ABSTRACT

Public participation is embedded within requirements for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in Australia and many other countries. Although the widespread requirements for public participation have been criticised as rhetorical, it is deemed to have significant symbolic significance. The use of public participation to gather multiple perspectives expresses an intent to improve environmental decision-making and respond to increasing demand for a role in decisions that affect people’s homes, livelihoods, and communities. This research examines participant experience of public participation in the EIA processes undertaken for four proposed coal mining developments close to the small, remote cattle grazing community of Alpha, in Queensland’s Galilee Basin in the central west of the state. Participant experience is examined through the lens of competence in environmental decision-making, which asserts that, for public participation to be competent, participants need access to information and its interpretations. Participants in 25 semi-structured interviews described two major flaws in public participation in relation to the proposed projects: proponent control of project information, and the government’s ‘hands-off’ approach.

摘要

澳大利亚和许多其他国家/地区的环境影响评估 (EIA) 要求中嵌入了公众参与。尽管普遍要求公众参与被批评为修辞，但它被认为具有重要的象征意义。使用公众参与来收集多种观点表达了改进环境决策和响应对在影响人们的家庭、生计和社区的决策中的作用日益增长的需求的意图。本研究调查了公众参与环境影响评估过程的参与者经验，该过程为四个拟议的煤矿开发项目进行，这些开发项目靠近该州中西部昆士兰州加利利盆地的小型偏远放牧社区 Alpha。参与者的经验是通过环境决策能力的视角来审查的，这表明，为了使公众参与能够胜任，参与者需要获得信息及其解释。25 次半结构化访谈的参与者描述了与拟议项目相关的公众参与的两个主要缺陷：项目信息的提议者控制，以及政府的“不干涉”方法。