As I highlighted last week, the highest priority for the Gladstone Industry Leadership Group (GILG) remains to respond to community concern about the potential impacts of industry air emissions.

For industry as well as the Gladstone community, the key to this response is the final independent report of the Clean and Healthy Air for Gladstone (CHAG) project.

The challenge for both community members and industry is how to unlock this report’s conclusions.

We each have different ways we like to take in information. Some like lots of detail and others like just a summary. Some like to receive information in groups and others like to think it over by themselves. Some like to talk information through while others like to see it graphs or tables.

GILG members have already begun to explain to their employees how the CHAG report is being prepared. They are also exploring the best ways to explain the conclusions of this report to their employees, once this information is released.

These explanations are not only critical for GILG employees, but also for members of the Gladstone community.

The challenge is how community members can come to grips with the CHAG report in the time poor world that is life in modern Australia.

To maintain the complete independence and credibility of the CHAG report, GILG cannot fulfil this explanatory role. Rather, what GILG can do is raise awareness of how the Gladstone community would like to have the CHAG report explained.

The question is: “Are the standard approaches of community meetings, online detailed reports and brochure summaries sufficient or are different measures needed?” 

For instance, should there be a series of journalist written articles in the Observer, short study courses in air quality or additional support to the CHAG community reference group so that they can act as a community jury? Or is some other approach needed?

I want to help make sure that you get the information you need, in the way that you need it, so that you can open your own doorway into understanding the CHAG report.

If you would like to have your say on how you think the CHAG report should be explained to the Gladstone community, please join our forum topic at www.gilg.com.au.

If you would like to have your say on how GILG is going and don't know how, please click on this link which shows you how to register and make a comment, anonymously if you wish.

I look forward to hearing from you soon, cheers, Kurt.

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