The City of Canada Bay has once again appointed the Foundation to conduct a citizens’ Policy Panel to provide policy advice to Council on lease conditions fair for the proposed use where Council-owned buildings are formally leased to third parties for their sole use on a discounted or subsidised community basis. The City of Canada...Continue reading
My parents used to have a book called “World History” which I flicked through every now and again. It was not a happy read: one war after war, one king after another. A Game of Thrones. It made me think about how we got to be so peaceful today, living a happy life in Sydney. ...Continue reading
On March 3 2014 Geoff Gallop delivered the Manning Clark Lecture in Canberra, making the case for a new way forward for the Australian Republican Movement through the use of deliberative democracy. The ‘third republic’ – as Geoff calls it – would be more likely to be achieved if those advocating change would be willing...
The US State Department conducts an International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) which enables a small group of Australian citizens (MPs and people like us!) to have an experience with academics, government representatives, NGOs, United Nations staff and elected representatives in the United States. It’s a way to share ideas and make contacts, and is generously...Continue reading
Angela Catterns from 2UE interviews our Executive Director, Iain Walker (0.00 – 8.20) and Citizen Juror, Pino Santangelo (9.45 – 16.17). Iain talks about the work of newDemocracy generally and Pino reflects on his experience as a juror on the current Citizens’ Policy Jury on a Vibrant and Safe Sydney Nightlife. If you’d like to...
The Darebin City Council established an infrastructure fund and made a commitment to consult with the community to determine what this fund would be used for. Council decided to use a Citizens’ Jury process to get advice on how this money ($2m in 2014 – 2016) should be spent. The Council determined to accept the...
By Rachel Browne, Social Affairs Reporter. Sydney Morning Herald. It is a problem politicians and experts from law enforcement, the health sector and the community have failed to successfully tackle. Now 43 average citizens have been tasked with finding a way to reduce the violence on Sydney’s streets while maintaining the city’s vibrant nightlife. The...Continue reading
A bi-partisan committee of the House of Representatives in Federal Parliament conducts a review after every election. This review has been made more topical because of interest in the role of minor party preferences for the Senate and the lost votes in the WA Senate recount. The NDF submission focuses on the difficulty elected representatives...Continue reading
Posted November 29, 2013 by Marcin Gerwin (in Polish) on Krytykapolityczna.pl This is the English Transcribed Interview. Lyn Carson is a professor with the Business Programs Unit at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her research areas are community engagement and deliberative democracy. She is also a director of NewDemocracy Foundation. Marcin Gerwin: There are many...Continue reading
By Geoff Gallop Lecture at the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, Adelaide Wednesday 20 November 2013 My aim tonight is to advocate for political reform but not before analysing why I believe it to be important. I want to encourage you all to learn about and encourage your politicians to learn about a whole range of democratic initiatives that go beyond our normal consultations, that can be more representative of ‘the people’ and which work harder at ensuring our focus is on deliberating for the public interest. I want you to start to think about the concepts of empowerment, random selection, and deliberation. in doing this I want you to reflect with me on the issue of how we imagine our democracy and how we actually operate it. What is going on in politics and how is it affecting governments today? Are there things we can do to make our system work better? I’m particularly interested in the 552 governments that operate throughout Australia – the Commonwealth, the States and Territories and our Local Authorities. None of these governments can operate without constraint but they do have degrees of executivepower and the responsibility to give leadership to their communities. Full Lecture Text Continue reading