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McPolitics

By Graham Young - posted Friday, 29 July 2005


In our view what is needed is a national eDemocracy portal where citizens, partisan and non-partisan alike, can be hooked up with political ideas, people, and organisations and where the role of the site is limited to brokerage.

An example of where we think a site like this should be heading is a recent poll on refugees sponsored by one of our members, Rights Australia. This poll was linked to articles on the issue, and discussion threads. It made allowances in the poll itself for comments, and allowed readers to vote for or against the poll. The poll was also in a form which allowed it to be presented to the Senate as a petition, and also contained information allowing politicians to contact signatories who are in their electorate. The results of the poll were automatically tallied and reported on the site each time there was another signature. Names and contact details were also made available to the sponsors.

In this way individuals with a common interest are introduced to each other and their opinions summed in a way which is useful to the sponsors and the politicians they wish to influence. The very existence of the poll, with its thousands of signatures in favour and three-and-a-bit handfuls against, must have an influence on government's assessment of just where this issue is running.

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The structures and habits of thought demanded by the style of election campaigns that we run has undermined our democratic processes by making political parties more corporate in their approach. We need to recognise this so that we can correctly analyse the problem and prescribe the right medicines to heal it. If “Tweedledum and Tweedledummer” continue to dominate market share we must find ways to at least stop them resting on each other's laurels.

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First published in New Matilda on July 20, 2005.



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About the Author

Graham Young is chief editor and the publisher of On Line Opinion. He is executive director of the Australian Institute for Progress, an Australian think tank based in Brisbane, and the publisher of On Line Opinion.

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