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Tuesday, October 30, 1973
GREATER PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN POLICY-MAKING PROCESS
**
A new consultative system is to be introduced shortly to
encourage more members of the public to participate in the government's
policy-making process.
Under the new procedure, future important government policy
programes will be published as a Green Paper for full public discussion
before a decision is made. The decision will then take into account
the opinion of the community,
This will enable members of the public to make known their
views on government proposals before these are shaped into firm policy.
To a wide extent, the public is already being consulted on
major issues and the new move will broaden this accepted practice.
There are at present about 120 advisory boards and committees
on which views other than those of government officials are represented.
some of
them are ordinary people, while others, because of their professions
or businesses, are more knowledgeable in special subjects.
The representatives come from many walks of life
Draft legislation is also published in advance and commented
on before it passes into law and White Papers are issued from time to
time for public comment.
However this latter course is taken at a stage of the decision
process when the proposals are about to be finalised.
The publication of
Green Papers will provide expanded scope for public involvement and
consultation before proposals affecting the community are accepted and
implemented.
/Commenting