SearchRecent comments
Democracy LinksMember's Off-site Blogs |
update from Democratic Audit of AustraliaThe latest update from the Democratic Audit of Australia team below. In his paper Political donation changes favour the rich and increase the risk of corruption Joo-Cheong Tham argues that recent government proposals to increase the threshold for disclosing the identity of political donors, and to raise the ceiling for tax-deductibility, are fraught with problems. The proposals would advantage wealthy political donors and further increase their political access vis à vis the less well off, hence reducing political equality. Further, raising the disclosure threshold would increase the level of secrecy and the potential for corruption and undue influence. A version of this paper was published by the Sydney Morning Herald on 30 May 2005. Other articles on the Democratic Audit website are available at http://www.democratic.audit.anu.edu.au If you have any particular views you wish to express on these papers please email the Audit at [email protected]. We will publish comments on the website. ___________________________ MEGAN KIMBER Political Science Program
The Ph: (02) 6125 0696 Fx: (02) 6125 3051 Email: [email protected]
|
User login |
update from Democratic Audit .....
Taxpayers fund more party propaganda
Peter Andren MP is moving a disallowance motion on the new Communications Allowance regulations introduced by the federal government (http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/ ). His reasons for doing so have been written up for the Democratic Audit and can be accessed here. In this paper Peter Andren argues that the increase in postal allowances for federal members of parliament is unnecessary. It is most likely to result in the sending of more political propaganda, especially during the final weeks of the election cycle.
How Democratic is Parliament? A case study in auditing the performance of Parliaments.
In this discussion paper John Uhr provides an Audit of Australian Parliament. He ranks the various components with a high, medium or low score against the four key values of the IDEA framework – political equality, popular control of government, civil liberties and human rights and public deliberation. Uhr considers the Senate in a positive light, with particular reference to proportional representation, scrutiny of legislation and the committee system. He rates negatively the low number of private members’ bills, questions surrounding ministerial responsibility, the nature of Question Time, particularly in the House of Representatives, and the government’s proposals relating to political donations. Uhr argues that, when the Howard government gains control of the Senate on 1 July 2005, a major concern is that it might use its majority in the Senate to reduce democracy within Parliament.
Other articles and discussion papers can be found at http://[email protected] .
If you would like to offer a paper or make a comment regarding the Democratic Audit of Australia please email us at [email protected].
update from Democratic Audit .....
Review of the first year of operation of the Human Rights Act 2004
The ACT is the first Australian jurisdiction to have a Bill of Rights. One year after its commencement, the ACT Human Rights and Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Helen Watchirs, finds that its biggest impact has been in influencing the formulation of government policy and legislation.
Democracy and ABC Election Coverage
How should the value of political equality be reflected in election coverage by public broadcasters? Should there be an attempt to ensure coverage is roughly proportionate to support for the parties in the electorate or should news value be the only criterion? Current ABC policy appears to apply different principles to different parties. Election coverage guidelines for editorial staff are that government and opposition should receive equal coverage whereas other parties should be appraised on the basis of news value.
A letter sent to Senator Bob Brown on 4 February 2005 by Murray Green, the Chair of the ABC's Election Coverage Review Committee, provided the Rehame monitoring of 2004 federal election coverage.* This showed the Greens receiving 5.2 per cent of radio coverage, 4.5 per cent of television coverage and 3.5 per cent of on-line coverage. Coverage of the Greens was particularly low on high-profile programs such as AM (2.1 per cent) and PM (1.8 per cent) or the Insiders television program (0.2 per cent). In other words, the Greens were regarded as having particularly low news value - considerably lower than their electoral support (7.2 per cent). The same judgement was not applied to the major parties.
* See Ben Oquist, 'ABC Insiders rob the Greens', Green 16, Autumn 2005, p. 6.
If you wish to comment on media election coverage of political parties, email the Audit at [email protected]
Political Donations
NSW Greens MLC Lee Rhiannon has published an article A temptation worth resisting - weakening political donation rules on the Online Opinion web site, discussing the proposed changes to donation disclosure laws. The Audit has previously published articles on this issue by Joo-Cheong Tham and Peter Andren. The Greens have also set up a web site on political donations at http://www.democracy4sale.org/ .
Cheers, Norm
Norm Kelly
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science Program
Research School of Social Sciences
The Australian National University
Ph: (02) 6125 3049
Fx: (02) 6125 3051
Mb: 0414 493 749
Email: [email protected]
update from Democratic Audit of Australia
Increased postal allowances for Federal MPs
As reported by the Audit, Peter Andren MP recently attempted to move a disallowance motion in relation to a large increase in postal allowances for MPs. He found, however, that Remuneration Tribunal decisions cannot be debated in the House of Representatives unless a debate is supported by the government. Peter Andren is now looking to introduce legislation in the next session of Parliament to bring Tribunal decisions into line with other disallowable instruments.
His proposed legislation has little future, however, as neither the Coalition nor Labor has expressed an interest in self-denial. In the interests of democracy, however, it would be useful for such significant incumbency benefits to be debated publicly. Such allowances represent public money being used to shore up the electoral fortunes of sitting members, and significantly tilt the playing field against non-sitting candidates.
Peter Andren's arguments against the communication allowance can be viewed here.
A second Bill of Rights for Australia?
The Victorian government has established a committee headed by Professor George Williams to consult widely in the community in the second half of 2005 on the question of whether Victoria should have a Charter of Human Rights. For details click here.
For a report on the first year of the ACT Human Rights Act 2004,click here.
Failure to Respond to Parliamentary Committee Reports
The Sydney Morning Herald splashed a front-page story on 21 June on the failure of the federal government to respond to parliamentary inquiries, even those it had provided terms of reference for. This is not a new story but it is refreshing to see a 'democracy' story of this kind assume such prominence. The ignoring of parliamentary inquiries that have involved the preparation of hundreds of submissions and the taking of evidence from many expert and community witnesses does not reflect well on the relationship between the executive and the legislature.
Under agreements dating back many years and reaffirmed by the Howard government when it came to office, governments are required to respond to committee reports within three months. The original agreements date back to 1978 when the Fraser government agreed to present government responses to parliament within six months of committees reporting. The Hawke government reduced the period to three months in 1983. Every six months the presiding officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives table a report on government responses to committee reports - showing whether government has responded within three months or at all.
The SMH found that the Howard government has responded on time to only four of 137 Senate inquiries, and has failed to respond at all to 46 of them dating back as far as 1997. Even where the government has itself instituted committee inquiries in the House of Representatives it has failed to respond to 27 of them since December 1998.
The current schedule of outstanding government responses to committee reports (tabled 23 June 2005) can be accessed from the Australian Parliament web site - House of Representatives report - Senate Report
Norm Kelly
Political Science Program
Research School of Social Sciences
The Australian National University
Ph: (02) 6125 3049
Fx: (02) 6125 3051
Mb: 0414 493 749
Email: [email protected]
update from Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Ending Felon Disenfranchisement - What voting rights should prisoners have?
In this paper, Sandey Fitzgerald provides new evidence on when and how prisoners have been able to vote in the various Australian jurisdictions and the difficulty of regaining voting rights after sentences have been served. She also discusses the long-standing ideological divide on the issue.
The Senate Changeover - Implications for Democracy
With the changeover of Senators on 1 July 2005, Marian Sawer looks at democratic issues posed by government control of both houses of the Australian Parliament, particularly in relation to legislative review and executive scrutiny.
---
Further to previous postings on the issue of the increased communications allowance for Federal MPs, on 21 June 2005 the Senate debated a disallowance motion (moved by the Democrats and Greens) on the issue. The Coalition government and Labor opposition, as expected, opposed the disallowance, and therefore the motion was defeated. The debate, with contributions by Senators Bartlett and Murray (Democrats), Brown (Greens), Carr (ALP), and Abetz (Liberal) can be viewed in Hansard here (pages 44-51).
Norm Kelly
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science Program
Research School of Social Sciences
The Australian National University
Ph: (02) 6125 3049
Fx: (02) 6125 3051
Mb: 0414 493 749
Email: [email protected]
update from Democratic Audit of Australia .....
The ACT Human Rights Act 2004: Impact on Case Law, Legislation and Policy
Following the first anniversary of the ACT Human Rights Act 2004 , Gabrielle McKinnon examines the impact of the legislation on rights protection in the ACT. Her review covers impact on the courts, on legislation and on policy development.
Beyond
So far in Australia only the ACT has a Bill of Rights. Katharine Gelber looks at current gaps in rights protection and at how to win support for rights-based legislation. She draws on recent surveys of civic knowledge and social attitudes to argue there is already a pool of public support for the ideals associated with rights protection.
Please email any comments on these papers to [email protected]
Public Forum - A Bill of Rights for Victoria?
The Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies and the Australian Association of Constitutional Law (Victorian Branch) is holding a public forum on Wednesday 13 July at the Melbourne Law School in Carlton, from 6.00-7.15pm. Topics covered include - options for protecting human rights; the consultation process; the roles of the courts and parliament; and whether Victoria should 'go it alone'. The forum is free, but numbers are limited. For more information, go to http://www.law.unimelb.edu.au/cccs/billofrights.doc
Norm Kelly
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science Program
Research School of Social Sciences
The Australian National University
Ph: (02) 6125 3049
Fx: (02) 6125 3051
Mb: 0414 493 749
Email: [email protected]
update from Democratic Audit of Australia .....
The latest update from the Democratic Audit of Australia team below.
What is Happening to Australian Democracy?
In this discussion paper, Fred Argy addresse the issue of incumbency advantages in government by examining the use of taxpayers' money for political advertising campaigns. The paper has a particular focus on the federal government's current industrial relations campaign, and argues that public money should not be used for 'proposed and unlegislated' policy changes.
Inquiry into the 2004 Federal Election
The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters is holding public hearings in major capital cities in coming weeks into the conduct of the 2004 Federal election. Information on dates and venues can be found at the JSCEM web site - http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/em/elect04/hearings.htm
The Democratic Audit of Australia's submission to the JSCEM inquiry can be viewed here. Issues covered include electoral funding and disclosure; the growing informal vote; use of parliamentary allowances and entitlements; timing of the closure of electoral rolls; and above-the-line Senate voting.
Norm Kelly
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science Program
Research School of Social Sciences
The Australian National University
Ph: (02) 6125 3049
Fx: (02) 6125 3051
Mb: 0414 493 749
Email: [email protected]
update from Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Theories for understanding government advertising in Australia
In this paper, Sally Young assesses propaganda theory in relation to the current debate on the use and possible misuse of government advertising by incumbent Coalition and Labor parties. In particular, Young comments on the relationship between governments, as major advertisers, and the editorial content of media outlets.
The Senate Finance and Public Administration Committee is currently inquiring into Government Advertising and Accountability. To view submissions (including Dr Young's) and transcripts from this inquiry, go to the inquiry web site here. The Committee is due to report in November.
