Real time ways to get involved in your community

ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher today launched the ACT Government's revamped Time to Talk website, giving Canberrans more opportunities to participate in work of government and create a simple and effective tool for engaging in the many consultations undertaken each year.

"Shortly after becoming Chief Minister last year, I committed the government to ensuring a culture of openness and transparency. One of the first steps I took was to launch a brand new Open Government website, and the Time to Talk website," the Chief Minister said.

"Since then, we have received some great feedback from the community - mostly in the online realm - and in particular through the popular Twitter Cabinets, on ways in which we can improve and broaden our engagement of the community in the work of the government.

"Over 70 community consultations were undertaken by the ACT Government last year and timetotalk.act.gov.au is proving to be the most effective way of engaging the community online. That's why we have decided to launch a new and improved website. It will integrate the functionality of the current Community Engagement website with the ease of use and interactivity of the existing Time to Talk site, by ensuring a single engagement point.

"People will be able to ‘check in' on progress of consultations they are interested in, receive and send updates to others engaged in the process and see regular updates and final reports an findings of consultations when concluded. Importantly people will be able to see how their feedback is being incorporated throughout the process.

"The site will provide the opportunity to engage in current community consultations, with lots of different options to provide feedback. For example you could choose to send a written or online submission, get involved in an online discussion, complete an online survey, or take part in a Twitter or Facebook conversation," the Chief Minister said.

The site will also provide important information about current development applications and face to face community meetings and forums - which of course remain an important part of any engagement activity the ACT Government undertakes. The website will also display events that appear in The Canberra Times' Community Noticeboard in calendar format.

"The new site builds on our commitment to an open government that is helping to make information more visible, accessible and available," the Chief Minister concluded.

The relaunched Time to Talk website can be found on http://www.timetotalk.act.gov.au/. The Open Government website can be found at www.cmd.act.gov.au/open_government