Explore every episode of the podcast Making Place Matter

What happens when the people closest to a problem help create the solution?

For decades, top-down, one-size-fits-all approaches have failed to meet the needs of diverse communities across Australia. Disadvantage remains entrenched – not because communities lack solutions, but because they’re rarely asked what they need. 

Across Australia, that is changing. Communities are bringing together local leaders, government, service providers, and philanthropists to design and fund solutions that actually work over the long term.

Making Place Matter is a podcast from Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment (PLACE), a national organisation that champions community-led approaches to social and economic challenges. 

This season, Who Decides, is all about shared decision making - a foundation of place-based work. You'll hear what that process really looks like, what gets in the way, and what becomes possible when communities are genuinely at the table.

Keep up to date with Making Place Matter: Who Decides by following PLACE on LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

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Making Place Matter is a podcast from PLACE, produced by Deadset Studios. 

PLACE acknowledges Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to lands, waters skies, and communities. We pay our deepest respects to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and the land on which this show was made. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For too long, decisions about communities have been made without them. Shared decision making offers a different way – where communities aren’t just consulted, but are empowered to shape the services and systems affecting their lives. 

You will hear from the residents of Millgrove in regional Victoria, who decided to stop waiting for change and start leading it. In this episode, they share their process for shared decision making, and how it has transformed their community.  

Partnerships for Local Action and Community Empowerment has been established to help communities like Millgrove, and CEO Luke Craven explains why shared decision-making matters.  

To learn more, explore our guide to shared decision-making, 'Sharing the power to make change.'

Keep up to date with Making Place Matter: Who Decides by following PLACE on LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. 

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Making Place Matter is a podcast from PLACE, produced by Deadset Studios. 

This episode was produced by Ellen Leabeater with sound design by Craig Schuftan. The Executive Producer is Kellie Riordan. Ann Chesterman is the Production Manager. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Some of the most complex challenges facing communities today don’t sit neatly within one organisation, one sector, or one level of government. Solving those problems requires something that doesn’t come easily: sharing power.

Do what does sharing power looks like in practice and why is it so important?

“For philanthropists, it’s going in with that strengths and asset focus, and understanding what’s already in place. Philanthropy needs to think: what more can I bring?” says Penny Dakin, Executive Director Communities at Minderoo Foundation.

It might be new ground for organisations, but the benefits of sharing power are profound.

Keep up to date with Making Place Matter: Who Decides by following PLACE on LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

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Making Place Matter: Who Decides is a podcast from PLACE, produced by Deadset Studios.

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shared decision making is all about relationships. It brings together diverse groups of people, who can start with power imbalances between them and a complicated history behind them.

For shared decision making to work, you need to build a foundation of trust - otherwise difficult decisions and hard conversations become challenging as the process goes on.

Building trust doesn’t happen quickly, and you can’t build trust by accident. “There should be a level of tension. If you’re comfortable in shared decision making, then you’re not really trying” says Catherine Liddle, CEO of SNAICC.

Find out how and why organisations and governments are taking the time to listen and understand the communities they work in before embarking on a shared decision making process. And, what it looks like when those relationships are put to the test.

Keep up to date with Making Place Matter: Who Decides by following PLACE on LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

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Making Place Matter: Who Decides is a podcast from PLACE, produced by Deadset Studios.

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s no one “right” way to implement share decision-making, so in this episode, you’re going to hear three.

A community-level initiative in regional Victoria, a state-level disaster authority in Queensland, and a philanthropic organisation tackling some of Australia’s most entrenched challenges. Each has built processes and structures that fit their context, while continuing to draw on the strength and perspective of community.

“You’ve got to go from being the only person who makes the decision to being one of a group of people that makes a decision. That’s actually not a very hard shift, but it is a shift.” says Matthew Cox, Executive Director of the Bryan Foundation.

This is the how of shared decision making; the structures, the processes, and the conditions that make it possible.

Keep up to date with Making Place Matter: Who Decides by following PLACE on LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

Archive from ABC News

‘Cyclone Yasi Hits Far North QLD’

‘Dramatic footage of the Queensland floods’

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Making Place Matter: Who Decides is a podcast from PLACE, produced by Deadset Studios.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anyone can run a good meeting. The harder question is what happens afterwards. How do you keep communities informed, hold yourself to your commitments, and build the kind of trust that survives setbacks?

We explore the ‘crunchy’ but essential work of accountability in shared decision making.

Jo Anne Kelly from Learning the Macleay shares what happens when the young people start telling the adults what they need. Jake Ellwood from the Queensland Reconstruction Authority explains how accountability helps improve their work. And Eugene McGarrell from Sydney North Health Network is building trust – by asking service providers to open their books.

Keep up to date with Making Place Matter: Who Decides by following PLACE on LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. 

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Making Place Matter is a podcast from PLACE, produced by Deadset Studios.

This episode was produced by Ellen Leabeater with sound design by Craig Schuftan. The Executive Producer is Kellie Riordan. Ann Chesterman is the Production Manager.

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shared decision-making can transform communities. But a persistent tension keeps bubbling up: the structure of government can make the process harder.

Funding models, accountability requirements, legislative constraints. These structures exists for a reason, but can co-exist with shared decision making, if everyone agrees on a way forward.

This episode looks at what needs to shift to operationalise shared decision making and provides examples where government is already showing up as genuine partners.

Keep up to date with Making Place Matter: Who Decides by following PLACE on LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube. 

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Making Place Matter: Who Decides? is a podcast from PLACE, produced by Deadset Studios.

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.