Democracy in Action! Conversations

This year we asked the ACT community to help us define how we know our MLAs are doing a good job for the community. Then we worked with Canberrans to develop criteria and based on these a set of questions to ask candidates, to help you choose how to preference the candidates who you vote for on October 19th.

Conversation 1 on 12th May

We asked:

  1. What’s a representative?
  2. What qualities are we seeking in our MLAs?
  3. How can we know our MLA is working well for the community?
Outputs from Conversation 1

Democracy in Action Collective Statements from Conversation One

Democracy in Action Conversation 1 full report with attachments

Democracy in Action Conversation 1 Outputs summary

 

Other groups have reached similar conclusions:

Active Democracy Bean Listening Report

Yarralumla KTC Report

CAPaD Listening Post at Southfest in 2018

 

These ideas fed into –

 

Conversation 2 on June30

Beyond promises and policy: picking good candidates – completed
How can we know which candidate will be a ‘good’ representative?

We explored:

Given the attributes for MLAs coming from conversation 1:

1.How can we know confidently that candidates have demonstrated these in their previous practice?

2.How do we expect candidates to balance their responsibilities to their party or group with their responsibilities to their electorate community?

3.How can we find out that the party/group/personal platforms and promises are consistent with community needs and are prioritised for the community’s benefit?

4.Where do we find out the information we want to know about candidates?

 

The Collective Statements from this conversation are here. They fed into –

 

Conversation 3 – What are we going to ask Candidates?

In conversations 1 and 2 we have articulated a set of qualities we expect in our representatives and developed some ideas about how we can tell if a candidate has these and where we might find out that information.

The summary of Conversations One and Two and briefing for conversation 3 is here.

 

Using the ideas from conversations one and two, we developed a set of six questions to pose to candidates at those forums, and for voters to use as they meet candidates out and about, so candidates can tell us how they plan to represent us.

 

Questions for Candidates are:

  1. What qualifications and diverse experience do you bring to the job of being a representative? How can you demonstrate these?
  2. What leadership experience can you demonstrate to the community?
  3. How are you going to engage your community in the processes of policy development and decision-making, in order to be responsive to their needs? Particularly, how are you going to engage disadvantaged and marginalised people and their communities (those who traditionally miss out)?
  4. How can you demonstrate how you will prioritise community interests and wellbeing over personal, party or donor interests?
  5. How are you going to report back to the community how you are performing for them in the Assembly?