Today’s local governments are under great pressure to provide services faster, cheaper, and in more customized ways while meeting stringent standards for financial and performance accountability. These trends, coupled with a growing distrust of public institutions, suggest that local governments have much to gain from effective communication with citizens about service delivery costs, processes, and priorities. Because resource allocation issues are very important to citizens, the budget document is an ideal platform for presenting that information. The Budget As A Communication Tool discusses some of the challenges and drawbacks that often accompany attempts to usefully engage citizens in the budget process, and it provides several examples of simple but effective presentations of the information necessary to promote effective citizen understanding of and participation in the budget process.

Provides a platform for knowledge exchange between different disciplines and for learning from both theory and practice in the context of tourism and climate change. This book examines subjects as diverse as: the European hotel sector; the North American cruise tourism industry; and, New Zealand youth hostels and campervans.

There is a deep dysfunction in the way we talk about oil and mining. Battles over oil and mining developments in New Zealand are fierce and polarised. Often presented as a simple trade-off between conservation or quick profit, the debate leaves little space for discussion across ideological divides. The Ground Between provides a rare account from someone who has worked within this contested arena. Drawing on his experience with local and international mining companies, governments and NGOs, Sefton Darby reflects frankly on the state of resource extraction in New Zealand. Seeking to reset the debate within a global context, this book is ultimately about how we – as a country – make decisions around contentious issues.