Engaging with our Stakeholders

Aim

To listen to our stakeholders and the community in order to guide and assist our decision-making processes and activities.

Approach

• Encouraging a shared vision and commitment
• Ensuring all key stakeholders are identified, included and well-informed
• Facilitating active and positive cooperation and promoting the benefits of our projects and operations
• Identifying and addressing stakeholder, community and industry concerns.

Key Performance Indicators

	Target	Actual	Status
% Deploy CONNNECT (CRM to seven regional offices and begin reporting)	100	100
% Website availability	99.5	99.8
% emails actioned within 24 hours of receipt	100	98.5

Key Achievements

• New Customer Relationship Management System deployed.
• New alliances leading to improved understanding and response to reduce the impacts of litter and illegal dumping on the road network.
• Continuing strong support for our heavy vehicle information sessions.
• First government agency to enter into and sign a Noongar Standard Heritage Agreement with the six native title claimant groupsparty to the South West Settlement Indigenous Land Use Agreement.

Introduction

We are committed to working in a broad and inclusive way with stakeholders impacted by our activities and services. We seek to engage our stakeholders in activities, focusing on their needs. This chapter outlines some of the activities and ways we interact with our stakeholders as we deliver our services.

Our team of communications specialists works closely with Project Directors, Directorates, regional offices and stakeholder engagement groups to develop and deliver consistent, valuable and centralised communication on projects, works and events in our road network. Specialists research, create and develop communications plans and materials, and provide advice for our management teams. To ensure consistency in our approach we have centralised the provision of these services in one area as we continue to develop a highly skilled team of subject matter experts. This is leading us towards greater efficiencies as we engage with a range of stakeholder groups across the State.

How we stay on track and accountable

Customer Relationship Management System

We introduced CONNECT in early 2016 following the successful pilot of our fault-reporting process in 2014. The system is now in use by our customer teams in Perth and has been rolled out to seven of our regional offices. CONNECT supports consistent and centralised stakeholder communications and allows us to:

• identify, plan, track and manage stakeholder and community engagement activities
• monitor communications such as project updates
• give stakeholder and customer insights to business areas for decision making
• build business intelligence, tailoring our services and stakeholder experiences.

As the system is embedded across the State we will be able to extract and report on more detailed information around our interactions with stakeholder groups.

Key Achievements

We engage with the community on major projects where there are high levels of complexity and there are expected to be significant impacts that affect the community. In accordance with our Community Engagement Policy, each project has a Reference or Working Groups to represent the community. We advertise an Expression of Interest to the community to become members of these groups whose members are decided through a selection criteria process. More information is available on our website and the following is a snapshot of just several engagement activities that we held over the last year.

NorthLink WA Project Development

Communities from all areas gave extensive feedback and were involved in NorthLink WA, from 2014 to 2016. Activities included regular community and stakeholder reference groups and drop-in sessions, as well as targeted meetings and briefings with community groups, local government, schools and businesses. Input from more than 1,000 community and stakeholder representatives contributed to concept design. Contributions included noise and visual impacts, local area access and environmental concerns.

This $1.12 billion Federal and State government investment will provide a vital, state-of-the-art transport link between Morley and Muchea. The initiative will reduce travel times and congestion, improve road safety and provide productivity benefits.

Coordinating the State Wide Litter Plan

We are working closely with key stakeholders, interested parties and community groups to implement a consistent litter management approach for the State while taking into account individual regional requirements. The approach is looking at a whole of State perspective, including considering the safety and congestion impacts of debris from unrestrained loads in the metropolitan area and targets five key concerns:

• roadside litter collection
• rest area management
• illegal dumping
• unsecured loads
• abandoned vehicles.

As a result of work done to date the current Rest Areas policy has been updated to incorporate and capture innovative ways in collecting litter across the State including procurement of a road rake for the Metropolitan region and working with Local Government to use Sulo bins in regions that will see an improvement in service delivery whilst minimising additional costs. We are working closely with the Keep Australia Beautiful Council, Department of Parks and Wildlife, Waste Authority and Western Australian Local Government Association to develop closer partnerships and to better tackle litter management cooperatively. The overall aim of this initiative encourages road users to take litter with them, where practical. Through awareness and participation, we are expecting reductions in litter and illegal dumping which has been increasing in volume across the State.

Heavy Vehicle Industry Information Sessions

Our state-wide sessions give information on administration and regulatory requirements for operating a Restricted Access Vehicle within Western Australia. Topics and issues raised by customers and front-line teams guide presentation content. The regional program, with sessions from Kununurra to Esperance addresses shortfalls in industry knowledge. One of the most popular components of our information sessions is the individual consultations where transport operators can discuss specific issues with our subject matter experts. Quarterly metropolitan information sessions continue to be well supported.

Russell Road Upgrade for Aubin Grove Station

The $120 million Aubin Grove Station project involved construction of a new station in the Kwinana Freeway median, and an upgrade of the Russell Road Interchange to cater for increasing traffic demands and to improve movement for buses and cars around the station. Major works associated with the new Aubin Grove Station and Russell Road Upgrade Project were completed in June and included three weekends of freeway and road closures to install station buildings, walls, bridge beams and footbridge spans.