Revising Constituency Boundaries in the United States and Australia: It Couldn't be More Different
Richard Engstrom provides a comparative analysis of the methods used to determine electoral boundaries in the United States and Australia. This paper provides a useful insight into the largely partisan nature of redistribution (redistricting) in the US and highlights the benefits of the more independent nature of Australian electoral commissions.
Norm Kelly
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science Program
Research School of Social Sciences
The Australian National University
Ph: (02) 6125 3049
Fx: (02) 6125 3051
Mb: 0414 493 749
Email: [email protected]
update from Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Two new papers have been posted on the Audit's web site.
Police, civilians and democratic accountability
In this paper, Colleen Lewis investigates the effectiveness of attempts around Australia to increase the public accountability of the police. Dr Lewis highlights the complex relationship between police and government and the reduction of judicial oversight under anti-terrorism laws.
How effective has the United Nations Human Rights system been in promoting human rights observance by Australian governments?
Elizabeth Evatt provides a synoptic overview of the varying degrees to which Australian governments have signed up to and implemented international human rights treaties. Justice Evatt identifies a range of issues arising from failure to respect the views and findings of independent treaty bodies, turning the Executive and the Parliament into the sole arbiters of compliance with human rights standards.
and in recent news --
Protection of Journalists' Sources
Two reporters for the Herald Sun, Gerard McManus and Michael Harvey, were told in the Victorian County Court on 24 August 2005 that they would be charged with contempt of court for refusing to disclose the source of a story they published in 2004. The story revealed that the government had decided not to pass on $500 million in benefits to veterans (a decision subsequently changed thanks to the publicity). The journalists have cited journalistic ethics in maintaining confidentiality. They face possible gaol sentences for contempt of court.
There is understandable concern over such pursuit of whistleblowers and their media contacts. The media cannot play their part in the accountability process if it becomes impossible to report information that governments find politically embarrassing. It is a direct threat to the public 'right to know' which is the cornerstone of freedom of the press. Journalists need to be able to protect whistleblowers who provide them with information on a confidential basis.
David Flint, former Chair of the Australian Broadcasting Authority has commented that the law should allow journalists to protect their sources. Only NSW has changed its Evidence Act (in 1997) to give some protection to journalists and their sources. Under the NSW reform courts are allowed to take into account competing public interests, including harm to the person who imparted the confidence, when assessing whether it should compel witnesses to give evidence. No other jurisdiction has yet followed suit, despite the Australian Law Reform Commission and the Victorian Law Reform Commission backing the NSW reform.
ACT 2004 Election Review
The ACT Electoral Commission has released two reports on the conduct of the 2004 election. Included in the Commission's recommendations is a continuance of electronic voting and counting, allowing the use of 'how-to-votes' at polling places at future elections (currently prohibited), and removing the ability for independent candidates to form non-party groups. The reports can be viewed here.
Norm Kelly
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science Program
Research School of Social Sciences
The Australian National University
Ph: (02) 6125 3049
Fx: (02) 6125 3051
Mb: 0414 493 749
Email: [email protected]
update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Whistleblowing and the media - transparency the biggest casualty
Expanding on the issue of protection of sources (see the Audit's Breaking News story here), Helen Ester looks at a range of factors affecting the Press Gallery's role in public accountability. These include not only government pursuit of whistle-blowers but also a weak FOI regime making journalists overly dependent on leaks and a hollowing out of the press gallery, meaning many gallery journalists are relatively inexperienced.
The full Senate disallowance debate (June 16, 2005) on new regulations on disclosure of information by public servants (speakers from the government, Labor and the Democrats) can be viewed at the Hansard web site here pp. 38-50). The old regulations were found by Justice Finn in the Federal Court to be so sweeping as to contravene the implied constitutional freedom of political communication.
Some people have been unable to access Helen Ester's paper. If you have had trouble, please use this link.
Norm Kelly
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science Program
Research School of Social Sciences
The Australian National University
Ph: (02) 6125 3049
Fx: (02) 6125 3051
Mb: 0414 493 749
Email: [email protected]
update from Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Do Australians have equal protection against hate speech?
Simon Rice examines the very different levels of protection against hate speech that exist in different Australian jurisdictions. He highlights
New Counter-Terrorism Measures Announced
In the lead-up to next week's COAG (Council of Australian Governments) meeting, the Prime Minister has announced proposals to strengthen Australia's counter-terrorism laws. The proposals include: 12-month control orders on people who 'might' pose a risk to the community; extending the validity of warrants from four weeks to three months; and creating new offences, such as for leaving baggage unattended at airports. For more information on the Howard government proposals, go to the Prime Minister's media release at http://www.pm.gov.au/news/media_releases/media_Release1551.html.
The Government's announcement comes at a time when there has been heightened concerns over civil liberties and human rights implications of existing anti-terrorism laws, especially following the deportation of American peace activist Scott Parkin (eg News story 13 Sept - http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16587248-29277,00.html).
Cheers, Norm
Norm Kelly
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science Program
Research School of Social Sciences
The Australian National University
Ph: (02) 6125 3049
Fx: (02) 6125 3051
Mb: 0414 493 749
Email: [email protected]
update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Up, Up & Away in my Beautiful Balloon…: some questions of media policy
Frank Morgan responds to a recent speech by Senator Helen Coonan, Federal Minister for Communications, on proposals to change
Laws for Insecurity? A Report on the Federal Government’s Proposed Counter-Terrorism Measures
On Wednesday 28th September, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) will be meeting to discuss the Federal government's proposals to extend counter-terrorism measures. The Prime Minister's media release, which provides basic information on the various proposals, can be viewed here.
In response to this, a group of community lawyers, policy workers, advocates and academics has prepared a comprehensive report about these proposals. The report outlines in detail the various concerns regarding the Federal government’s proposals. The report can be viewed here.
NZ Election Results
For the latest on New Zealand's election outcomes, go to http://www.stuff.co.nz/election_2005.html. The breakdown of seats can be found here.
Norm Kelly
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science Program
Research School of Social Sciences
The Australian National University
Ph: (02) 6125 3049
Fx: (02) 6125 3051
Mb: 0414 493 749
Email: [email protected]
update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Human Rights and National Security
In a paper written for the Democratic Audit of Australia, the Hon John von Doussa, President of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission considers the human rights implications of the recent amendments to the National Security Information Act 2004. He finds that the Act potentially compromises Australia’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/Papers-2005/vonDoussaHROct05.pdf
JSCEM Report on the 2004 Election
The Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JCSEM) published its report into the conduct of the 2004 Federal Election on 10 October 2005. Amongst the 56 recommendations were: early legislation for the closing of the electoral roll on the day the writes are issued for federal elections; tightened identification requirements for enrolment; raising the disclosure threshold for political donations; four year terms for the House of Representatives and consequential changes for the Senate; and the introduction of compulsory preferential voting above the line for Senate elections, with the intention of eliminating registered Group Voting Tickets.
A Minority Report by the Labor members of the JSCEM opposed the recommendations seen as making it more difficult for Australians to enrol and vote, including those relating to early closing of the roll and the further tightening of requirements for enrolment. The Minority Report argued that no evidence of widespread fraud had been produced to justify making enrolment and voting more difficult. Senator Andrew Murray, in his Supplementary Remarks attached to the main report, opposed, like the Minority Report, the raising of the threshold for disclosure of political donations and called for greater, rather than less, regulation of political finance and government advertising. http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/em/elect04/report.htm
The Audit has previously drawn attention to the democratic issues raised by Group Voting Tickets lodged by parties that allocate preferences in ways that may not reflect the preferences of party voters. http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/BrentPaperv2.pdf
However, the JSCEM proposals for compulsory preferential voting above the line are criticised by election analyst Antony Green on Crikey. He describes the proposals as ‘a stinker’ that will lead to high levels of informal voting and disallowed votes. http://www.crikey.com.au/articles/2005/10/11-1159-9794.html
Senate Report on ‘Pork barrelling’ Accusations
The Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration published its report into Regional Partnerships and Sustainable Regions Programs on the 6 October 2005. The report was prompted by pork barrelling accusations relating to the schemes in the run-up to the 2004 federal election. The Report concludes that the governance of the schemes is adequate but makes recommendations to improve it. These include prohibiting intervention from ministers and their staff in the grant awards process and much greater transparency, particularly in the run-up to elections. The Report is highly critical of the Department of Transport and Regional Services (DOTAR), which is accused of attempting to obstruct the inquiry by withholding witnesses, failing to provide relevant information, and of giving false advice to the Committees overseeing the schemes regarding the powers of the Committee. The Report was completed in spite of the Department and the Minister having not provided information requested by the Committee several months previously. http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/fapa_ctte/reg_partner_prog/report/index.htm
Human Rights Act Campaign Launch
Last week, the on-line political journal, New Matilda, launched its Human Rights Act for Australia campaign at the Sydney Town Hall. A draft Human Rights Bill has been prepared and it was presented to the meeting. The speakers in favour of the campaign included former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser AC CH, Elizabeth Evatt AC, Professor Larissa Behrendt, Greg Combet, Waleed Aly and Nahid Karimi. "We have the rule of law and democratic institutions but we don't have effective protection of human rights,
update from Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Draft Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005: Human Rights Implications
In the interests of public consultation over the controversial draft Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005 ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has published the 'in-confidence Bill' on his website: http://www.chiefminister.act.gov.au/whats_new.asp?title=What's%20New
He has also published a review of the human rights implications of the Bill, commissioned from human rights lawyers Hilary Charlesworth, Andrew Byrnes and Gabrielle McKinnon. They conclude that the Bill breaches a number of Australia's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In particular they consider:
a) The preventative detention order regime breaches the human rights to be free from arbitrary detention and to due process and cannot be said to be subject to an effective procedure of judicial review that provides adequate safeguards against violations of the human rights of the persons affected;
b) The control order regime breaches the rights to be free from arbitrary detention, to a fair trial, to freedom of movement, to privacy and family life, and to the presumption of innocence.
http://www.chiefminister.act.gov.au/docs/Stanhope_advice_20051018.pdf
Meanwhile federal Liberal backbencher Petro Georgiou MP has said that the laws target Muslims and has called for an independent monitor to report to parliament on their operation
Draft Anti-Terror Legislation reviewed
James Jupp reviews the Draft Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005. He notes that the draft legislation breaches a number of long-standing legal protections and raises concerns about how it may be implemented. http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/Papers-2005/Jupp%20Anti-Terror.pdf
COAG and the limits of parliamentary scrutiny
Linda Botterill examines the role of Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in the wake of the controversy over ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope’s publication of the Draft Anti-Terrorism Bill. She shows how the issue is a symptom of the way in which decision-making is becoming increasingly centralised through COAG and Premiers and Chief Ministers are committing their governments to action without first exposing policy to parliamentary scrutiny and debate. http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/Papers-2005/BotterillCOAG.pdf
New Zealand High Court ruling on leaders’ debates: a victory for small parties
On 11 August 2005 the New Zealand High Court handed down a mandatory interim injunction requiring TV3 (a private television company) to include the leaders of all parliamentary parties in its televised leaders' debate. Unlike the government broadcaster, TV3 had chosen to include the leaders of only six rather than of the eight parliamentary parties. TV3 (owned by Canwest) argued that it was a private company exercising private editorial discretion and should not be subject to judicial review.
