4.3.1 Consultation and engagement

Principles
Open and responsive communications and a consultative process with the community are vital for effective public policy development and gaining public support for decisions. This requires a partnership approach with the community and ensures that government explains, communicates and gets feedback from the community.

Policy requirements
Agencies should:

• inform the Tasmanian community about opportunities to participate in public consultation and citizen engagement initiatives
• use communication methods/media that will reach key stakeholders, engage them in two-way communication, elicit their concerns, involve them in the decision making process, and provide feedback or follow-through
• ensure that communication or information materials prepared for consultative purposes are professionally presented and identified as being from the Tasmanian Government (see Tasmanian Government Style Guide and Logo Policy).
  

4.3.2 Partnerships

Principles
Partnerships are mutually beneficial and co-operative relationships in which partners share values, objectives, resources (human, material or financial), roles and responsibilities in order to achieve desired outcomes.

Partnerships can bring together expertise from a range of sectors, foster a spirit of co-operation and provide a means of developing cohesive, integrated services.

Policy requirements
When planning, negotiating or implementing a partnering or collaborative arrangement, communication requirements must be taken into account to avoid any misunderstandings.

This includes establishing the communication roles and responsibilities of the parties involved; determining and delineating the corporate identity, visibility, publishing, marketing and promotional activities to be used in the partnering agreement; and communicating joint activities or initiatives in a manner that is fair and equitable to all parties.

The Media protocol for partnerships: template provides guidance in the development of a media protocol between two or more partners, including a partner(s) external to Government.

While advertising and promotional activities involving the media may be part of the partnership’s communication strategy, such efforts must not be a focus but rather an aide to informing the public.

In all partnering and collaborative arrangements, agencies must:

• ensure that appropriate identifiers are used to acknowledge and attribute the contributions of all participants eg. corporate names and/or logos
• use the Tasmanian Government logo when identifying their own participation in a collaborative arrangement, to enable public recognition of the contributions of the Tasmanian Government
• ensure that the parties involved acknowledge the Tasmanian Government’s contribution in their own communications with the public
• communicate the results of collaborative arrangements through normal audit, evaluation and performance reporting processes.
  

4.3.3 Social market research

Principles
Social market research is used to gain a better understanding of Tasmanian society and to identify the needs, expectations or emerging concerns of members of the community.

It may be used to assess the public's response to proposals or to possible changes or initiatives; to assess the effectiveness of policies, programs and services; to measure progress in service improvement; to evaluate the effectiveness of communication activities such as advertising; and for marketing purposes.

Policy requirements
When contracting social market research to quantify, qualify or evaluate the views, attitudes or perceptions of a given population, agencies must comply with the requirements of the Treasurer’s Instructions and the specific requirements for the procurement of communications goods and services.

Copies of final reports of social market research should be deposited with the State Library of Tasmania as well as with the National Library of Australia.

Social market research findings should be made available to other Government agencies where relevant, and the final research results released to the public on request.