Your voice matters: Improving our engagement
We’re working on a project to improve how we connect with you and our many communities. Our goal is to make it easier for everyone to share their thoughts and see how their feedback influences Council decisions. We’ve also heard that our current engagement methods don’t always work for everyone—so we’re creating a plan to improve, we will call this our Engagement Framework and Action Plan.
To start, we’ve reviewed past feedback and spent time in the community to understand what we can do better. From these insights, we drafted a set of Engagement Principles to guide our work, then tested these with a group of community members who agreed they set the right direction but mentioned they are ambitious - that's right! These principles reflect our commitment to meaningful engagement, and while ambitious, they set a strong foundation for change. Change won’t happen overnight, but we’re taking the right steps to get there - take a look at 'Our engagement progress' document to learn more.
Your feedback
Thank you for your feedback on the draft engagement principles.
First impressions of the principles show over 70% of responders thought they were at least on the right track, with 37.2% saying they didn't need any changes.
Since a majority said they had at least a couple suggestions, we went through your comments and made some tweaks.
| What we heard | Our response |
| Feedback asked for clarity on "engaging well", and questioned how Council would determine what mattered and who was most affected. | We amended the wording to make it clear that we'll engage well by sharing early updates on work that your feedback can help shape, and the different ways you can give that feedback. This also means that you will be able to see and decide for yourself what matters and affects you. |
| Some thought we were committing to individual responses to feedback. Following this interpretation was a concern this would be too resource and time intensive. | We amended the wording to clarify that we will focus on the key themes and insights of feedback, and share that. This table is a great example of what that looks like! |
| Feedback showed a negative interpretation of the wording "hidden agendas". Some interpreted this as an admission of this happening, which was not intended. | We amended the wording to be more positive, that we will engage genuinely and with clear intentions. |
| Feedback questioning the ordering of the principles, and whether that indicated priority or importance. | We re-ordered the principles to align more clearly to the stages of engagement, so the first is about informing on upcoming engagements and the last is about reporting back. We hope this makes it clear that the principles are not ranked in priority or importance. |
| Feedback concerned that the commitment to engaging with Mana Whenua could be undemocratic or inequitable. | We amended the wording to acknowledge the unique role that Mana Whenua have under Te Tiriti. One of our other principles makes clear that we aim to hear from everyone in our city, which we would hope would address concerns around inequity. |
| Feedback that you want more details on how these principles will be achieved. | The principles will inform the work to come on the Engagement Framework and Action plan, which will include that level of detail. We will keep you updated on progress, and there will be further opportunities to provide feedback. |
You can see the endorsed and final Engagement Principles below.
What happens next?
Now that we have the principles finalised, we'll keep working on the Engagement Framework and Action Plan which will set out the details of how we improve the way we engage. During this time, we'll keep talking to groups across the city to make sure we're on track. Once our draft is ready, we'll reach out in different ways to hear your thoughts.
How do I stay updated?
We’ll keep this page updated as the work progresses, so be sure to check back! You can also click the subscribe button under the 'stay informed' section to receive updates.