The plaintiffs were the leaders of the United Future and Progressive Parties and they argued that TV3 was in breach of its public responsibility 'to refrain from discriminating between political parties on unreasonable, arbitrary, irrational or disproportionate grounds'. The High Court accepted that the private broadcaster was performing a public function and exercising a public power in its election coverage and was thus subject to judicial review. The injunction was granted on the basis that (1) the broadcaster's decision had been based on arbitrary grounds (the results of one opinion poll) and (2) that the Leaders' Debates had been shown to have a significant impact on electoral outcomes in New Zealand.
While the decision has been questioned by media interests as impinging on freedom of the press, it has been hailed by others as contributing to a level playing field for party competition, given the particular importance for minor parties of the exposure provided by the leaders' debates.
Democratic auditors gather in Japan 2006
Marian Sawer has organised two panels for the International Political Science Association Congress in Fukuoka, July 2006 on the state of democracy auditing. Democratic auditors will exchange information on how the methodology has worked in different national contexts and where it should go from here.
Details of the panels: http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/Papers-2005/IPSA06.pdf
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science Program
Research School of Social Sciences
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
[email protected]
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au
http://polsc.anu.edu.au/
update from Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Ethics in Public Service
Andrew Podger, National President of the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) and former Public Service Commissioner, considers the role of ethics in the Australian Public Service.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/Papers-2005/PodgerethicsNov2005.pdf
The Anti-Terrorism measures and democratic debate
In a new paper for the Democratic Audit of Australia, Jenny Hocking of
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/Papers-2005/HockingantiterrorNov2005.pdf
The End of ATSIC
Larissa Behrendt, Professor of Law and Indigenous Studies at
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/Papers-2005/behrendtATSICNov05.pdf
Australia abstains from UNESCO Convention on Protecting Cultural Diversity
There has been widespread concern over the World Trade Organisation's refusal to grant permanent exemptions for cultural products (such as 'audio-visual services') and the insistence on treating culture like any commodity from which protection must be withdrawn.
The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions was adopted in
Compulsory voting and turn-out rates
In the November 2005 issue of Australian Review of Public Affairs Jonathon Louth and Lisa Hill review the relationship between compulsory voting and turnout rates. They find that when compulsory voting is efficiently administered, as in countries such as
http://www.australianreview.net/journal/v6/n1/louth_hill.html
Anti-Terror in the
In a new report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a team from the UK Democratic Audit evaluate the anti-terror laws in the
http://www.jrrt.org.uk/terrorism_scoping_report.pdf
Apparently at the Prime Minister’s behest, Lord Birt, a member of Tony Blair’s Strategy Unit, has refused to appear before the cross-party Public Administration Select Committee of the House of Commons. This breaches the Government’s undertakings to allow Special Advisors to appear to give evidence in such inquiries as well as Parliamentary rules that the relevant minister should appear before a Committee if they prevent an official from doing so.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmpubadm/690/690.pdf
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of
Political Science Program
Research School of Social Sciences
The
Canberra ACT 0200
[email protected]
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
update from the democratic audit of australia .....
This is the last Audit Update for 2005. Best wishes from Marian Sawer, Barry Hindess and Phil Larkin, and hopes for a brighter future for democracy in 2006.
Senate proportionality
In a new article for the Democratic Audit of Australia, Scott Brenton (ANU) analyses the relative lack of proportionality in the Senate, and some possible improvements.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/Papers-2005/BrentonSenateDec05.pdf
Small parliaments
Richard Herr (UTAS) considers some of the problems associated with small parliaments, in a new paper for the Democratic Audit of Australia.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/Papers-2005/HerrDec05.pdf
The Youth Electoral Study (YES)
Kathy Edwards, Lawrence Saha and Murray Print introduce the YES Project, which examines the attitudes of young Australians towards politics, democracy and voting. This report for the Democratic Audit of Australia discusses features of the democratic process that discourages young Australians from participating, as well as the ways that they do participate.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/Papers-2005/EdwardsYESDec05.pdf
Senate Committee criticises Government advertising
The Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee published its report on Government Advertising and Accountability on 6 December 2005. The Committee found that expenditure on Government advertising has climbed steadily since 1991/92. Furthermore, the official figure of $126.75 million excludes significant areas of related expenditure and so is a serious underestimate of the total cost. The WorkChoices campaign was singled out for particular criticism on the grounds that it was merely pre-legislative propaganda, designed to circumvent proper scrutiny of the proposed legislation.
Amongst the Committee’s recommendations were the strengthening the disclosure requirements, and requiring the Auditor-General to provide independent scrutiny of compliance with regulations.
The full report can be found here:
http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/fapa_ctte/govtadvertising/report/index.htm
Senate Committee independence in question?
The independence of Senate committees has been called into question after Senator Judith Troeth, chair of the Senate Committee that inquired into the Government’s industrial relations legislation admitted that she discussed the findings of the Committee’s report with the office of Workplace Relations Minister, Kevin Andrews, prior to publication. The revelation raises concerns about possible Government involvement in the committee process, and, consequently, the independence of their conclusions.
Proposed changes to electoral law
Draft legislation bringing in substantial changes to electoral law were introduced into Parliament on 8 December 2005. The new measures will close the electoral roll on the day the writs are issued, will require new voters to produce identification and will remove the right of all prisoners to vote. Companies will be able to make donations of up to $10,000 without disclosure, and charities and campaigning organisations will be required to lodge annual disclosures with the Australian Electoral Commission. Senator Eric Abetz, Special Minister of State, has said that the measures are aimed at improving the integrity of the voting system, to reduce the possibility of fraud.
The Hansard transcript can be found here:
http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/reps/dailys/dr081205.pdf
Whistleblower protection inadequate
In his report on Queensland’s public hospitals, former supreme court judge Geoff Davies claims that the Queensland Whistleblower Protection Act provides inadequate protection for public sector employees who expose malpractice. Protection is limited to those reporting malpractice to relevant public bodies but provides no protection for those who make disclosures to others, such as journalists or members of parliament. He recommends that complaints should be first made to the relevant government department, but, if there is no resolution within 30 days, protection for the complainant should be extended to allow disclosure to an MP.
The full report can be found here: http://www.qphci.qld.gov.au/Final_Report.htm
The Democratic Audit will be publishing work on whistleblower protection early in the New Year.
Stanhope argues for Bill of Rights
In an article for the New Matilda, ACT premier Jon Stanhope puts the case for a national Bill of Rights in Australia
http://www.newmatilda.com/home/articledetail.asp?NewsletterID=171&ArticleID=1199&email=1
Andren ‘grieves’ democracy
In a Grievance Debate, Peter Andren MP, independent member for Calare, lamented the lack of scrutiny and review of new legislation by Parliament. He singled out Government advertising for particular criticism. The link to Peter Andren’s Grievance Debate is http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/Papers-2005/andren%20grievance%20debate.pdf
The independence of statutory bodies
Implementation of the recommendations of the Uhrig Report may be proceeding slowly but it threatens to damage the autonomy of the statutory bodies from Government and so effectively undermine their purpose. Whilst the stated aims of the Report are to improve the accountability of these bodies, this is to be achieved by strengthening the control of the Government over their operations, with little attention paid to the role of Parliamentary oversight.
The Uhrig Report is discussed in more detail in a paper by Roger Wettenhall:
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/web/common.nsf/cbe381f08171c2e8ca256fca007d6044/ae9381c5cfadb8b7ca256f58001ed5f7/$FILE/ASPG%202005%2003%20Wettenhall.pdf
The Parliamentary Library has produced a briefing paper on the report: http://www.aph.gov.au/LIBRARY/Pubs/rn/2004-05/05rn50.pdf
Awards for Audit contributors
To end the year on a positive note: Dr Sarah Maddison, who will be preparing the Audit’ Focused Report on Gender and Sexuality in 2006, has just been awarded the 2005 Jean Martin Award for the best PhD thesis in the social sciences at an Australian tertiary institution.
The 2005 Human Rights Awards were announced by HREOC on 9 December. Democratic Audit author Simon Rice OAM was highly commended for his human rights advocacy. He wrote for us on the patchy protection provided in Australia against religious vilification and the need for Commonwealth legislation.
_________________________
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science Program
Research School of Social Sciences
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
[email protected]
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Women in Parliament: paradise
postponed?
The Treasurer, Peter Costello,Australia Marian finds, however, that Australia
has called for
to create the most 'female friendly environment in the world'.
Sawer
has just slid to its lowest place ever in the league table of women's
representation in national parliaments and a major factor has been the Liberal
Party's failure to preselect women.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060306_sawer_women_parl.pdf
Expansive franchise
Kate Sullivan of the UK Electoral CommissionUK Britain Australia
reviews who can vote in the
and finds that the franchise is much more expansive in
than in
http://www.democraticaudit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060308_sullivan_franch.pdf
Damaging democracy?
considers Government proposals for early closure of the roll in federal
elections. Whilst the Government claims that such a measure is necessary to
maintain electoral integrity, she suggests that evidence of fraud is anecdotal
at best and is outweighed by effects on the comprehensiveness of the roll.
http://www.democraticaudit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060308_sawer_dam_dem.pdf
Meanwhile, Gary Nairn, Special Minister for
State, has defended the Government’s proposed reforms of the Commonwealth
Electoral Act in a piece in The Canberra Times.
http://www.democraticaudit.anu.edu.au/papers/200603_nairn_elec_ref.pdf
Let the chips fall where they
may
Malcolm Mackerras considers the best way toAustralia Northern
achieve the principle of 'one vote one value' in
and decides that it can only be achieved for the Territories by using the
number of voters on the roll rather than population as the basis for
distribution. This would give the ACT back its third seat and resolve the
problem of the 2004 election when a vote in the
Territory
consistent with s122 of the Constitution Mackerras believes.
