Australian Citizens' Parliament

What is the Australian Citizens' Parliament about?

Click on this link: "What is the Australian Citizens' Parliament about?"

What steps will the citizens follow?

First, they will be randomly selected from the Australian Electoral roll. Their first meeting will be face-to-face for a day in capital and regional centres around the country. In these small meetings they will begin to get to know each other, begin to understand what deliberation means and begin their task. Upon returning home, they can optionally connect online to continue their deliberations. Out of this online phase will come topics of concern and preliminary recommendations. Finally, at the sitting of the Citizens' Parliament at Old Parliament House in Canberra, they will further explore and craft the final recommendations.

What is the timeline?

The random selection progress begins in July 2008. The regional meetings occur in October and November 2008. The final sitting of the Citizens' Parliament occurs on February 06 to 09, 2009. See the timeline image below.

Why a parliament of "citizens"?

In many policy-setting situations in Australia and overseas, groups of citizens committed to working together civilly and constructively have demonstrated a great collective capacity to engage with policy experts and legislators and to learn, innovate and recommend solutions that satisfy the needs of their communities. This is an example of deliberative democracy.

What does deliberative mean?

The deliberative approach engages a group in a respectful and inquiring conversation to explore a problem, understand issues from diverse perspectives and uncover common ground. Deliberation is usually facilitated by a professional who is neutral, helps disentangle disagreements and keeps the ball rolling forward. Individuals are free to hold their positions or explore alternatives while contributing to dialogue on an equal basis.

What is deliberative democracy?

Deliberative democracy tries to introduce more of this kind of communication into democratic decision making. So we might seek better deliberation in parliaments, local councils, newspapers (opinion columns and letters), political commentary and discussion on radio and television, in internet forums, in public hearings, in political meetings, and so forth. Some deliberative democrats have turned to the design of new kinds of forums that would enable more effective deliberation by citizens. The Citizens' Parliament is one such forum.

Why are citizens selected randomly?

Government decision-makers are lobbied by people with special interests. The situations, values and desires of ordinary Australians may not be well understood or acknowledged by special interests or by decision-makers, who may live quite different lives. A random selection of citizens captures the broad spectrum of lived experiences and political, social and ethical perspectives that inform decision-making that affects everyone. Random-selection generates a microcosm of the entire Australian population.

How are the Citizens' Parliament participants selected?

From the Australian Electoral Commission roll, 60 citizens are randomly selected from each of the 150 federal electorates. The lucky winners of this lottery are sent invitations to participate. From the pool of applicants, one participant is randomly-selected from each electorate such that the Citizens' Parliament has an overall distribution of gender, age and other demographic factors that matches the general population.

Is this an initiative of the Government?

No, the Australian Citizens' Parliament is unaffiliated to any activity of the Goverment.

How is this different from the Government's recent Australia 2020 Summit?

Government staff from ten different departmental areas hand-picked the 1000 participants of The Australia 2020 Summit, who came as experts and stakeholders committed to competing ideas. The group forums tended to use aggregative techniques to prioritise recommendations over one weekend. On the other hand, participants of the Australian Citizens' Parliament are randomly-selected citizens who come to collaboratively explore issues over several weeks and deliberatively create recommendations specifically about our democratic system.

Who runs the Citizens' Parliament?

Ultimately, it belongs to the participants. The organisers are researchers from Australian National University, The University of Sydney and Curtin University, in conjunction with the newDemocracy Foundation (see clickable logos below). The Citizens' Parliament is co-chaired by Hon. Fred Chaney AO and Dr. Lowitja O'Donoghue AC CBE DSG. Participants will be guided by facilitators and assisted by researchers and volunteers.

Who will receive the recommendations?

The recommendations will be published and presented to the Prime Minister and all Members of Parliament. We hope that the recommendations will be considered by the Government and widely discussed in the media.

Are the Citizen Parliamentarians delegates of their electorates?

No, participants are discouraged from championing special interests in their electorates. Instead, participants are encouraged to think about the diverse needs of all Australians while deliberating.

"Does it matter that I don't know much about how the government works now?"

