Australian local government has been subjected to vigorous reform by State Governments for more than a decade, with the most recent reform episode presently under way in Queensland under the Size, Shape and Sustainability programme. Reform has typically focused on enhancing the operational efficiency of local government, with scant consideration accorded to local democracy. Accordingly, this paper examines the role of community engagement in local government reform in Queensland, both as a means of retaining the vibrancy of local democracy and as a method of improving the efficacy of reform itself by drawing upon local knowledge through engagement with local communities.

In almost all state and territory jurisdictions, Australian local government has been subjected to intense reform for the past two decades. While the nature and degree of reform initiatives have varied between the different state and territory jurisdictions, all reform episodes share a common focus on improving the operational efficiency of local councils, often through structural change in the form of the blunt instrument of compulsory amalgamation.

While considerable controversy surrounds the view that `bigger is better' in local government in terms of economic efficiency, very little attention has been paid to the role of local democracy in local government reform. In order to remedy this neglect, this paper considers the role of community engagement in local government reform, using the present Size, Shape and Sustainability programme in Queensland local government as an illustrative example. For the purposes of this article, the term `community' simply refers to the residents of a defined local government area.