http://www.democraticaudit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060308_mackerras_redist.pdf
Political Finance Workshop
Australian andAustralia
international political finance experts, electoral commissioners, former
auditors-general and political party representatives gathered at the Australian
National University to workshop the Draft Democratic Audit Report prepared by
Joo-Cheong Tham and Sally Young on Saturday, 25 February 2006. The workshop
papers will be published on the Democratic Audit website later in March. The
Tham/Young Report is still a working draft that has benefited from the workshop
process and is set to be a landmark publication on political finance in
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/events/2006_pol_fin_wksp.htm
A review of the workshop appeared in The
Canberra Times. Read it here: http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/events/20060304_fraser_ct.htm
Speaker impartiality: A
response from the Clerk of the House
Clerk of the House of Representatives, Ian Harris,
responds to a Democratic Audit discussion paper on the impartiality of the
Speaker. Harris argues that Speaker David Hawker was procedurally correct in
refusing to allow a question to be asked of the Minister for Veterans' Affairs,
De-Anne Kelly, about a letter she had written as a Parliamentary Secretary
after her appointment as Minister. Only Ministers and not Parliamentary
Secretaries are obliged to answer questions, even if they appear to be
undertaking both roles simultaneously!
http://www.democraticaudit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060308_harris_speaker.pdf
Independent Candidate Network
In October 2005, the three
Independents in the House of Representatives - Peter Andren, Tony Windsor and
Bob Katter - founded the Independent Candidate Advisory Network (ICAN) to
encourage and assist independents to get elected to state and federal
parliaments. The website was launched this month. Among the ICAN website's
features is an ' Independent's Tool-Box', a guide to everything from getting
nominated to managing the campaign budget and handling the media. Two weeks
ago, the organisation featured in a Senate Committee question from Nationals
Senator Barnaby Joyce to the Australian Electoral Commissioner.
http://www.icanonline.net.au/
Government advertising: a
parliamentary perspective
Harry Evans, Clerk of the Senate, reviews the
appropriations process as it relates to Government spending on advertising. He
suggests that appropriations are made for ends that are specified only in the
vaguest terms. Consequently, little limit is applied to the purposes on which
the money may be spent.
http://www.democraticaudit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060308_evans_govt_adv.pdf
Hung parliaments in Tasmania
Richard Herr dissects some of the myths aboutTasmanian
State Tasmania Westminster
'hung parliaments'. He argues that the big problem arising from the
2006 will not be minority government but lack of personnel to staff a full
ministry. Since the reduction of the size of parliament in 1998
has not been able to meet
norms concerning having a backbench larger than the frontbench.
http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php/weblog/comments/rich
British democracy inquiry
reports
The Power inquiry into the health ofUK UK ,Australia
democracy reported on 27 February 2006. Whilst addressing the
the findings will have resonance elsewhere, including
The report concludes that, contrary to much
opinion, the British public is not politically apathetic, in spite of falling
voter turn-out and party membership. However, the public does feel excluded
from the policy process, and poorly served by party politics, with the
electoral system perceived as unequal.
Amongst the 30 recommendations are concordats
redistributing power away from ministers to Parliament and local government; 70
per cent of the House of Lords to be elected; public funding and caps for
individual donations to parties; electoral reform (away from
first-past-the-post) to encourage small parties and Independents; the right for
citizens to initiate new laws and public inquiries; and the requirement for MPs
to produce annual reports and hold AGMs with their constituents.
The full report and the executive summary can
be found at Power webpage: http://www.powerinquiry.org
postal voting concerns
The Society of Local Authority Chief ExecutivesUK
has reignited the debate about postal voting in the
with warnings that the forthcoming local elections risk being marred by a
further postal voting controversy, after several councillors were found guilty
of electoral fraud in the 2004 elections. The problems arise because of the way
local party activists collect postal votes and place them on the voters’
behalf. Whilst the aim may be to boost turn-out, the fear is that votes not
cast in favour of the party handling them may be ‘lost’. [The government has
introduced new legislation to deal with postal voting fraud that will come into
effect before the May 2006 local government elections.]
http://society.guardian.co.uk/localgovt/story/0,,1713778,00.html
Dr Phil LarkinAustralia
Research School of Social Sciences Australian
National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Democratic Audit of
Political Science Program
The
[email protected]
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Political finance and
government advertising
On 25 February 2006, theUniversity Melbourne
Democratic Audit of Australia held a workshop on Political Finance and
Government Advertising. The workshop centred around the draft of a forthcoming
Audit Report by Joo-Cheong Tham and Sally Young, of the
of
together Australian and international experts, electoral commissioners, former
auditors-general and political party representatives.
This workshop was particularly
timely: the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and
Other Measures) Bill 2005 is being considered by the Senate Finance and Public
Administration Committee, which is due to report on 27 March 2006. The House of
Representatives is due to consider it later in the same week.
http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/fapa_ctte/electoral_integrity/index.htm
Apart
from proposals for early closure of the electoral roll and prisoner
disenfranchisement, some of the most controversial elements of the Bill relate
to political finance. At the moment, parties have to disclose the details of
all donations they receive over $1,500 but, under the Bill's measures, the
threshold will rise to $10,000. To promote discussion of the current Bill we
are now making available the Draft Audit Report as well as the following papers
presented at the workshop:
Informational or Self-Promotional?
Political Financing in
Financing in
S Ghaleigh - Donations to Political Parties in the
Kingdom
in Politics
Never the Right Time for Funding Reform
The
draft audit, papers, and further information about the Workshop can be found at
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/events/2006_pol_fin_wksp.htm
If you have any difficulty with
the link in this email, you can access the information via the Audit’s homepage
at http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/
________________________
Dr Phil LarkinAustralia National
University
Democratic Audit of
Political Science
Australian
Canberra ACT 0200
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Our apologies again for the
technical problems we have been experiencing. If you have any problems with
links please go directly to the Audit home page http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au
For those who may have missed
this:
Political Finance in
Australia: A Skewed and Secret System?
The Democratic Audit has released
a draft version of its highly topical new report prepared by Sally Young and
Joo-Cheong Tham. Young and Tham provide evidence of systemic problems with the
current system of political finance in Australia, particularly relating to
inequality of funding and access, secrecy and perceptions of corruption. They
show that over the last decade Australia has fallen well behind comparable
democracies in the regulation of political finance.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060320_fin_tham_yng_scr.pdf
In conjunction with this Report
the Audit has published two papers by international electoral law experts:
Donations to Political Parties
in the United Kingdom
Keith Ewing (Kings College
London) and N S Ghaleigh (Edinburgh Law School) examine the reforms introduced
in the UK by the Political Parties, Elections and
Referendums Act 2004. They find the requirement for companies to get
shareholder approval before making political donations has been accompanied by
a drop in company donations but that large individual donations have become an
increased problem, amounting to corruption of process. The bestowing of
knighthoods or peerages on million-pound donors to the Labour Party has become
notorious and there is a new scandal concerning 'loans for peerages' (loans are
not subject to the same disclosure rules as donations).
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060321_fin_ewing.pdf
The Regulation of election
campaign financing in Canada and New Zealand
Andrew Geddis (University of
Otago) examines how Canada and New Zealand have gone about trying to ensure a
level playing field for electoral competition through the regulation of
campaign finance. In Canada there has been a ban on corporate donations to
political parties since 2003 and individuals may not donate more than CAN$5000.
The new Conservative government has promised to reduce this ceiling to $1000.
In New Zealand there are ceilings on allowable electoral expenditure and the
governing Labour Party is currently being investigated by the police for
spending over the limit (through the use of its parliamentary allowance to send
out material). New Zealand, like the UK, has strict controls over television
advertising, while in Canada a 1995 Charter challenge on freedom of expression
grounds diluted similar controls
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060320_fin_geddis.pdf
Electoral and Referendum Bill
The Senate’s Finance and Public
Administration Committee published its report on the draft Electoral and
Referendum Bill on 29 March 2006. The Committee finds little to disagree with
in the Bill, in spite of a considerable volume of evidence critical of it
(including submissions from several Audit contributors). However, both the
Labor and Democrat members of the Committee were sufficiently dissatisfied with
the Report to produce more critical dissenting reports.
The report can be found here:
http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/fapa_ctte/electoral_integrity/report/report.pdf
Former Democratic Audit project
manager, Norm Kelly, has provided a summary and commentary on the Bill.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060331_kelly_electoral_bill.pdf
In a recent Canberra Times
article, he criticises the provisions relating to the disclosure of political
donations and their tax deductibility status.
http://australianpolitics.com/words/2006/archives/00000087.shtml
And a
new research report by the Parliamentary Library suggests major parties would,
based on average for the past seven financial years, disclose the details of
about two-thirds (64.1 per cent) of their total declared receipts if the
threshold were increased to 'more than $10 000', as the draft bill proposes.
Under the current threshold, they disclose the details for three-quarters of
their total receipts (74.7 per cent). However, past figures may not be a useful
guide to disclosure under the higher threshold. A higher threshold may
encourage existing donors to change their behaviour; they may choose to split
their current contributions, thereby negating the need to lodge a return.
http://wopared.parl.net/library/pubs/rn/2005-06/06rn27.pdf
Report on disclosure of
political donations
The Joint Standing Committee on
Electoral Matters (JSCEM) published the report on its inquiry into the
disclosure of donations to political parties and candidates. Despite running
for two years, the report is a short one, and in agreement with the thrust of
the draft Electoral and Referendum Bill, towards more generous disclosure
thresholds. But, as with the Senate Committee’s report on the draft Bill, the
ALP members and the Democrat member submitted dissenting reports.
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/em/donations/index.htm
ACT Civil Union Bill
The ACT Chief Minister (and
Attorney General) Jon Stanhope has introduced the Civil Union Bill, which would
give gay and lesbian couples the same rights under ACT law as married partners.
The day after its introduction on 28 March, the federal Attorney-General,
Philip Ruddock, wrote to the Chief Minister saying the federal government would
overturn the legislation unless it was redrafted to distinguish civil unions
from marriage. The federal Attorney-General objected to the use of federally
registered marriage celebrants to officiate over civil unions. The Commonwealth
has previously overturned the Northern Territory's euthanasia legislation in
1997. This was the subject of a conscience vote in federal parliament and the
ACT Chief Minister is insisting that the Civil Union legislation be treated in
the same way.
ACT Anti-Terrorism Bill
The ACT government is also on a
collision course with the federal government over anti-terrorism legislation.
The ACT legislation introduced this week differs from laws in other States and
Territories in refusing to permit 16-year-olds to be detained without charge
and in forcing police to meet a higher threshold before preventively detaining
suspects. The ACT Chief Minister has insisted that the anti-terrorism
legislation must comply with the ACT Human Rights Act and with international
obligations such as those under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The AFP Commissioner and the federal Attorney-General have claimed that the
legislative differences would expose the Teritory to a terrorist attack.
The
'quiet revolution' in Indigenous Affairs
Bill
Gray and Will Sanders of the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research,
ANU have released a discussion paper entitled Views from the top of the
'quiet revolution': Secretarial perspectives on the new arrangements in
Indigenous Affairs. It is based on interviews in late 2005 with eleven
members of the Commonwealth government's Secretaries Group on Indigenous
Affairs about the new (since July 2004) arrangements in Indigenous affairs. The
paper reports the interview findings under ten sub-headings, ranging from the
Ministerial Taskforce and the National Indigenous Council to Indigenous
Coordination Centres and local and regional agreement making. The paper argues
that while the level of senior executive attention being given to Indigenous
affairs across a broad range of Commonwealth portfolios is genuinely
innovative, there are other aspects of the new arrangements that draw on and
re-work past experience and well-established ideas in Indigenous affairs.