A widespread communications program was implemented to keep road and rail users, residents and businesses informed of the likely impacts of the build. Managed in close collaboration with the Public Transport Authority, the program included social media, web updates, advertising, peak radio broadcasts, community briefings, emails to stakeholders, letter drops and electronic traffic signs. The City of Cockburn assisted by promoting the information through its communication channels. The targeted communication program delivered by this partnership worked so well that no community complaints were registered for the duration of the major works.

Highlight: The communication effort resulted in 32 per cent reduction of traffic volumes on the first weekend closure.

Aboriginal Heritage and Culture

We value the input and contribution of traditional owners in the identification of sites and seek their opinions on potential impacts. In protecting Aboriginal cultural values we also liaise with stakeholders, including prescribed Body Corporates, native title representative bodies, Aboriginal Corporations, community groups and traditional owners??? informants.

This year we became the first government agency to enter into and sign a Noongar Standard Heritage Agreement with the six native title claimant groups party to the South West Settlement Indigenous Land Use Agreement.

Advisory Groups

To ensure that our operations are open, accountable, fair and flexible, we collaborate with a wide range of customers and stakeholders who provide essential input to operational aspects of our business. The following lists our various advisory groups and the frequency of meetings.

Advisory group	Meeting frequency per annum
Customer Service Advisory Council	Under review
Western Australian Road Construction and Maintenance Industry Advisory Group	2
Cycling and Pedestrian Advisory Group	12
Disability Advisory Group	3
State Road Funds to Local Government Advisory Committee	3
Traffic Management for Works on Roads Advisory Group	4
Traffic Management for Events Advisory Group	2

The ROADS Foundation

The ROADS Foundation is a locally based charity we support in collaboration with the Western Australian Local Government Association. This initiative delivers multiple economic and social benefits for the community, focusing on:

• getting young people into employment and traineeships/ apprenticeships in the resources, construction, infrastructure and agriculture sectors through a unique community engagement model
• training young people, Aboriginal employees and disadvantaged groups.
• preparing and transitioning to job roles
• providing extensive support upon employment to ensure long term retention and sustainability.

The foundation has been operating predominately in the roads and civil industry for the past ten years, however due to increasing interest from other sectors and the effectiveness of our community engagement and support models, the Board recently made the strategic decision to expand and include broader range of services, careers and opportunities. A rebranding project is currently in progress to address the broader focus and will be launched in August 2016. However, the independent not for profit organisation will continue to play a large role in the civil and roads sectors working closely with us to ensure all projects and major maintenance contracts have high levels of training development, Aboriginal engagement and employment for the continued growth of the Western Australia workforce and local community development.

Disability Access and Inclusion Plan

Our Disability Access and Inclusion Plan (DAIP) was put in place to support the State Government???s vision for a better quality of life for all Western Australians and implements, at an agency level, Australia???s commitment to international human rights instruments such as the Convention on the Right of Persons with Disabilities. The plan adds further emphasis to the significant progress we have made in addressing the needs of people with disabilities since it was first launched in 1995. Staff and members of the public were widely consulted in developing the plan and initiatives. A new plan is currently being developed to ensure outcomes and strategies reflect current needs.

Looking Ahead

• New Disability Access and Inclusion Plan.
• Review stakeholder engagement success measures.
• Review of Advisory Councils and reassess value provided to business areas.

Case Study: Noongar Standard Heritage Agreement

In October 2015 we became the first government agency to sign a Noongar Standard Heritage Agreement. The agreement was signed as part of the South West Native Title Settlement, a settlement of resolution on native title involving Western Australia and the six registered native title claimant groups in the South West.

The South West Native Title Settlement (SWNTS) covers approximately 200,000 square kilometres, including the South West and Metropolitan regions and sections of the Wheatbelt, Great Southern and Midwest ??? Gascoyne regions. Noongar claim groups are:

• Yued (Jurien, Moora, Lancelin, Gingin)
• Gnaala Karla Boodja (Mandurah, Bunbury, Donnybrook)
• South West Boojarah (Busselton, Dunsborough, Margaret River, Pemberton, Nannup)
• Wagyl Kaip (Katanning, Gnowangerup, Albany)
• Ballardong (York, Northam, Hyden, Kondinin)
• Whadjuk (Perth Metropolitan area)

The SWNTS requires agencies to enter into Noongar Standard Heritage Agreements with the relevant Native Title groups. The Agreement establishes a detailed process and deliverables for consultation, timeframes to provide information and arbitration if parties fail to provide information within specified timeframes. It also provides a formal process for heritage consultations and surveys that must be followed in the south-western part of the State.

In exchange for a suite of benefits and recognition, the six native title groups, involving around 30,000 Noongar people, surrendered native title rights and released the State from compensation liability under the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth). In October 2015 we led Western Australia???s government agencies and became the first agency to sign the agreement with the six claimants.

This new arrangement means we are able to build stronger relationships with the Noongar people in the South West and adopt more collaborative processes ensuring heritage sites are identified and protected. We also expect improved efficiencies through more consistent and better understood processes, giving us shorter assessment timeframes and streamlined regulatory consent processes for projects.

A further seven heritage agreements have been made with other native title parties, including in the Midwest???Gascoyne Region (Wajarri Yamatji, Gnulli, Nanda, Malgana Shark Bay People, Yugunga-Nya native title claimants and holders) and Pilbara region (Njamal and Karriyarra native title claimants and holders).