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Articles on Political reform

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On many major issues, Labor’s Bill Shorten and the Liberals’ Tony Abbott are essentially two wings of the same bird. AAP/Mick Tsikas

A challenged democracy: wicked problems and political failures

The crisis of public confidence in politics is not limited to Australia, but public disengagement, retail politics and lack of vision are crippling our ability to tackle long-term and wicked problems.
The Power of 1 exhibition explores differences in perceptions and forms of political participation across generations and how these are likely to affect the direction of our democracy. Museum of Australian Democracy

Generational divide when ‘doing politics’ vanishes on need to fix it

Australians divide along generational lines when it comes to participating in politics. Less predictably, they are almost united on the need to fix the political system and the best ways to do that.
The cross-bench senators may call to mind Paul Keating’s charge of ‘unrepresentative swill’, but they also reflect and respond to the 21st-century world in ways that the major parties can’t. AAP/Alan Porritt

Don’t blame micro-parties or the Senate – update an archaic system

The Senate is not a root cause, but part of a long list of symptoms that indicate Australia’s political system is increasingly unfit for purpose in the 21st century.
Senator John Faulkner’s call for political parties to re-engage with Australians through social media is laudable, but his own efforts illustrate how much politicians have to learn. Facebook/John Faulkner

Politics as usual? Ailing parties fail to get to grips with social media

After his speech about party renewal last week, I went to Labor Senator John Faulkner’s Facebook page. It has about 2700 likes. The page features links to speeches and pictures of events that Faulkner…

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