Read the full document here. Parliamentary Committees are the backbone of our Parliament. They scrutinise problems and policy as MPs on these committees develop expertise in their particular subject areas, bringing an informed view to the consideration of legislation. At their best, they showcase elected representatives from all sides working together on the in-depth exploration...Continue reading
By some metrics, American democracy is in great shape. Despite a pandemic, and a switch to mass mail-in voting, the 2020 presidential election witnessed the highest voter turnout in U.S. history with 158 million people casting ballots. That’s about 66% of the voting-eligible population, the highest percentage since 1900 when 74% voted. Of course, many factors may have...Continue reading
The way water is delivered in NSW is complex. It features an apparently ‘simple’ product that requires evolving technology, a balancing of intricate third-party impacts for all decisions, has overlapping layers of legacy decisions, the Murray Darling Basin Plan, intermittent state-wide drought,s and other water agencies’ roles in rule setting, compliance, and license trading. Despite...Continue reading
We thank The House of Lords Constitution Committee and Baroness Taylor of Bolton for this opportunity to contribute to the inquiry into the future governance of the United Kingdom (UK). While we note the Committee has posed six specific questions, one theme unites them all and one public sentiment underpins the reason for this inquiry:...Continue reading
As we draw this podcast series to a close, it’s fitting to take a global perspective on public deliberation with Claudia Chwalisz who leads the OECD’s work on innovative citizen participation. Claudia is co-authoring a number of influential reports, convening a global network and maintaining an online digest, Participo. Links Catching the Deliberate Wave report...Continue reading
We thank the Senate’s Standing Committees on Finance and Public Administration for this opportunity to contribute to the inquiry into the current capability of the Australian Public Service (APS). We recommend that the APS improve its public engagement capacity by (a) adopting and (b) measuring adherence to OECD-standard deliberative engagement practice. These deliberative processes build...Continue reading
Bobbi Allan was randomly selected for a public deliberation in early 2018. Coincidentally, she has a background as a facilitator so can offer an unusual perspective as she describes the residual effect of a deliberative experience. Bobbi Allan is a skilled facilitator with a background in training and development in the community and government sectors....Continue reading
This conversation is with Rhiann McLean (in Scotland) and Max Hardy (in Australia). Both are dedicated to amplifying the voices of people with disability—through research and public deliberations.” Links: Research Voices Citizens’ Jury Video of the Research Voices Citizens’ Jury Report from Research Voices Citizens’ Jury NDIS Citizens’ Jury Video of NDIS Citizens’ Jury Rhiann...Continue reading
Kara Dillard is an Assistant Professor at James Madison University in the US. She is also the operations specialist for Common Ground for Action (CGA), an online variant of the National Issues Forum (NIF). In this episode, Kara explains this short-form process, as well as its strengths and challenges. As a moderator training specialist for...Continue reading
Dr Kath Fisher is an extremely experienced professional facilitator. She is also an academic at Southern Cross University (Lismore, Australia). In this episode, Kath shares some of her journey and offers a number of useful techniques that she uses routinely in public deliberations. Resources: A summary of the report produced from the CSIRO project A...Continue reading