Taking a lead from one of the Secretaries, the paper moves beyond the language
of 'mainstreaming', to talk instead of some potential benefits of the
involvement of line departments in Indigenous affairs and of the complex
relationships between Indigenous-specific and general policy mechanisms. The
paper notes a diversity of opinion among the Secretaries on various aspects of
the new arrangements and argues that this is healthy. It concludes by noting
that the way governments organise themselves was only one aspect of Minister
Vanstone's claimed 'quiet revolution' in Indigenous affairs and that whether
the new arrangements work will ultimately depend on other things as well, such
as relationships between government and Indigenous communities built over
extended periods of time.
http://www.anu.edu.au/caepr/Publications/DP/2006_DP282.pdf
Tasmania and South Australia
vote
State elections were held in both
Tasmania and South Australia with the sitting ALP governments both retaining
control. We’ll be publishing a paper on the South Australian election by Haydon
Manning and Geoff Anderson of Flinders University next month.
The most controversial
development to emerge from the Tasmanian election was the alleged involvement
of the secretive Christian group, the Exclusive Brethren. They are accused of
being behind a smear campaign targeting the Greens, though the negligible
disclosure rules regarding funding of political campaigns in Tasmania mean that
it is hard to be sure about the extent of their involvement. The issue is
discussed in this article from The Australian.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18611058%255E28737,00.html
International Women’s Day
To mark this year's International
Women's Day (8 March 2006) International IDEA has launched a new edition of its
well-known handbook: Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers. The focus is
on giving women elected to parliament the means to make a greater impact on
politics, a topic introduced by Azza Karam and Joni Lovenduski. It includes a
case study on the Inter-Parliamentary Union co-authored by Australian
Sonia Palmieri. There are also chapters on getting there, including a review of
new trends in gender quotas by Drude Dahlerup. Chapters can be down loaded from
the IDEA website at:
http://www.idea.int/publications/wip2/index.cfm
How the UK brought human
rights home….
In an article for New Matilda,
Kate Beattie examines the experience of the United Kingdom with its Human
Rights Act 1998 (HRA) and the lessons for Australia. She finds that one of
the most important aspects has been the requirement that Ministers issue a
statement concerning the compatibility of Bills with the HRA and the
subsequent scrutiny by the well-resourced Parliamentary Joint Committee on
Human Rights. The reports issued by the Joint Committee have had a significant
influence on legislation.
http://www.newmatilda.com/policytoolkit/policydetail.asp?PolicyID=336
Upper House for Queensland?
The University of Queensland’s
Centre for Public, International, and Comparative Law, and the Faculty of
Business at the University of the Sunshine Coast are hosting a conference
considering whether accountability in Queensland would be better served by
re-establishing an upper house. The conference, which has an impressive range
of speakers from politics, the public service, and academia, takes place on
April 21, and, ironically, comes in the wake of the Mike Rann’s successful
election campaign in South Australia which, amongst other things, promised to
abolish the State’s upper house.
http://www.law.uq.edu.au/upperhouse/
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Question time - A failing
institution?
Parameswary Rasiah,University Western Australia
of
provides a damning critique of parliamentary question time. Analysing
ministers' responses to questions on the Iraq conflict, she highlights how they
evade answering properly unless questions come from their own side, concluding
that question time fails as a means to hold government to account.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060424_rasiah_qt.pdf
Political ‘hitmen’
James Walter,Monash
University , reviews how the role ofAustralia
ministerial advisors in
has evolved to their current status as 'political hitmen'. The lack of adequate
accountability measures for ministerial advisers has contributed to the
concentration of power in the government, the narrowing of the scope of policy
advice, and the risk of a ‘descent into groupthink and policy fiasco’.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060424_walter_min_staff.pdf
Enforcing party democracy
Anika Gauja,University Sydney
of
need for regulations requiring political parties to adopt internal democracy.
Drawing on examples from abroad, she concludes that, in spite of objections,
the arguments for requiring greater intra-party democracy are compelling.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060424_gauja_enf_dem.pdf
Dr Phil LarkinAustralia
Australian National University
Democratic Audit of
Political Science
Canberra ACT 0200
Update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
The failure of Australian
anti-corruption measures
In the wake of the AWB bribery
scandal, Jürgen Kurtz reviews Australia’s commitment to combating bribery of
foreign officials. Despite ratifying the OECD’s anti-bribery convention in 1999
and passing its own anti-bribery legislation in 1999, Australia has yet to
establish proper implementation machinery or to charge any companies or
individuals.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060526_kurtz_corrup.pdf
The
English local government elections of May 2006
James
Jupp analyses the local government elections held on 4 May in England, which
saw the Labour vote at 26 per cent fall below that of both the Conservatives
and Liberal Democrats. There was a doubling of the seats held by the
anti-immigration British National Party but also an increase in the number of
Muslim Councillors.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060526_jupp_england_loc_el.pd
Are
our politicians for sale?
The
Age reports on the increasing trend for
the parties to sell access to their leaders to stock the party coffers. The
current Electoral Amendment Bill will make this, and other sorts of corporate
donations far less visible, raising serious concerns about the potential for
corruption.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/in-depth/are-our-politicians-for-sale/2006/05/23/1148150251862.html
The
Democratic Audit’s focused Audit on Political Finance and Government
Advertising, By Joo-Cheong Tham and Sally Young, which is cited in The
Age article, will be published later this winter. A draft of the report is
available on the Audit webpage.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/events/2006_pol_fin_wksp.htm
Joo-Cheong
also has an opinion piece on the issue in The Age.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/party-funds-threaten-democracy/2006/05/25/1148524814833.html
And
also on the subject of political donations, Democrat Senator Andrew Murray has
compiled an interesting list of foreign donors to political parties
http://www.andrewmurray.org.au/documents/451/Murray%20Electoral%20Funding%20Brief%20FINAL%20FEB%2006.pdf
Public
funding for parties in WA?
The
issue of party funding is also current in Western Australia, where the
introduction of public funding for parties contesting State elections is again
being considered. Public funding should reduce the reliance of parties
on private donations and allow smaller parties to compete more effectively.
However, the concern is that this move will simply add to, rather than replace,
the current system of donations, whilst its efficacy in levelling the playing
field for smaller parties is dependent on the thresholds that are set.
Australian
Bills of Rights: The ACT and Beyond
The ACT
Human Rights Research Project, at the Regulatory Institutions Network at the
ANU and the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law at UNSW are holding a one-day
event in Canberra that will assess recent developments in Australian Bills of
Rights. The conference will survey the impact of the ACT Human Rights Act over
the last year in the courts, legislature and the bureaucracy. It will also look
at the proposed Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities in Victoria, at
developments in other States and at the national level, and the comparative
perspective from New Zealand. The day is aimed at both a legal and non-legal
audience.
When:
Wednesday 21 June 2006
Where:
Law Theatre, Faculty of Law, Australian National University
Cost:
$150 (including lunch), $60 for concessions
Registration
forms and program are available at
http://acthra.anu.edu.au/, or ph Gabrielle
McKinnon on 6125 7103.
New Version of the Australian
Government and Politics Website
The new version of the Australian
Government and Politics website - http://elections.uwa.edu.au/ - is now
on line and includes the final results for the March South Australian and Tasmanian
elections. As well as a new server and updated software, the website is
undergoing a major overhaul and has enhanced information on NSW politics and
government thanks to a grant from the NSW Sesquicentenary Committee. It is
hoped to add similar additional information to entries for the other States and
the Commonwealth.
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
Update from the Democratic Audit of Aurstralia .....
Silencing NGOs?
In a new Audit discussion paper,
Joan Staples (UNSW) attacks the Federal Government’s policies towards NGOs as
undermining the democratic process. She argues that the Government has been
inspired by public choice perspectives in its attempts to limit the advocacy
role of NGOs.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060615_staples_ngos.pdf
Public funding for parties
With public funding of political
parties proposed in Western Australia, Senator Andrew Murray (Democrats)
argues, in this Audit discussion paper, that a quid pro quo is required
in the form of higher standards of governance, transparency, and
accountability, from the parties that receive it.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060615_murray_pubfund.pdf
Party funding remains a
controversial issue in the UK, where the Committee on Standards in Public Life
is conducting an inquiry into the integrity of democratic processes, through a
review of the mandate of the Electoral Commission. The Committee’s inquiry has,
in particular, highlighted the extent of the ignorance surrounding the huge
loans which the Labour and Conservative Parties have been using to circumvent
party funding regulations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/5073606.stm
The Committee’s webpage can be
found at:
http://www.public-standards.gov.uk/index.asp
More general concerns about party
funding in the UK have led to the establishment of an inquiry into the possible
introduction of public funding.
http://www.partyfundingreview.gov.uk/index.htm
Draft Electoral and Referendum
Amendment Bill
The Draft Electoral and
Referendum Amendment Act is being debated again in the Senate this week and is
still attracting controversy and criticism.
Writing in The Age, George
Williams of the Gilbert & Tobin Centre of Public Law at UNSW calls it a
‘major step backwards for our electoral system’.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/shrinking-democracy/2006/06/12/1149964465150.html
Also in The Age, Human
Rights Solicitor Waleed Aly attacks the measures contained in it that strip
prisoners of their right to vote.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/the-people-no-longer-means-all-australians/2006/06/12/1149964465147.html
Harder to vote, easier to
donate
Australian Policy Online has
published an article by Marian Sawer, Director of the Audit, that criticises
the trajectory of electoral reform in Australia. The Government is
simultaneously making the process of political donations less transparent,
whilst making it harder for people to exercise their right to vote.
http://www.apo.org.au/webboard/results.chtml?filename_num=80993
Dirty tricks in US electoral
administration?
An article in Rolling Stone magazine
Robert F. Kennedy Jnr has caused much comment in the US and beyond. He alleges
that George W. Bush’s victory in the 2004 Presidential election was the result,
in part, of dirty tricks by partisan electoral officials in Ohio. These range from:
voter registrations mysteriously lost, or even shredded; late or missing
ballots for US voters overseas; maldistribution of voting machines and
‘suspiciously’ malfunctioning voting equipment.
At least some of the claims in
the article have been dismissed. However, it does draw attention to the
problems created by partisan electoral administration. Even after the
controversy surrounding the 2000 Presidential Election it seems lessons have
either not been learnt or are being deliberately ignored.
