Radio Link Up with Lord Howe Island

Your Parliament – Your Voice”
From the Office of the Speaker

Sitting programme for the Legislative Assembly for the remainder of the year
The Assembly next meets on Wednesday 22 September 2010 at 10 am and elsewhere in the paper you will find substantive matters scheduled for consideration at the sitting. Further sittings of the Assembly are then scheduled for 3 November and 15 December 2010, with a Ceremonial Sitting proposed to be held on Wednesday 27 October to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island. Comprehensive detail about the Anniversary Celebrations will be published when to hand.

Radio link up with Lord Howe Island
Last week I foreshadowed a possible radio link up with the CEO of the Lord Howe Island Board and that happened on Thursday morning at 10 am when Chief Minister David Buffett, Minister for Tourism, Industry & Development Andre Nobbs and I spoke with Stephen Wills for some 40 minutes about how the Lord Howe Island community, with the support of the Lord Howe Island Board, went about developing and launching their community strategy to take them from 2010-2015. The Lord Howe Island Board encouraged the engagement of an independent facilitator to assist the community in this process, which it would seem worked very well in getting the community on board to express their views. This process is very much like that used by Norfolk Island Tourism in the development of the new Tourism Brand that was launched on Norfolk last November. The facilitator engaged by the Lord Howe Island community was Peter Kenyon – www.bankofideas.com.au – who works with 10 Key Community Development Beliefs which I will share here –

Belief 1.
Meaningful and lasting community change always originates from within, and local residents in that community are the best experts on how to activate that change.

Belief 2.
Community residents act responsibly when they care, and support what they create.

Belief 3.
Building and nourishing relationships is at the core of building healthy and inclusive communities.

Belief 4.
Communities have never been built by dwelling on their deficiencies, needs and problems. Communities respond creatively when the focus is on resources, capacities, strengths and aspirations.

Belief 5.
The strength of a community is directly proportional to the level that the diversity of its residents desire, and are able to contribute their abilities and assets to the well being of their community. Every single person has capacities, abilities, gifts and ideas, and living a good life depends on whether those capacities can be used, abilities expressed, gifts given and ideas shared.

Belief 6.
In every community something works. Instead of asking ‘What’s wrong, and how to fix it’, ask- ‘What’s worked, and how do we get more of it?’ It generates energy and creativity.

Belief 7.
Creating positive change begins simply with conversation. It is the way that human beings have always thought together, and initiated action.

Belief 8.
Having fun needs to be a high priority in all community building efforts.

Belief 9.
The central factor in sustainable change is local leadership and its continuous development and renewal.

Belief 10.
The starting point for change is always mindset and positive attitudes.

Elsewhere in the Islander the Chief Minister comments further on the radio link up and the draft document setting out the Direction for the 13th Legislative Assembly which is to be tabled in the Assembly next Wednesday.

Issued from the Office of the Speaker on 17 September 2010 and posted on the blog site http://yourparliamentyourvoice.blogspot.com/