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 executive
power and the responsibility to give leadership to their communities.