Read the article here:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen
And a couple of the many
responses to it:
http://www.mysterypollster.com/main/2006/06/is_rfk_jr_right.html
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/blogs/tokaji/2006/06/back-to-ohio-rolling-stone-piece.html
Federalism undermined on ACT
civil unions
The
Federal Government has used its power to disallow Territory legislation to
over-rule the ACT's Civil Unions Act 2006. The disallowance took effect from
midnight 13 June. Moves in the Senate by the Democrats and Greens to block the
disallowance look set to fail. The use of administrative action to overturn
legislation, for which the ACT government had a mandate and which was within
its powers, has been highly controversial. Critics see it as another attack on
the principles of federalism. Liberal Senator and former ACT Chief Minister
Gary Humphries crossed the floor on the issue.
Electronic voting in Victoria
Following an inquiry into
Electronic Democracy, the Victorian Government has introduced measure to
facilitate electronic voting in State elections. Peter Chen, the co-author of
the forthcoming Audit report on Electronic Democracy, was a consultant on the
inquiry.
http://www.peterjohnchen.com/files/FinalReport.pdf
Votes at 16 in the ACT?
The ACT Legislative Assembly’s
Standing Committee on Education, Training, and Young People is holding an
inquiry into the desirability and possible consequences of allowing 16 and 17
year old ACT residents to vote in Territory elections. Amongst the issues under
consideration are.
national
conformity and consistency with other jurisdictions;
the
legal implications of compulsory enrolment and voting for young people;
eligibility
for election to the ACT Legislative Assembly;
resource
implications of extending and maintaining the ACT electoral roll;
issues
affecting the electoral awareness of young people;
different
electoral models; and
other
factors that influence the democratic participation of young people.
The
deadline for written submissions to the inquiry is 28 July 2006.
http://www.parliament.act.gov.au/committees/index1.asp?committee=53&inquiry=222
Victoria
FoI review
The Victorian Ombudsman has
produced the final report of a review of the implementation of the Freedom of
Information Act 1982. The review found that FoI requests were, for the most
part, being answered full and within the official 45 day period. However,
delays in processing were still an issue, with some 30 per cent of requests not
responded to within the statutory timeframe. The lack of quality in justifying
decisions was also an issue.
Overall,
the review found that, of the 22,500 FoI requests made, full access was given
to 77 per cent, partial access to 20 per cent, leaving only 3 per cent refused.
http://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/CA256F88000946E3/page/Listing-Home%2BPage%2BNews-Review%2Bof%2Bthe%2BFreedom%2Bof%2BInformation%2BAct%2Breleased
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696 or 1600
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
Update From The Democratic Audit Of Australia .....
TheFukuoka
Democratic Audit of Australia is hosting two panels at the International Political Science Association Congress in
on 11 July. The papers include the following:
IDEA'sDemocracy
State of
Assessment Methodology
Ozias
Tungwarara, formerly of IDEA, describes the challenge of developing an audit
methodology that clearly presents its normative and conceptual underpinnings
but is still flexible enough to respond to very different environments. The
methodology does not aggregate performance in discrete areas and recognises
that democratic norms cannot be maximised simultaneously.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060619_ipsa_ozias.pdf
The
Canadian Democratic Audit
William
Cross describes how the Democratic Audit of Canada came into existence in the
context of declining public confidence in democratic institutions and with
voter turnout at a record low. The Audit used the benchmarks of public
participation, inclusiveness and responsiveness to assess democratic
performance and has produced nine books, widely used in political science and
Canadian studies courses.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060619_ipsa_cross.pdf
TheAustralia
Democratic Audit of
Marian
Sawer describes how the Democratic Audit of Australia has separated out the
values of political equality, popular control of government, civil
liberties/human rights and deliberative democracy in order to highlight the
threat posed by populist majoritarianism. Attacks on the 'non-elected'
intermediary institutions essential to accountability and rights protection in
representative democracy undermine popular control of government despite
speaking in its name.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060619_ipsa_sawer.pdf
FromLondon Ulaanbaatar : Making the State of Democracy
to
Framework Travel
Todd Landman of theUniversity Essex describes how the democraticMongolia Mongolia
of
audit methodology has travelled beyond the eight countries in which the
original pilot audits were conducted and has now reached
He concludes that despite
lacking many features that modernisation theory has regarded as essential for
democracy, the audit methodology has proved valuable in identifying both
strengths and weaknesses.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060619_ipsa_ozias.pdf
TheIreland
Democratic Audit of
PaulaIreland
Clancy, of TASC, describes how the Democratic Audit of Ireland and the parallel
Democratic Audit of Northern Ireland are being conducted by independent think
tanks assisted by a commission chaired by the head of the Irish trade union
congress and with party, business and community representatives. Issues include
responses to the unprecedented inward migration into
in recent years.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/events/2006_ipsa.htm
Electoral Amendment Bill
passed
The Electoral and Referendum
Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Matters) Bill has completed its
passage through the Australian Parliament. The Audit has been a strong critic
of the Bill that, amongst other things, raises the threshold for anonymous
donations to parties and closes the electoral rolls earlier, which is likely to
disenfranchise thousands of new voters, particularly the young.
Kelly
March this year:
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060331_kelly_electoral_bill.pdf
Axing of Senate committees to
limit scrutiny
In the last sitting week before
the winter recess the Government proposed controversial changes to the
committee system in the Senate. Under these changes the number of committees
will be reduced and the opposition-chaired references committees abolished.
This will leave all the committee chairs in government hands. The government
has claimed that the references committees are under-utilised, which has been a
reality since the government achieved its majority in the Senate. Nationals
Senator Barnaby Joyce has suggested that removing the part of the committee
system under opposition control might lessen the reluctance to refer
controversial issues for committee scrutiny. However, the opposition parties,
and Harry Evans, Clerk of the Senate, have said that there is a serious danger
of undermining the Senate’s capacity to hold the government to account; any
inquiries with the potential to embarrass the Government are likely to be
vetoed.
JSCEM civics inquiry
The submissions to the Joint
Standing Committee on Electoral Matters’ inquiry into Civics and Electoral
Education can now be viewed on their website. Naturally, we would draw your
attention to the Democratic Audit’s contribution, amongst the numerous
interesting submissions from a wide variety of individuals and groups.
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/em/education/subs.htm
Forum on Government Control of the Senate, 28 June
Senator Chris Evans, Leader of
the Opposition in the Senate, will address the ACT Fabian Society on Wednesday
28 June on 'Government Control of the Senate'. The meeting will be held at the
Hotel Kurrajong, National Circuit, Barton at 6pm. All welcome.
Dr Phil LarkinAustralia
Australian National University
Democratic Audit of
Political Science
Canberra ACT 0200
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696 or 1600
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Making independent bodies independent
Andrew Macintosh, deputy director of the Australia Institute, considers the process of appointment to public bodies. Where the independence of these bodies is compromised, so too are their outcomes. And yet the current processes for appointing members is far from transparent or merit-based.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060726_macintosh_ind.pdf
The State of Democracy at IPSA
The Democratic Audit of Australia organised two panels on State of Democracy methodology in July at the International Political Science Association Congress in Fukuoka, Japan. The papers, by those involved in Democratic Audits in different parts of the world, are all available from the Audit’s website:
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/events/2006_ipsa.htm
The Senate under government control
Australian Democrat Senator Andrew Murray has compiled figures on the scrutiny and legislative review process in the Senate since 1 July 2005 and compared it with previous periods where no party had overall Senate control. On every measure considered – length of time for committees to consider bills, acceptance of non-government amendments, use of the guillotine to curtail debate; rejection of references to committees – there has been a weakening of legislative review functions:
http://www.democrats.org.au/docs/2006/PR_Senate_Attack_Accountability.pdf
Internal party democracy?
After the furore surrounding the role of factions in Labor’s preselection process in Victoria earlier this year, now it is the Liberals’ turn. ABC’s Four Corners program on 17 July 2006 focussed on attempts by the far right to dominate internal processes in the New South Wales Liberal Party, and the nefarious tactics used by both major factions in the party in their internecine battles.
The transcript of the broadcast is available here:
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2006/s1688866.htm
The program has produced considerable comment, such as this piece by Anne Davies in The Sydney Morning Herald.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/07/23/1153593209663.html
John Keane on democracy and political parties
Australian-born, UK-based political theorist John Keane considered the shortcomings of political parties in a piece in The Sydney Morning Herald on 24 July 2006. He argues that the stranglehold that parties have on the representative process is the central cause of modern disillusionment with the political process:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/07/23/1153593209666.html
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696 or 1600
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
New Focussed Audit published
The latest addition to the Democratic Audit of Australia’s Focussed Audit series has been published. Electronic Democracy? The Impact of New Communications Technology on Australian Democracy by Peter Chen, Rachel Gibson, and Karin Geiselhart is Report No. 6. It looks at the way those involved in the political process, including government, political parties, MPs and civil society groups have used new technology, and the implications for democracy. On the one hand there is the potential for increased big brother surveillance of citizens, on the other for broader citizen participation and interactivity in the policy process. Little of the potential for more open government has been realised in Australia.
The report is available for download from our website. A limited number of hard copies are also available from us.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/focussed_audits/20060809_chen_etal_electr_dem.pdf
Can human rights survive the war on terror and the war on crime?
Carol Harlow (LSE) explores how the UK Human Rights Act compromises between upholding European human rights standards and the Westminster principle of parliamentary sovereignty. She finds that the UK government has sometimes been impatient with constraints placed on the war on terror and the war on crime. Strengthening parliamentary scrutiny mechanisms on human rights may be the key to a more co-operative relationship with the judiciary.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060809_harlow_hr_wars.pdf
Property votes—OK?
Marian Sawer, Director of the Democratic Audit of Australia, discusses property votes. Whilst property votes are normally regarded as a relic dating back to an age before mass democracy, they persist in local government elections in much of Australia. Their continued existence is an affront to most modern conceptions of democracy.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060809_sawer_propvotes.pdf
Australian human rights record in international perspective
Hilary Charlesworth (ANU) reviews Australia’s record in implementing its international human rights obligations. Under the Coalition Government, Australia’s relationship with the UN human rights treaty bodies has deteriorated. Australia has adopted a combative stance, emphasising domestic sovereignty and rejecting criticism of human rights performance.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060809_charlesworth_aust_un.pdf
Human rights charter for Victoria
Victoria has become only the second jurisdiction (after the ACT) to enact a human rights charter. The Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 was passed on July 25th 2006, and comes into force in January 2007.
http://www.justice.vic.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/DOJ+Internet/Home/Your+Rights/Human+Rights/
Renewing Accountability
A group of former senior MPs from both major parties have released a discussion paper calling for a strengthening of the capacity of parliament in Australia to hold government to account. Various measures are being taken in other Westminster parliaments with the aim of improving the accountability process but Australia is lagging. Amongst the steps they call for are the appointment of a Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, and special legislation clarifying government accountability to parliament.
