OPINION | Real democratic change may not come from louder slogans, but from quietly handing ordinary citizens a formal voice inside the machinery of power.
By Luca Belgiorno-Nettis in The Mandarin.
Wednesday 18th February, 2026
Upon winning the leadership of the Liberal Party, Angus Taylor said bluntly, “Change or die, and I choose change.” It’s a striking line, but it prompts an obvious question. What might real change look like? There could be a clue in the ANU Australian Election Study 2025, and it’s not what you might expect. Both the major parties currently find themselves with historically low electoral support. The latest surveys confirm the dramatic shift away from the major parties, with their combined primary vote at just 53% – the lowest level in history. If polls are to be believed then, even if taken with a hefty slab of salt, the Coalition’s voter base is now nearer 20%.
A soundbite you can expect to hear more of is ‘Australian values.’ Angus Taylor said, “Our party must unapologetically defend Australian values. I want our country to once again be one of opportunity and aspiration, of freedom and safety.”
By way of contrast, Mr. Albanese says, “I want to build on what has always been our nation’s greatest strength: the Australian people and create a future that is true to our values.”
Pause for a moment and try to identify the practical difference between those two statements. You have likely spent longer than most voters, and probably still can’t discern much of a variation between the two. This is not going to be the change that matters.
If there’s one principal concern across the 35 years of the ANU Study, it’s the declining trust in the political class. Only one in three Australians now believe ‘that people in government can be trusted to do the right thing’. Millennials, who comprise 27% of the electorate – the biggest demographic – are the least trusting of all. In the same Study, when the researchers asked what changes to the political system voters most want to see, the proposal with the biggest support was a Citizens’ Assembly – described as ‘a group of citizens chosen by democratic lottery to advise Parliament on policy matters.’
This simple reform earns 48% support and spans age cohorts and partisan lines. Only 20% of respondents opposed the reform – the lowest level of any of the offered choices.
Several countries including Ireland, France and Germany have institutionalised citizens’ assemblies.
The European Commission has undertaken 6 in the last 5 years.
In 2019, the autonomous region of East Belgium (the birthplace of Mathias Cormann) established a permanent Citizens’ Council advising its Parliament. To date, the Ostbelgien Parliament has adopted all of the Council’s recommendations. Belgium has a pioneering record of democratic innovation being the first country, in 1893, to introduce compulsory voting – 30 years before Australia.
Voters are turned off by the mendacity of political campaigns, but in the absence of anything else, they still cast their ballot.
Instead of aggregating diverse, independent insights, elections too often give rise to sloganeering and herding behaviour.
On the other hand, citizens’ assemblies encourage collaboration and address the shortcomings of politics-as-usual. Citizens are given time, balanced evidence and access to experts. They deliberate. They listen. They revise their views. And they make recommendations that often reflect more nuance and compromise than partisan politics can deliver.
We trust the criminal jury in life-or-death matters, so could we also trust something similar attached to our Parliaments? It’s a way for the political class to better connect with everyday people, rather than trying to sell them a product they’re no longer buying.
Luca Belgiorno-Nettis is the founder and director of the newDemocracy Foundation.
