Making it easier to have your say

Finding public consultations

Passionate about health or education, or any topic covered by government? Want to get involved with government to make decisions about it? At the moment you have to pick your way through a multitude of websites to find out what exists and how you can give your feedback. We know it’s tricky enough to find out what’s being consulted within a sector, let alone across the whole of government.

Getting involved is now easier

Govt.nz is making it easier to see what consultations central and local government have open with the release of a cross-government consultations and engagements listing. We’ve grouped consultations by topics that mean something to people, by agency and by status to make it easier to find what’s happening based on your needs. You’ll be able to keep updated by subscribing to what interests you via RSS feed and we’re working on being able to do this by email too.

Currently we’re adding the consultations records manually, but we’re keen to automate in future – either by using feeds or API. We’re doing our best to make it complete, but we know this is a hard ask. So anytime a consultation is being prepared in your agency, let us know – govtnz@dia.govt.nz

This is something that’s been brewing for a while. My colleague, Nadia Webster, has spoken about the listing as part of a wider move to meaningfully engage with the public about policy. People have also regularly asked for it from us, and we recognise it as being essential to open government and the basis for making good policy.

Tell us what you think

It’s not finished. Being agile and iterative we’ve launched it and want to hear from both the public – how can we make it better for you? – and agencies – how can we make it easier to list your consultations? – so that we can make it a useful tool for everyone.

Go have a look at the Govt.nz consultation listing and tell us what you think.