The report has been prepared under the auspices of the Australasian Study of Parliament Group and will be available from their website next week:
www.aspg.org.au
In the meantime, a piece in The Age summarises the main findings:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/renewing-accountability/2006/08/08/1154802889133.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
Michelle Grattan has an article discussing the report and its recommendations:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/michelle-grattan/calling-mps-to-account-still-matters/2006/08/08/1154802888350.html
Ministerial resignation in Tasmania
Bryan Green, Tasmanian Deputy Premier, has resigned from all frontbench and leadership roles following a scandal involving his relationship with a company run by his former colleagues. Mr Green granted a three year monopoly to the Tasmanian Compliance Corporation, a building accreditation company run by two former Labor ministers. The Director of Public Prosecutions and the Auditor General are investigating the matter. Mr Green had initially resisted resigning and maintained that his apology to parliament was sufficient.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19812382-2702,00.html
Queensland electoral law changes
The Queensland government is planning major changes to its electoral law in the wake of the Federal changes and claims of bribery of local councillors. The detail of the changes has yet to be decided though it has been confirmed that, in line with Federal law, prisoners will lose the right to vote.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20069241-1702,00.html
Journalists oppose media ownership changes
Crikey reports the findings of a survey of journalists about media ownership. The survey found that over 80 per cent of journalists are opposed to the Federal Government’s changes to the restrictions on cross media and foreign ownership, on the grounds that it will lower the quality and diversity of news coverage.71 per cent thought the changes will give media owners too much influence over the political agenda.
The survey, by Roy Morgan Research, is summarised on its website:
http://www.roymorgan.com/news/press-releases/2006/541
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696 or 1600
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
Update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Democracy: The wrong message
President Bush’s strategy for promoting democracy is leading to the vigorous imposition of majority rule in some parts of the world. Harry Evans, Clerk of the Senate, argues that developments in the USA and Australia might reinforce the view that democracy is about complete power for elected governments and the squashing of opposition.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060830_evans.pdf
Whistleblowing – a review of the law
A J Brown of Griffith Law School reviews Australian laws on public interest disclosures. He finds significant variation in the scope of whistle-blowing law between the different States and Territories, and calls for a ‘second generation’ of law throughout Australia.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060830_whisbl_ajbrown.pdf
Strike up the ban: Censorship and the war on terror
Reflecting on the recent decision to ban two Islamist books, Norm Abjorensen is critical of how censorship has been used in the war on terror to pursue political rather than security goals.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060830_abj_cens.pdf
The benefits of incumbency
In the wake of the latest increase in the printing allowance for federal MPs, Norm Kelly of the Democratic Audit of Australia, criticises both the accumulation of incumbency benefits and rules that allow the use of parliamentary allowances for partisan purposes.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060830_kellympperks.pdf
Political finance reform
New Matilda has an article by Green NSW Legislative Council member Lee Rhiannon, and Norman Thompson, who runs her project on political donations, calling for a significant overhaul of the regulations governing political party funding. They argue that foreign donations and corporate and union donations should be banned, and caps on individual donations and campaign spending introduced.
http://www.newmatilda.com/policytoolkit/policydetail.asp?PolicyID=469
Also on party funding reform, the Green Party in Western Australia has produced this discussion paper on electoral funding reform, as part of the debate about the introduction of public funding for parties in the State.
http://www.mp.wa.gov.au/giz-watson/speeches/2006/funding01.pdf
UK party funding controversy continues
The UK Electoral Commission has criticised both the Labour and Conservative parties for being overly secretive about their private funding. The Conservatives’ reluctance to make more detailed disclosures about their loans has been a particular source of concern for the Commission.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/funding/story/0,,1856542,00.html
Parliamentary inquiry into civics and electoral education
A team from the Democratic Audit appeared before the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters on 11 August 2006, as part the ongoing inquiry into civics and electoral education. The transcript and the written submission are available from the Committee’s webpage:
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/em/education/index.htm
Appointments to public boards
Meredith Edwards, Emeritus Professor at the University of Canberra, has written a comprehensive analysis of the appointments process to public boards in Australia. Australia has yet to embark on the significant reform of the process seen in countries such as the UK and Canada, where change was seen as vital to maintain any confidence in the integrity of the system.
http://www.blis.canberra.edu.au/corpgov%2Daps/pub/IssuesPaperNo.3_AppointmentProcesses_Final.pdf
Reform of the Senate committee system
In a new Audit discussion paper, Liz Young reviews the government’s changes to the Senate committee system. Whilst the government maintains that the changes will make for a more efficient and effective committee system, opponents fear that the changes will merely strengthen executive dominance over parliament.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060831_youngl_senatecomms.pdf
The Parliamentary Studies Centre and the Centre for International and Public Law, both at ANU, are holding a workshop to consider the Senate committee system on Friday 15 September in the Studio Theatre at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. The timetable is:
9.30-10.30 Views from the Senate: including Harry Evans, Clerk of the Senate; Senator Marise Payne; Senator Joe Ludwig; Senator Andrew Bartlett.
11am-12noon Views from ‘users’ of the committee system: Including Professor Jon Altman, ANU Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research; Professor John Warhurst, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, ANU
Sedition
Civil Liberties Australia (ACT) and the Independent Scholars Association of Australia are holding a meeting on Australia’s new Sedition laws, ‘Sedition: Defending or subverting freedom?’. The event will take place between 6.00 and 7.30, Thursday 14 September, at the National Library of Australia in Canberra. Entry with gold coin donation.
Speakers:
Simon Bronitt, Professor of the ANU College of Law, and David Marr, Sydney Morning Herald journalist, ex-Media Watch presenter, author.
For further information/bookings: Dr Kristine Klugman 02 6288 6137 Email: [email protected]
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696 or 1600
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
Update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Audit’s report on political finance to be published soon
The Democratic Audit’s Focussed Audit No.7, Political Finance in Australia: A Skewed & Secret System, by Joo-Cheong Tham and Sally Young will be published at the end of October. It will be available to download as a PDF from the Audit webpage, and a limited number of hard copies will also be available. They argue that political finance in Australia is marked by a lack of transparency and by a lack of political equality which means the major parties benefit disproportionately, and they make a number of recommendations to improve the system.
Abolishing the South Australian Legislative Council
In a new paper for the Democratic Audit, Jordan Bastoni, University of Adelaide, considers moves to abolish the South Australian upper house. Not only do the changes risk damaging the quality of the political process and the accountability of government, they are also ill-thought out and, it is argued, may be defeated anyway.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20061006_bastoni_sa_leg.pdf
The erosion of electoral rights
Limiting Democracy: The Erosion of Electoral Rights in Australia by Audit contributors Colin Hughes and Brian Costar has been published by UNSW Press.
More details at publisher's website
Read review of the book by the Audit leader, Marian Sawer:
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20061006_sawer_review_ch_bc.pdf
Liberal Senator calls for ban on corporate donations to political parties
Senator Gary Humphries has called for a ban on corporate and union donations to political parties, as in Canada, on the grounds they are undermining confidence in politics. Humphries argues in the Liberal Party journal The Party Room that the current system of public funding should be extended and bring an end to private attempts to buy influence in the decisions of government.
Read about it in The Australian.
The Audit on ABC
ABC Radio National's 'Perspective' program will broadcast this Friday, 6 October, at 5.55pm a shortened version of the Audit discussion paper by the Norman Abjorensen on the recent banning of two Islamic books in Australia.
WA introduces proportional representation but retains property votes in local government
The West Australian government has introduced legislation to parliament that changes the voting system in local government elections from ‘first past the post’ to ‘proportional preferential’.
Read more in The West Australian.
NSW Greens’ FOI event
The NSW Greens are holding a public forum entitled Knowledge is Power: Freedom of Information in NSW, Why isn't it working?
When: 12:45 for 1pm, Wednesday 11 October
Where: Jubilee Room, Parliament House, Macquarie St, Sydney.
To RSVP and for more details about the Greens FOI campaign, contact Lee Rhiannon's office on 9230 3549 or [email protected]
US voter ID/registration conference
The Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project's two-day Voter Identification/Registration Conference began on 5 October at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It explores the ‘current state of knowledge about the effects of voter identification and registration procedures on election administration and voting behaviour'.
While United States electoral administration is very different to Australia's (and Australia, like New Zealand, has compulsory registration, while in America and Canada it is voluntary), many of the issues are instantly recognisable. Papers are already up on their website.
History of the Indigenous vote
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has published a short History of the Indigenous Vote. It outlines Indigenous Australians’ achievement of the right to vote, its loss at federation, their regaining of the franchise in the 1960s and the more active engagement in the subsequent years.
It can be downloaded from the AEC here.
Irish PM in loan controversy
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern has been forced to apologise over loans he received whilst finance minister in the early 1990s. Whilst maintaining he has breached no rules, he admitted errors of judgement and was forced to apologise to parliament. The loans came to light following an investigation into corruption in the planning process in Dublin in the 1990s.
Read more on the BBC’s webpage.
Public funding comes to WA, also prisoner disenfranchisement
In Western Australia, the Labor government’s electoral reform legislation has passed the lower house. The original Bill has been split into three, to deal with the three main aspects of the reforms.
Public funding is being introduced for WA State elections, with the amount currently set at $1.39 per vote (with a threshold vote of 4 per cent required). This amount is set to increase to more than $1.50 by the time of the next election, due in 2009. The government is obviously serious about this—the funding rate is calculated to six decimal places (i.e. one millionth of a cent per vote). The legislation differs from the federal funding scheme in that parties will not be able to receive more than they actually spend in election campaigns. This isn’t a problem for the major parties, given they receive substantial corporate donations in addition to public funding, but can be a problem for minor parties who underestimate their likely vote and hence spend less than their entitlement.
At the WA Parliament website the legislation—Electoral Reform (Electoral Funding) Bill 2006—can be downloaded by PDF here. To find debates use the Hansard search page.
In associated legislation (Electoral Legislation Amendment Bill 2006 and Parliamentary Legislation Amendment Bill 2006), the Labor government is disenfranchising all prisoners (previously prisoners serving terms less than one year could vote), and broadening the definition of parliamentary party status. Party status provides additional resources, such as staffing, to those parties that qualify, and was previously available to any parties with five members in the Assembly. This is now being broadened to the Assembly and/or the Council. Labor resisted this last change during its previous term—when the Greens had five Council members. The Greens only have two now.
JSCEM Inquiry into Civics and Electoral Education
Members of the Democratic Audit gave evidence to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters Inquiry into Civics and Electoral Education in August. As a result the Audit was asked for two supplementary submissions and all three are now available on-line. Links are:
Original submission
Supplementary submission 1
Supplementary submission 2
Disallowance power damages ACT democracy
A Bill introduced by Senator Bob Brown to remove the Commonwealth's power to disallow ACT legislation was debated in the Senate on 14 September 2006. Section 5 (2) of the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act, 1988 provides that the Governor-General can disallow any law passed by the ACT Legislative Assembly within six months. There are no conditions that need to be satisfied before this power is exercised and the disallowance instrument merely has to be tabled in both houses of the federal parliament.
