Formal one-off consulation

A number of statutes require formal consultation with interested parties. For instance, some legislation requires consultation on draft documents. Your legal staff can tell you which statutes relate to your agency.

One of the leading cases on consultation is Wellington International Airport v Air New Zealand (1993), which adopted a useful statement of standards for adequate consultation:

"Consultation must be allowed sufficient time, and genuine effort must be made. It is to be a reality, not a charade. To consult is not merely to tell or present. Nor, at the other extreme, is it to agree. Consultation does not necessarily involve negotiation toward an agreement, although the latter not uncommonly can follow, as the tendency in consultation is to seek at least consensus...

"Consulting involves the statement of a proposal not yet finally decided upon, listening to what others have to say, considering their responses and then deciding what will be done.

"Implicit in the concept is a requirement that the party consulted will be (or will be made) adequately informed so as to be able to make intelligent and useful responses. It is also implicit that the party obliged to consult, while quite entitled to have a working plan already in mind, must keep its mind open and be ready to change and even start afresh ... In some situations adequate consultation could take place in one telephone call. In other contexts it might require years of formal meetings..."

The outcome of robust consultation is not necessarily consensus or agreement. Consultation is a process that permits and promotes the two-way flow of ideas and information. Effective consultation is based on principles of openness, transparency, integrity and mutual respect. 

Consultation is a valuable check on a proposal - it can identify bugs or problems, and gauge the level of support for and understanding of a proposal. No one person has all the knowledge, so consultation is an opportunity to get feedback and ideas from a wide group of people.

Tapping into a range of knowledge, perspectives and experience can prove powerful in making a proposal work - and can impact both on the proposal itself and the way it is implemented. The benefits of wider participation allow important knowledge and understanding to be gained in the process. The consultation process may confirm the thinking behind the initial proposal, or identify new matters that hadn't been considered. It can also generate submissions expressing a variety of differing views or perspectives.

As a result, people may not see their particular perspective come through because a range of ideas taken together lead to change (or not). This means there is unlikely to be agreement on all matters. 

Wide involvement and participation contribute to informed choices, but in any consultation process the responsibility for decisions remains with the decision-makers.

One of the key elements of effective consultation is that it should lead to a better understanding of each other's positions. 

It is also vital that you report back to people on how their input has contributed to the final decisions. Otherwise, people are unlikely to see the value in contributing in the future and will make comments such as  "well, they'll do what they were going to do anyway" or "the changes they make will only be minor ones".