Revisiting what is democracy? Peter Tait, Convener If being clear about the DNA of democracy, as Janusz Ruszkowski says, is important to nurturing and safeguarding it, how then to define this slippery concept? I propose that there are a set of value propositions that can be used as a guideline … Read More
A conversation about living democracy into being; withdrawing consent and building the new. A second very stimulating conversation on living democracy happened on Sunday 2nd July. Key messages: withdrawing consent is only one of four stages in living democracy; these stages are parallel. They are sowing the seeds of change, … Read More
In the ACT, several organisations and many individuals are working for better community and electorate level democratic practice with a focus on ensuring good representation. This is an ecosystem of people and organisations in a political environment. Within the organisations are people with varying levels of time, energy and interest. … Read More
OECD Public Governance Policy Papers, No. 12, 14 December 2021 Building on the work CAPaD did with the OECD last year, this paper outlines eight participatory and deliberative models “for institutionalising representative public deliberation to improve collective decision making and strengthen democracy. Deliberative bodies like citizens’ assemblies create the democratic … Read More
From the Public Health Association Australia blog, Intouch, Peter Tait suggests ways that we can be active citizens in the upcoming election. After all, do we want more of the same non-government? See here -> https://intouchpublichealth.net.au/be-angry-about-politics-in-australia-and-vote-thoughtfully/
Updating last weeks post, the video of the talk at the Australian Public Health Conference is now available on YouTube. The second half focuses on the ideas around electorate level mobilisation. (https://youtu.be/d3pzpIN3skY)
Peter Tait presented this talk at the Australian Public Health Conference on 24/9/21. His talk Planetary Health for the Public’s Health is reproduced on the Croakey blog here as A rallying call for public health to refocus efforts, on building government for the public’s good. (https://www.croakey.org/a-rallying-call-for-public-health-to-refocus-efforts-on-building-government-for-the-publics-good/)
On this weeks The Mindfield, Waleed Aly and Marc Stears (Director of the Sydney Policy Lab) explore the idea that politics / the political class / liberal democracy has become disconnected from the values and concerns of the community. Very relevant to the community independents movement.
Rutger Bregman’s Humankind explores and debunks the myth that human nature is nasty by default. He acknowledges that it can be and in certain circumstances this can have survival value. But in the majority of circumstances and situations, humans’ default responses are kindness, compassion and being helpful. In relation to … Read More
The Australian Democracy Network, whose aim is to extract undue, excessive corporate influence from our political system, has launched a campaign to grow toward achieving that. More details about the campaign and the petition can be found on the #OurDemocracy website. It is fascinating how the our democracy meme is … Read More