Quarterly Essay 83 Lone Wolf Correspondence Luca Belgiorno-Nettis The subtitle of Katharine Murphy’s Lone Wolf – “Albanese and the new politics” – is a tease. “New” works every time: new toothpaste, new art, new idea. There was little that was particularly new in the political campaigning of 2022 – except what catapulted six freshly minted...
President Biden convened the first Summit for Democracy following his election in 2021. The initial Summit focused on some ‘traditional’ democracy topics but tended to omit new and emerging approaches. newDemocracy was in contact with the US State Department to make the case that arguably Citizens Assemblies were arguably the most promising democratic innovation: in...Continue reading
Robert French, the former chief justice of the High Court, says ‘The Voice is a big idea, but not a complicated one.’ That may be true, but how do we really know? Currently, the parliament is considering a bill to improve the process of informing the Australian public about referenda questions. The bill contemplates suspending...Continue reading
Around Australia there is growing demand and momentum for deliberative engagement practice. This includes changes to the Victorian Local Government Act to mandate deliberative engagement practice, the NSW Government producing a deliberative democracy toolkit, and the increasing number of local councils and utilities making use of citizens’ panels or juries in their long-term strategic planning....Continue reading
We thank the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters for this opportunity to contribute to the inquiry into the provisions of the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022. Our submission is focused on the temporary disapplication of section 11 of the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act 1984 (Cth). The relevant clause: Section 11 of the Referendum (Machinery...
The November 2017 Symposium event convened by newDemocracy sought to challenge opinion leaders by asking them what practical testable improvements could be made to our democracy in order to improve public trust in how we make public decisions. It sought to move the discussion from complaints about problems to potential solutions. This project is one...Continue reading
Art O’Leary was minding his own business and enjoying his role as a senior civil servant in Ireland’s parliament when the prime minister phoned to offer him a unique job. The self-described middle-aged man with a suit and a comb-over couldn’t have known that he was about to become a social revolutionary. The newly elected...Continue reading
Saxon Connor is a Christchurch surgeon. The views expressed in this column are personal and do not represent those of his employers. OPINION: There is now widespread disruption to the provision of hospital-based healthcare across Aotearoa. The underlying cause is not simply the increased demand from the COVID-19 and influenza. As a nation we have accepted...Continue reading
The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe has published an explanatory memorandum that calls on the local and regional authorities of Council of Europe member States to implement deliberative methods. The memorandum heavily references newDemocracy’s work throughout. You can read the document here. Summary In recent years, governments have increasingly...Continue reading
As far as referenda go, I think there’s general agreement on this: to ask Australians to consider, at the same referendum, two questions — one on Indigenous voice, and the other on a republic — is too big an ask. Nevertheless, we could do what the Irish did in 2012. Ireland held a Citizens’ Constitutional...