Community Juries
Community Juries are a demographically representative panel of volunteers from the community that are informed on an issue by Council and other experts to make recommendations to Council on major decisions. The juries are selected independently from Council by the NewDemocracy Foundation.
The Community Jury is a trusted means of establishing community perspectives on complex and far-reaching issues. The model has been used successfully interstate and across Europe and the US (Citizen Juries) to deliver a considered and well-rounded consensus on contentious local issues.
The jury model enables closer engagement with residents on big, complex issues, than that afforded by other more traditional community engagement techniques.
Noosa’s first two community juries each comprising 24-26 jurors met monthly over two consecutive 6 month periods in 2015 to deliberate and develop recommendations as to the best way forward on two major, but complex, local issues with ramifications for the wider community.
Waste Jury
In a Queensland-council first, a 23-member jury helped decide the future of Noosa’s organic waste management.
Council adopted in principal the jury’s raft of recommendations on organic waste in August 2015, including the call for a three-bin organic waste collection system. Council workshopped the details and launched its Toward Zero Waste Strategy in November 2015.
Noosa River Jury
The second community jury deliberated on solutions to better manage the Noosa River, what role Council should play and what resources it should apply.
Council received the second Jury's final report on 14 January, 2016 and, as a result, Council will pursue a community jury recommendation to take over some of the state government‘s Noosa River management responsibilities.