on its committee and the Molonglo Valley Community Forum wrote to Mr Barr to express its concern the community council model was limited and ineffective for meaningful community engagement.
"The overall time commitments required to run a community council make it extremely difficult for working-age residents or those with family responsibilities to commit to participating in community council activities. This significantly affects the credibility of these councils in the eyes of the wider community and severely limits their effectiveness," the Molonglo Valley Community Forum wrote to Mr Barr in August.
The community forum said it would not seek renewed deed grant funding under the current obligations for community councils, and would revert to being an incorporated association funded by membership fees and donations.
The forum was recognised as a community council in July 2021.
Mr Barr said the government had significantly reduced the meeting requirements for community councils, cutting them back by more than 50 per cent to four meetings a year.
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"I do note, though, that surveys of the Canberra community indicate just 4 per cent of the community have ever attended a community council meeting and it is the ninth most preferred form of engagement with the territory government," he said.
"So, I think the nature of the organisations will need to change and the number of meetings significantly reduce."
The government provides $104,000 in funding each financial year to be split among the community councils, which can share in $13,000 each.
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