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Detoxing democracy: How government by the people can heal our dying democracy?
Hosted by:
May 7, 2018 @ 3:15 am - 5:00 am
Though material conditions played their part, the degradation of politics and the humiliation of political elites now so evident in the shock and awe of Brexit and Trump also reflect the way in which politics has been sucked into the vortex of entertainment. And in our political culture, problem solving is less entertaining than the theatre of political combat. In fact, Australia led the pack in 2013 when the elites in Australia’s Parliament humiliated themselves – abolishing carbon pricing when the overwhelming majority of parliamentarians understood the folly of doing so.
Creating space for ordinary people to influence our politics at every level, as we do in juries, could see our democracy reborn. And rather than ask for permission from the incumbent system, we can do it for ourselves.
Nicholas Gruen is a policy economist, entrepreneur and commentator, founder of Lateral Economics and Peach Financial, Visiting Professor at Kings College London Policy Institute and Adjunct Professor at UTS Business School.
He chairs Health Metrics (Australia’s premier software supplier for aged care), the Open Knowledge Foundation (Australia) and is patron of the Australian Digital Alliance.
He chaired The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI) from until 2016 and Innovation Australia until 2014.
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