Is it time to renew Australian democracy? Understanding the findings of the New Democratic Audit of Australia

Date: Wednesday, 5 February, 2025

Venue: The Theatrette, Parliament House, Canberra

Event: 12.30 pm - 1.30 pm

This event is free to attend and will be live-streamed. When registering for the event, you can choose the live-stream ticket to access this option.

Moderated by Professor Stan Grant Jnr and panellists Michelle Grattan AO, Professor Mark Evans, Senator Jacqui Lambie, Allegra Spender MP and Senator David Pocock

The most comprehensive audit of Australian democracy ever produced observes that, in recent times, Australia has developed into one of the world’s leading liberal democracies. Its governments have delivered continuous economic growth for more than three decades, even against the turmoil of a global pandemic. And the country’s highly competitive elections and strong political institutions operate within a stable and balanced federal system. However, it also highlight significant scope for democratic improvement by bridging the trust divide between government and citizen through cleaner, more collaborative and empathetic politics, and providing greater opportunity to its citizenry for social, economic and political participation. Australia continues to confront the challenges of partisan political barriers to addressing climate change, intergenerational disadvantage and empowering First Nations peoples.

In Australia’s New Democratic Audit, a team of leading academics drawn from across every state and territory use an audit approach to critically explore national government institutions, as well as state- and territory-level politics, and to examine how each has contributed to or held back Australian political life as it has changed and diversified. For instance, the top two parties’ monopoly of governance has only begun to adjust to a modern transition to multi-party politics, although balanced voting systems for two-house legislatures have allowed for some adaptation. To date, the country has successfully avoided both rancorous populist politics (as in the USA) and serious governance decline (as in the UK) although the Voice to Parliament referendum suggests that populism could well be on the rise.

Each of the book’s 28 chapters tackles one institution or issue, outlining recent developments along with an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, to fully evaluate the state of Australian democracy in the 21st century. In doing so, the authors draw key lessons for other democracies, showing in detail how robust major and micro-institutions can guard against democratic ‘backsliding’ and policy failures.

By taking an in-depth, nuanced approach to multiple democratic issues across the whole of the country’s distinctive political system, the New Democratic Audit provides an important contribution to public policy debate and civics education in Australia.

To download the Audit for free, go to: https://press.lse.ac.uk/site/books/e/10.31389/lsepress.ada/

Purpose: The purpose of this event is to launch the Audit, discuss its key findings and reimagine Australia’s democratic future.

Format: Professor Mark Evans will provide an overview of the key findings and then Stan Grant will ask panellists their views on the strengths and weaknesses of Australian democracy, where Australia’s democracy requires renewal and how they would reimagine Australian democracy.