The Costly Social Licence Lesson: Why Better Community Engagement Matters

A recent article by Nick Fleming, The Expensive Social Licence Lesson Australia Keeps Refusing to Learn, raises an important question for anyone involved in major projects, infrastructure and community engagement: are we really learning from the past, or simply repeating it?

Using Australia’s rapidly growing data centre sector as a timely example, Fleming argues that many organisations continue to treat social licence as a communication challenge rather than a governance challenge. When projects encounter community concern, the response is often to produce more information, increase communications or add more engagement activities—without fundamentally reconsidering the decisions, assumptions or project design that created concern in the first place.

For engagement practitioners across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, this observation will sound familiar.

Engagement Cannot Fix Decisions Made Without It

Community and stakeholder engagement is sometimes expected to “build support” for projects that have already been substantially designed. Yet meaningful engagement is most valuable when it informs decisions before positions become fixed.

When engagement begins early, organisations are better able to understand community values, identify potential impacts, explore alternatives and make more informed decisions. When it starts late, practitioners are often left managing frustration rather than helping shape better outcomes.

Research into social licence consistently shows that trust is built through ongoing relationships, procedural fairness, transparency and genuine influence over decisions—not simply through providing more information.

Social Licence Is Earned Through Practice

One of Fleming’s strongest points is that organisations often conduct reviews after controversial projects but fail to change the governance systems that produced those outcomes. Lessons are captured, but they are rarely embedded into organisational practice.

For engagement professionals, this reinforces an important principle: engagement capability should not sit solely within specialist teams. Building trust requires leadership commitment, consistent governance, shared capability across project teams and engagement that is embedded into decision-making.

As expectations from communities continue to evolve, organisations that treat engagement as a strategic capability—rather than a project requirement—will be better placed to navigate complexity and maintain community confidence.

A Lesson Worth Taking Forward

Australia’s energy transition, digital infrastructure, housing, transport and major public projects will all depend on strong relationships with communities.

The challenge is no longer whether organisations should engage. It is whether they are prepared to let engagement genuinely shape decisions.

For engagement practitioners, the opportunity is to continue advocating for engagement that begins early, informs governance and creates better outcomes for everyone involved.

Acknowledgement: This article was inspired by Nick Fleming’s article, The Expensive Social Licence Lesson Australia Keeps Refusing to Learn, which explores the relationship between social licence, governance and institutional learning. We encourage readers to read the original article for Fleming’s full perspective.