Library Lecture: Australia and democracy in the Pacific Islands

The Pacific is a strongly democratic region. Most Pacific countries have unbroken track records of scheduled elections and peaceful power transfers. Despite this, there are challenges to democratic resilience in the region, including the protection of political rights and civil liberties, issues of electoral integrity, and under-representation of women and marginalised groups.

Australia has asserted the importance of promoting shared democratic values in its foreign policy and invested significantly in democracy in the Pacific. In the Pacific region's complex and competitive geostrategic environment, democratic norms and practices may increasingly come under pressure.

This seminar will examine how democracy manifests in the region and explore the challenges and opportunities of democracy support.

Presenter: Dr Kerryn Baker is a political scientist and Fellow in the Department of Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University. Kerryn’s publications include issues on political participation, elections and electoral reform, and women’s political representation. She is the author of Pacific Women in Politics: Gender Quota Campaigns in the Pacific Islands (University of Hawai’i Press, 2019), and the winner of the Carole Pateman Gender and Politics Book Prize, 2021.

This free lecture will be held in the in the Parliament House Theatre, Parliament House. Senators, Members, their staff and the public are welcome to attend in person.

This lecture will also be live streamed and recorded. You can access the live stream on the day at Watch, Read, Listen and the Australian Parliament House Streaming Portal on Youtube.

For further information, or if you have any accessibility requirements, call or email Nicholas Cumming on 02 6277 2610.