Nobody expects participants to have particular expertise about the structure and operation of government. Participants will be provided with a diverse selection of resources and reading material, and can submit and share their own from whatever sources they choose, such as the web and newspapers. Members of a Reference Panel will also be able to answer questions. Every participant has something to contribute, whether through stories or experiences or information in particular areas. The idea is that everybody learns from everybody.

What if a question about the government comes up during deliberations that needs a quick answer?

The organisers are investigating different ways of quickly getting information into the Citizens' Parliament, including crowd-sourcing (questions posted by organisers in a public forum for instant response) and live connection to library resources.

Who is on the Reference Panel?

The Reference Panel is a group of prominent Australians who are knowledgeable about how the government works and have agreed to lend their support to the Citizens' Parliament. It includes academics, senior public servants, commentators, activists and politicians. In addition to providing guidance to the participants, they are also engaged to generate influence for the Citizens' Parliament. Membership of the Reference Panel will be published when it is established in September, 2008.

What happens during the online phase?

A secure online environment has been established for the Citizens' Parliament by Civic Evolution. This gives participants the opportunity to put forth ideas for discussion, self-organise into teams to consider their facets and develop them into recommendations for change. The output will be taken up in the Citizens' Parliamentary sitting in Canberra.

How complete do the recommendations need to be?

That's entirely up to the participants. Dialogue about difficult issues with a diversity of views may only begin to reveal common ground. Some recommendations may only emerge as general approaches to governance. Others may be very specific.

How do qualified facilitators help?

Facilitators ensure that everyone has the opportunity to express themselves and encourage a generous and empathetic response from listeners. Facilitators ask open questions that require reflection and consideration, to help participants find deeper understanding of the topic at hand. They don't express any favouritism--they invite participants to object if any bias is perceived, even if it is unintentional. Facilitators encourage respectful and constructive dialogue, but won't intervene unnecessarily. Importantly, facilitators of deliberative processes do not push participants to reach a consensus.

Do all participants need to agree on the recommendations and do they all have to be consistent with each other?

No and no. The recommendations will probably be as diverse as the participants who contributed to them. Different groups will form around different issues to address, then approach them in different ways. Facilitation will help find overlap between groups so recommendations can be merged. Polarised approaches can be split into separate recommendations. Every recommendation that gains at least some group endorsement will be reported.

How can the public get involved?

The general public is invited to contribute to threaded discussion forums set up on this website. When recommendations from the online phase are published, public comments will be sought before the participants head to Canberra for the main sitting.

What is the agenda for the 3½-day Citizens' Parliament sitting in Canberra?

The agenda will be posted on this website during the lead-up to the event.

Can the public watch the Citizens' Parliamentary sitting?

At Old Parliament House in Canberra, the public will be able to watch the Citizens' Parliament from the public gallery and the entrances to the House of Representatives Chamber, but will not be able to join the participants. The Parliament will only be in the Chamber for a limited time over the four days. For the rest of the time the participants will be deliberating at tables in the former Members' dining room, which is not open to the public.

Will the Citizens' Parliament be covered by television, radio, or other media?

It is hoped that there will be media interest in the Citizens' Parliament proceedings, with coverage during the Chamber sitting and perhaps briefly in the Members' dining room. There are also plans to make a documentary film of the event, to show how citizens can contribute to our democracy.

Has a Citizens' Parliament ever been convened before?

This is the first in Australia. At the local and regional levels, smaller groups like citizens' juries have been assembled to inform public policy and planning decisions. In Canada, government-sanctioned citizens' assemblies have made recommendations to improve provincial electoral systems.

Why is it important to study the Citizens' Parliament?

It is rare for such large-scale initiatives of deliberative democracy to occur. It provides an opportunity to understand better the changes that occur during deliberation and why it generates its outcomes. This will inform conveners and designers of future Citizens' Parliaments.

How is the Citizens' Parliament project funded?

No party-political funding is accepted. Funding is through an Australian Research Council linkage grant. The universities involved are the Australian National University, The University of Sydney and Curtin University. In-kind support is provided by the newDemocracy Foundation, a non-government organisation promoting better government. Addition funding is sought through sponsorship and donations.

What else should participants know about?

See the FAQs for Participants.