Speech to Nexus Australian Youth Summit, Melbourne, 27 October 2014. (extract) Here’s the so-called ‘Mother of all Parliaments’, with William Pitt the Younger, as Prime Minister, addressing the House. At the same time in 1774, the American Founding Fathers did deliberate on alternative models for their Congress, especially the Athenian model, which had virtually no...
POLITICAL REFORM I work in a family company involved in urban infrastructure. I’m no political science student and, up until relatively recently, have had no real interest in politics. My main interaction with politicians was through the regular rounds of party political campaign lunches and dinners. I was a regular invitee, as a businessman/potential donor....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
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
This month, in my home state, New South Wales, urban planning legislation is being considered in Parliament. It is ‘..a modern and easy planning system for the 21st century that puts the community first.’ I’m no politician, nor an academic studying political science; I’m an architect working in a family infrastructure business and I’m intrigued...Continue reading
In the media age, contemporary democracies are dominated by the spectacle of debating and divisiveness, especially at election time. Elections are now not much more than a series of competing sound-bites, with voting just another polling event: a ‘low involvement product’. We’ve groomed charismatic and articulate political performers, whose primary skill is to debate, divide...Continue reading
The level of confidence in our democracy today is at an all time low. Despite compulsory voting, citizens don’t turn up. Young people surveyed in a Lowy Institute poll saw only 39% agree with the statement “Democracy is preferable to any other kind of government.” Every survey of trust in elected representatives seems to find...Continue reading
WORLD FORUM FOR DEMOCRACY at THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE Strasbourg 2012 BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN OLD MODELS AND NEW REALITIES. May I start by thanking our hosts, the Council of Europe for making this conference a reality, allowing us all to share our experiences on this important topic. I’ll open with a definition of...Continue reading
In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, the British computer scientist, created the world-wide-web, out of frustration; he was frustrated by the existing communication devices, as he wanted to collaborate with his colleagues around the world. You will all remember the ubiquitous fax machine. With the launch of the web, a new era of communication and collaboration was...Continue reading
Natural intelligence…a cogent stream of good sense for a colony of living organisms. ‘One of the popular misconceptions about honey bees is that their lives are ruled by a queen — or perhaps by even some more fanciful system. But in the forty years that I’ve spent studying bees, I’ve learned that their colonies are...Continue reading