By Janette Hartz-Karp, The Conversation All governments would like to overcome impasses caused by contentious issues. Particularly when they turn into a political slanging match, the result is loss of money, time and public trust. Take the decades-old, contentious dilemma in Western Australia of whether to build the Roe 8 highway through the Beeliar wetlands...Continue reading
Krystian Seibert. Comment. Sydney Morning Herald, 9 January 2017 The recent release of the Australian National University’s election study showed that just under half of respondents were not satisfied with the state of democracy in Australia, the lowest level since the 1970s. It’s not surprising that there’s such a level of disillusionment. One explanation may...Continue reading
By Michael Koziol, Sydney Morning Herald In a stylish waterfront office, not 500 metres from the Sydney Harbour Bridge, a high-powered group clink champagne flutes and imported Italian stubbies in the name of pre-Christmas cheer. There among the crowd, poised as always, is Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Triggs. Former NSW premier Nick Greiner chats amiably...Continue reading
By Helen Christensen and Bligh Grant Australian governments of all levels are increasingly familiar with two trends in public budgeting. Firstly, the pressure to deliver ‘more with less’ in public budgets; secondly, an increased realisation by communities that they have a democratic right to participate in public policy decisions. In local government, processes of participatory...Continue reading
Brexit and the Trump presidency are making people ask whether the current form of democracy is the best we can do. By Joe Humphreys. As published on The Irish Times What’s happening to our democracies? Donald Trump’s presidential-election victory in the United States, after a bitter campaign characterised by deceitful and incendiary rhetoric, is not...Continue reading
By Matthew Knott. Sydney Morning Herald. 20 December 2016. Australians’ satisfaction with democracy has collapsed to its lowest level since the Whitlam dismissal, according to a major study that shows the country in an increasingly dark and distrustful mood about politics and the economy. The survey, conducted by the Australian National University, portrays a...
newDemocracy Founding Director, Luca Belgiorno-Nettis, in conversation with Robbie Buck.
Conventional wisdom holds that the common sense of everyday people finds its voice in elections, and referendums. However, it’s apparent that political campaigns are banal popularity contests at best, and toxic, divisive, ideological battlegrounds at worst. The French philosopher Emil Cioran said: “Ideas should be neutral, yet man animates these ideas with passions and follies,...Continue reading
Closing remarks to Strasbourg’s World Forum for Democracy 2016, by “an interloper from Down Under.” On this day of all days (the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States), it’s good to note that this is a World Forum for Democracy, not a forum for representative government, that unfortunate system that...Continue reading
A participating community is a thoughtful community, it is a purposeful community.– Kate Auty, ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment and City of Melbourne Ambassador In a political landscape where trust has been eroded and the public are for the most part disengaged and disillusioned, it is refreshing to see state and local governments...Continue reading