The Byron Model

Around the world, more and more people are trying to find ways to improve democracy - to make it more representative and clearly deliberative, with structures that restore trust.

We know our community is passionate about the culture and lifestyle which makes Byron Shire unique, and that you want to be involved in decision-making about the things that impact this culture and lifestyle.

Council resolved (18-453) to endorse the development of “The Byron Model” of deliberative democracy in August 2018, with the objective of developing a new democratic ethos, by drawing together the views of Councillors, Council staff, stakeholders, and citizens.

Fundamentally, the Byron Model aimed to answer the question:

"How do we want to make democratic decisions in Byron Shire that can be widely supported?"

In answering the question, the panel was asked to take into account how the community wants to be engaged in decision-making, what factors influence the community’s trust and perception of Council, and how we can improve decision-making to increase support from the community on the final outcome.

The panel has provided a series of guidelines and recommendations centred around trust, communication, and identity; and has developed an engagement framework with a series of triggers for when community should be involved in decisions.

The panel recognised that its recommendations would benefit from further refinement and iteration through practice.

The panel then provided Council with its Final Recommendations Report. The report sets out the panel’s conclusion that there are three key issues “lacking in the current council structure and approach to engage community” and frames the recommendations around these three themes, which are: identity, culture and diversity; communication; and trust. The colour coding refers to the grouping in the panel report, commencing with overarching community involvement:

• community involvement/engagement (purple)
• identity, diversity, culture (blue)
• communication (green)
• trust (orange)

Recommendations from the Byron Model panel report have been reviewed and Council has outlined its response and commitment (resolution 19-498) and categorised each recommendation as either:

• priority initiative
• quick win
• already doing

Information from throughout the process is included on this page for your reference.