Submission to the Senate Inquiry into Nationhood, National Identity and Democracy If you only read (and perhaps share) one government discussion paper this year, then make it this one. In a concise 8pg document the Federal Senate has outlined global threats to democracy across the world and its scope to affect Australia. This is exactly...Continue reading
After each election (state and federal) a joint committee holds an inquiry into its conduct as an opportunity for any concerns to be aired, and we take this opportunity inject opportunities for democratic innovation. This paper advocates five concepts – That everyday people should be a central part of the election review due to the...Continue reading
We thank the Electoral Matters Committee for the invitation to make a submission. Around the world, confidence in representative democracy is under siege. Citizens are moving beyond cynicism to disengagement, and the potential for further decline is clear. Viewed more positively, it is clear that a jurisdiction that successfully finds a way to counter this...Continue reading
You can read the Citizens’ Jury’s full report here. In its Sydney 2050 plan, the City of Sydney will listen to the community and then outline what it sees as the shared future vision of what the city can become. The City has engaged newDemocracy to design and provide oversight of the Citizens’ Jury. We will...Continue reading
Over the last ten years, we have been approached many times with requests to get involved in a project relating to the media environment – a request we have always refused. Why? We think there are two ways to define and discuss democracy. One is to take a broad view where we think of democracy...Continue reading
This paper provides a list of reform options to improve Australia’s democracy. We put these proposals to Australia’s political parties ahead of the 2019 election because we believe that democracy matters. Australia’s democracy has been critical to our nation’s success, but it is frayed and public confidence in our system of governance is in worrying...Continue reading
The German-speaking community of Belgium has become the first region to institute a permanent role for randomly-selected everyday citizens as part of how they do democracy. Led by the local G1000 organisation, newDemocracy was invited to be part of a design advisory group including twelve international members who have designed and operated large scale and...Continue reading
Byron has a reputation for highly engaged community groups which can, at times, make it difficult to establish community-wide perspectives and can lead to public discourse that is highly fractious. Making trusted public decisions is arguably harder in Byron than in almost any other council across Australia. Apathy is not a problem we need to...Continue reading
Across Europe, there is an absence of everyday people contributing substantively to the decisions that shape the cities they live in, both now and into the future. Democracies are struggling to include everyday people in making trusted public decisions. The City of Madrid has embarked on a path of major democratic innovation to solve this...Continue reading
There are few, if any, “right” decisions for a government; instead, the ideal decision is simply one which reflects a position of informed support from a wide cross-section of the community. Making difficult decisions with the support of the community is politically tough. It requires a government to make themselves electorally vulnerable in order to...Continue reading