Community Survey
In February 2025 we opened a survey as part of the community consultation to update the Community Vision, the Council Plan for 2025-2029, guiding how Council supports the community over the next four years.
The survey was an opportunity for community members to share what matters most to them. Input supported the discussions at the Citizens Panel, in which a diverse group of residents considered key community issues and made recommendations to Council.
Citizen's Panel
Another part of our community consultation was Council’s first-ever Citizen Panel made up of 35 participants from throughout the shire representing a broad demographic coming together to develop the Community Vision 2040 and provide advice to Councillors for the development of the Council Plan 2025-2029.
8,000 letters were also sent out across the entire municipality seeking expressions of interest from those keen to participate in the Citizens’ Panel, and from those, 122 people came forward.
A selection process to represent age, gender and location was conducted by the Sortition Foundation who specialise in organising democratic lotteries to achieve fair and broad representation of our community. Of those who replied to the letter wanting to be involved, there were people selected from Kyabram, Echuca, Tongala, Yambuna, Echuca Village, Rochester, Lancaster, Kotta, Wyuna and Roslynmead.
Throughout the course of the weekend, the Panel engaged in presentations, Q&As, information sharing, small and large group discussions, voting, and prioritisation. The Panel provided information and feedback for questions posed in relation to community identity, aspirations and priorities.