Reports

Our Kitchen Table Conversations were a consultative process that saw more than four hundred individuals input their vision, ideas and concerns for Indi to us. Through this process participants gave us the permission and the courage we needed to challenge Indi in that year’s Federal election. 

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A warm thank-you to the 425 people who hosted and participated in kitchen table conversations across Indi in 2013. The opportunity to come together and talk was enthusiastically received.

In sum, people held 53 conversations across 39 postcodes. Some met for coffee, others for a birthday lunch, after yoga, for dinner with a good wine (or two), at Jim’s, as social workers, at Women’s Health, at Ivy’s All Day Diner, the Provender, a Civic Centre, at Wangandary and Corryong, at the King River Café, at the dining table for Easter, at U3A, at the pub, camping in the Stanley forest, as senior student leaders, in staff rooms, as Indi expats, and some, for the chocolate slice and good conversation.

Altogether, 269 females and 156 males discussed and recorded their thoughts and opinions around the themes of Living in Indi; Political Representation; and Issues and Concerns and the age groups represented are as follows:

 

Age Groups                   Total               Female            Male

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Under 18                      15                     8                     7

18-24                           22                    15                    7

25-34                           22                    14                    8

35-44                           28                    19                    9

45-54                           129                  84                    45

55-64                           135                  89                    46

65-74                           61                    33                    28

75+                              13                    7                      6

 

Beer Garden KTC

We heard:

• Universally, people welcomed the opportunity to meet and talk and to do so with a spirit of respect and constructiveness.

• People are concerned with being connected and all that this entails. Connected with each other, within the electorate and more widely with communication and transport.

• There is an expectation that our political representatives need to be connected, to create and support good communication, show leadership and value community participation.

• People value their environment, the landscape, the seasons, its produce, tourism and agriculture.

• They want to be healthy both physically and mentally.

• They are happy to bring up their children here as long as they can be well educated and find local employment.

• People see Indi has strong, connected communities that are welcoming, have passionate people, strong leadership and are cohesive in times of need.

• They want long term planning and local political representation, without party politics coming between the candidate and the wants and needs of the constituents.

• Some of the issues that hold us back are, transport, access to broadband, mobile phone reception, mental health issues, maintaining health facilities, education and youth employment. Tackling these goes to the heart of our politics and quality of representation.

• Ideally, we expect a representative who lives and works within the electorate and is connected with the constituents through regular communication.

 

“To live somewhere beautiful is good for the soul”

 

Report Launch

The report was launched to a grand cheer on May 19th.  Over 200 people turned out to hear the master storyteller Cate Kennedy help unwrap the mysteries of democracy and to pick up their copy of the report.  The launch marked the successful completion of the Kitchen Table Conversation project, and the announcement of another – Cathy McGowan would be running as an Independent Candidate at the next federal election.

See the V4i Report here: