Participation Mechanism for Megaprojects-Induced Displacement and Resettlement in Australia: Affected Community’s Perception

Effective public participation mechanism is a crucial process that aims to maximize positive inputs and mitigate the potential negative impacts on local communities resulting from the development of megaprojects, particularly in the context of displacement and resettlement. However, the currently perceived shortfall in benefits from megaprojects, coupled with the lack of fulfilment of participation, has resulted in delays and cost overruns of the project and significant damage to the organization's reputation. Current public participation mechanisms are reactive rather than proactive, mainly offering an instrumental perspective to make the participants comply with project process needs. As such, it is necessary to adopt a more comprehensive approach to public participation mechanism, which includes the affected community's perception that could be harmed by the displacement and resettlement strategies associated with megaprojects. This broader inclusiveness is critical to improving the effectiveness of the public participation mechanism. This study explores affected community's participation in depth. A qualitative methodology was introduced to allow identification of participation determinants to avoid ambiguity and disparity in understanding the adoption progress and status of community participation. The research affirms that an exploratory case study on recent Australian megaprojects will provide enhancements to the final community participation framework.