In November 2025, Auckland Council’s Kaipatiki Local Board hosted a deliberative forum to consider the future of A F Thomas Park, the home of the Takapuna Golf Course. I was honoured to be asked to support the design of the forum and to facilitate the representative panel in their work over three Saturdays.
From Debate to Deliberation
Deliberative democracy is most valuable when communities face challenging, high-stakes decisions and this topic certainly qualified. Deliberative process creates space for people to engage with evidence, move beyond fixed positions, and hear from and work with others whose experiences and priorities may differ from their own. An emphasis on informed discussion, mutual respect, and collective problem-solving is inherent in the process. It is this that avoids the escalating division that can emerge in simple consultation or traditional debate approaches.
The public debate leading up to the deliberative forum was peppered with often conflicting and strongly held views and significant lobbying by key stakeholders. Into this a panel made up of 40 demographically representative members of the community was invited to provide input that would help set a future for the Park.
Facilitating the Panel
The forum started off with a series of group-building exercises that focussed on honouring the individual perspectives that were brought into the room by the panellists, while simultaneously encouraging members to develop awareness of the perspectives of others, how those differed from their own and the value of considering a wide range of views.
From there, the group was provided with some key information from Council subject matter experts and input from a panel of community members with a range of lived experience and perspectives. Key stakeholders were provided with an opportunity to share their priorities with the panel. Panel members were also encouraged to ask questions and seek further information which was presented back to the panel through a range of written material and short presentations.
There was no moment when the panel had a clear sense that they had “now heard everything they need to know”. Given the complexity of the topic in hand, this was a key challenge; to draw a line between learning more and more about the topic and moving into setting a direction for the future. Not every panel member moves easily between these two phases and this is a key challenge that I, as the facilitator, had to support the group to work through.
A key method was to help the group to reflect back on what the remit asked for, what sort of information that the governing body might need to guide their decision making and whether the panel had enough information to be able to deliver on that, that is, was the information good enough for the level of detail asked for in the remit.
Delivering What was Needed from the Panel
For the A F Thomas Park project, it was important for the panel to keep the focus on providing a ‘vision’ level direction response. The details of locations, specification, construction methodologies, commercial arrangements etc would be more appropriately considered at a later stage by officers with expertise in those areas.
Perhaps the hardest part for the panel was the final deliberation on the recommendations that emerged. This is a necessarily transparent process as members are asked to literally stand by their willingness to support a recommendation or not. For some panellists the more comfortable method would have been a secret ballot. But that doesn’t allow for the open, honest and respectful discussion that is pivotal for building a robust recommendation grounded in group support. As we moved through the deliberation it was heartening to see panel members building confidence in their own voices and their ability to listen to each other thoughtfully.
What Stood Out
As facilitator of the deliberative forum, I was encouraged by the depth and mutual respect that emerged during the process. Participants brought a wide range of perspectives, grounded in local knowledge, personal values, and a commitment to the wellbeing of their communities. This was demonstrated as panellists listened carefully to one another, weighed evidence in small groups and in plenary, and tested their own assumptions. There was a shared focus on long-term outcomes, intergenerational equity, and the importance of transparent decision-making.
Find Out More
I’m hoping to do a more in-depth consideration of the process over the next few months. In the meantime, here is some further information that might be of interest:
- Read Simon Wilson’s ‘I’ve seen the future of democracy and it works’ NZ Herald article [paywalled], 03 December 2025
- Listen [7:03 onwards] to Simon Wilson talking about the Assembly with RNZ’s Kathryn Ryan
- Visit the Auckland Council webpage about the project
Acknowledgements
The photos used in this post were provided courtesy of Auckland Council.