Members of We Are Hughes have spent the better part of the last 12 months having conversations with the people of Hughes. Facilitators have sat with groups of no more than 10 participants around a "Kitchen Table" (in person and virtually), as well as having conversations with the community at events, markets and shopping centres. Along with responses from online surveys, We Are Hughes are estimated to have reached over 600 people in Hughes.
Participants were asked three main questions -
1. What do you like about living in Hughes?
2. What do you think makes for good representation?
3. What issues are important to you, both inside Hughes and more broadly at a Federal level?
Questions were open, and participants could discuss anything. This way, we were able to collect a broad range of responses and avoid appearing to favour certain issues over others.
1. What do you like about living in Hughes?
For the first question, participants overwhelmingly stated that they loved the natural environment in Hughes, with community being a close second.
43% of all responses had environment themes, including the bush, waterways, trees, beaches, and national parks.
30% of all responses were community themed, such as quiet, diversity, safe, friendly and family orientated.
11% of all responses were related to the infrastructure of Hughes, including low density, access to services, good schools, roads and public transport. People also enjoyed the local businesses.
9% of responses mentioned proximity of the electorate to amenities such as the city centre, but also to the south coast.
8% of responses had family themes, such as access to schools and youth activities, close to extended family and greenspaces.
2. What do you think makes for good representation?
For the second question, participants overwhelmingly wanted a federal representative who was honest and had integrity. They also wanted someone who was community minded.
41% of responses mentioned integrity and honesty in their federal representative
25% of responses spoke about the community and the way the representative should think about their constituents
16% of responses included a range of personal attributes that participants wanted in their federal representative, including hard worker, intelligent, committed, empathic, compassionate, respect and ethical.
9% of responses wanted a representative that listens and engages respectfully with their constituents
9% of responses mentioned issues that were important for the representative to address, including climate, refugees, covid and a transition to net zero.
3. What issues are important to you, both inside Hughes and more broadly at a Federal level?
For the third question, participants overwhelmingly wanted action on climate change and integrity in Canberra.
40% of responses were climate and energy themed
28% of responses were related to political representation, including 20% calling for a Federal ICAC.
15% of responses were themed around social issues, including women's protection, the Uluru Statement, the needs for a human rights charter, and so on.
9% of responses were related to the local area, Particularly Heathcote Rd, but also the Moorebank Intermodal and mining under Woronora Dam.
3% of responses were health themed including NDIS and funding for hospitals
Other issues made up the remainder, including business and employment, education and welfare/tax reform.
We Are Hughes hopes to continue to conduct KTC's and Community conversations with the constituents of Hughes in order to continue to provide e feedback loop from the community to our Federal representative, no matter who that may be.
For the full report, click here...
[Original size] Copy of We Are Hughes CC Report (1)
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