The Commonwealth has already disallowed the ACT's Civil Unions Act 2006 and is now threatening to over-ride the ACT's anti-terrorism legislation on the grounds that it is not tough enough (for example, not allowing children to be subject to preventive detention). With the government controlling the Senate, such disallowance of an elected government's legislation cannot be prevented. By contrast, when the Commonwealth did away with the Northern Territory's euthanasia legislation in 1997 it did so by use of its Territories power (section 122 of the Constitution), requiring a Bill to pass through both houses of parliament.
For more detail on the desirability of removing the disallowance power from the ACT (Self-Government) Act see Cheyne Bester and Shawn Lambert in the Canberra Times 15 September 2006
UK Government Backs FOI Effectiveness Study
The UK government has helped fund an independent study by the Constitution Unit at University College London of whether the UK FOI Act has been effective in making government more accountable. UCL claim this is the first large-scale study of the consequences of FOI anywhere in the world.
Read more at IWR
High Court FOI ruling endorses government secrecy
Fresh doubts have been cast on the effectiveness of the Commonwealth’s freedom of information laws after the High Court, in a 3-2 decision, rejected an appeal by a journalist at The Australian newspaper against a decision to block access to Treasury documents. The documents sought by FOI editor Michael McKinnon, related to revenue projections from tax bracket creep, as well as fraud in the First Home Owner Grant.
Despite a dissenting judgement from Chief Justice Murray Gleeson and Justice Michael Kirby, a majority upheld a ruling by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal that it did not have the power to decide whether the release of the documents sought by McKinnon was in the public interest.
Read Canberra Times report
Read High Court Judgement
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696 or 1600
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
Update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Rethinking Westminster?
In a new paper for the Democratic Audit of Australia, Norman Abjorensen, ANU, considers the South Australian experiment of including non-Labor members in the Labor cabinet. The move marks a significant break with the Australia’s Westminster tradition but has evidently paid dividends for the government.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20061026_abjn_cabsa.pdf
Campaign finance: Australia and the US compared
Kenneth Mayer of the University of Wisconsin-Madison compares the systems of campaign finance in Australia and the United States. In spite of the huge sums involved in American campaigns, the disclosure requirements are far stricter than Australia’s, particularly since this year's changes.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20061026mayerfin.pdf
Freedom of information in NSW
New Matilda has an article by Lee Rhiannon, Greens MLC, on the operation of the NSW Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. She argues that both Labor and Coalition governments have been hostile to FOI and the progressive movement has failed to be vigilant, allowing FOI to languish. Read it here.
Her Private Members Bill aimed at setting up an independent review of the FOI Act has been passed by the Legislative Council.
New Zealand election advertising report
The New Zealand Auditor-General’s report on MPs' and parliamentary parties' misuse of parliamentary appropriations for electioneering purposes has been published. The report identifies ‘serious breaches’ of the rules. The report’s recommendations include the need for more robust accountability mechanisms and structures, and closer monitoring of breaches of the rules. Read it here:
Electoral Amendment Act 2006
The AEC has published a short explanatory paper on the recent changes to the Commonwealth Electoral Act. The controversial changes have, amongst other things, introduced the earlier closing of the electoral roll, stricter proof of identity (ID) requirements for registering and voting, and significantly raised the threshold for disclosure of political donations.
Read it here
The AEC’s annual report for 2005-06 is also now available here.
Limiting Democracy
Former Victorian premier, John Cain, has a review of Brian Costar and Colin Hughes’ book on the changes to the Commonwealth Electoral Act of June 2006. Australia is one of the only democracies where the rules governing political finance are being weakened rather than strengthened. Cain focuses on the changes to the rules governing disclosure of political donations, which, like the authors, he sees as a straightforward attempt to limit the transparency of the process. Read it here.
The Audit’s Marian Sawer’s review of the book is available here.
New media laws and investigative journalism
There has been much discussion in the press about the likely impact of the changes to Australian media ownership laws on the diversity of information sources. The media editor of The Age suggests that the changes also threaten the existence of investigative journalism.
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696 or 1600
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
Update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Peter Andren on media diversity
Peter Andren MP, the Independent member for Calare, considers the impact of the recent changes to media law on media diversity in rural areas. The laws, which will allow a single owner to control both television and newspapers in a particular market, will see, he says, an end to local content in rural areas.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20061106_andren_medbush.pd
Australia andChina China Australia
in not implicated in executions and could be in breach of a number of other
treaties to which Australia
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20061106_adams_china.pdf
The Centre for International and Public Law at ANU is holding an event on ‘Australia
and the death penalty' on 27 November 2006 at the National
Museum of Australia
in Canberra Australia
Full details and a registration form can be found here:
http://law.anu.edu.au/cipl/Lectures&Seminars/2006/Death%20Penalty_31%20Oct%2006.pdf
Government advertising campaigns controversy
In last week's Senate estimates hearings, it emerged that the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet had omitted from its Annual Report any figure for expenditure on government advertising campaigns. There had in fact been an increase of nearly 50 per cent in such expenditure. The Government dismissed the omission as a mere oversight. The Opposition, however, were unconvinced, accusing the Government of concocting a 'pathetic “dog ate my homework” excuse'.
Read the transcript from Hansard here:
http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/S9772.pdf
Electoral numbers drop
It also emerged in Senate Estimates that the number of Australians enrolled to vote has fallen for the first time in ten years. The Australian Electoral Commission was unable to provide a definitive explanation for the fall. It is too early for the recent restrictions on enrolment to have had an effect, though they are likely to exacerbate any existing enrolment problems.
Read the transcript from Hansard here:
http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/S9773.pdf
Secret ballot for the blind in Victorian election
Blind and vision-impaired voters will have the opportunity for the first time to cast a secret ballot in theVictorian
State Australia
http://www.vec.vic.gov.au/electronicvoting.html
Debate resumes on Citizenship Bill
Debate resumed in the House of Representatives on 31 October and for the next two days on the Australian Citizenship Bill 2005. Inter alia the Bill lengthens the waiting time for Australian citizenship from two to four years. The Bill is not expected to complete its passage through parliament before the Autumn session 2007.
Full details of the Bill, including text, explanatory note, proposed amendments, and the speeches from the second reading are available:
http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au/piweb/browse.aspx?path=Legislation%20>%20Current%20Bills%20by%20Title%20>%20Australian%20Citizenship%20(Transitionals%20and%20Consequentials)%20Bill%202005
NSW Local Government Association supports a national summit on political finance
The NSW Local Government Association has supported the call for a national summit to review political finance legislation at federal, State and local levels of government. The national summit is being promoted by the Deputy Mayor of Manly and Convenor of Democracy Watch, Brad Peterson. For the reasons why the role of money in Australian electoral politics needs to be reviewed see
http://www.democracywatch.com.au
WA Public Funding Bill receives Royal Assent
Western Australia has now joined the Commonwealth, NSW,Victoria ,
Queensland
Developer involvement in WA local elections
A former Liberal Party powerbroker operating on behalf of a property developer has admitted involvement in the election campaign for Busselton council in WA. Appearing before the Corruption and Crime Commission, Noel Crichton-Browne admitted attempting to keep payments to various candidates secret by paying them in instalments less than the $200 disclosure threshold, as part of a campaign to win planning approval for a $300 million development.
Read about it in The West Australian:
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=11673
Ahead of the US mid-term elections on 7 November 2006, and in the wake of the controversies over the result of the last two presidential elections, Jonah Goldman of the National Campaign for Fair Elections has written a highly critical essay on the state of electoral administration in America, which he labels ‘third rate’ and could result in nationwide ‘chaos’ at the polls.
Read it here: http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/10/06/ballot_jitters.php
This prediction is supported by the findings of a report by electionline.org, an election-monitoring body based at theUniversity
of Richmond
Read their report here:
http://electionline.org/Portals/1/Publications/Annual.Report.Preview.2006.Final.pdf
The New York Times reports that the parties are preparing themselves for the impending controversy by recruiting teams of lawyers to monitor polling in potential ‘flash points’:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/04/us/politics/04lawyers.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1162786021-W4iQsHszCa28EkGB0YUhlw (free registration necessary)
Dr Phil LarkinAustralia
Australian National University
Democratic Audit of
Political Science
Canberra ACT 0200
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696 or 1600
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Political finance audit out today
We are pleased to announce that the Democratic Audit of Australia’s Focused Audit Number 7, Political Finance in Australia: A Skewed and Secret System by Joo-Cheong Tham and Sally Young (both University of Melbourne) is published today. A limited number of copies are available directly from us and it should be available as a free download from our website from next week.
Australian Industrial laws and freedom of expression
In a new paper for the Audit, Tom Roberts of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, discusses the implications of changes to industrial relations law for freedom of expression in the construction sector. Virtually all forms of industrial action are deemed unlawful in the sector and could result in deductions in pay, fines, and damages claims: the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner has been established to monitor and enforce this. This constitutes a direct attack on the right to peaceful political protest.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20061117_roberts_ir.pdf
State corruption inquiries
The WA Corruption and Crime Commission’s investigation into the activities of lobbyists acting for developer Canal Rocks has now seen a minister sacked and forced to resign from parliament. Norm Marlborough, Labor Minister for Small Business is the latest victim. Undisclosed donations to various local government candidates by former Liberal power broker Noel Crichton-Browne were mentioned in the last Audit Update.
Much of the new controversy focuses on the activities of Brian Burke, the former WA premier, who like Crichton-Browne, was lobbying on behalf of Canal Rocks. Marlborough kept a separate mobile phone for talking to Burke and was taped apparently taking instruction on the appointment to a government board of a councillor thought to be sympathetic to the developer’s proposals.
Burke was gaoled for corruption in 1994 over fraudulent travel claims. Current WA Premier, Alan Carpenter, has warned his ministers against any dealings with Burke or his associates and a register of lobbyists is now being considered.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20737902-5006789,00.html
In Queensland, the state’s Crime and Misconduct Commission is investigating a government decision to bankroll a $20 million road and rail deviation to Macarthur Coal’s Coppabella Mine, after it was revealed that the company’s Chief Executive had loaned the then Industrial Relations Minister Gordon Nuttall $300 000. The loan was not disclosed in the official parliamentary register, and Nuttall had not abstained from any votes on the matter, nor had he declared a conflict of interest.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20746890-5006786,00.html
In Tasmania former Deputy Premier Bryan Green has been charged with criminal conspiracy (in Hobart Magistrates Court, 25 October) over giving a company run by former Tasmanian and Queensland Labor ministers a monopoly over accreditation of building professionals in the State.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1773692.htm
Labor debates over developer donation ban
Senior Labor figures are divided over a ban on developer donations. NSW premier Morris Iemma has called for a ban, but Queensland premier Peter Beattie rejects the idea, arguing that transparency rather than source of donation is the issue. Former PM Paul Keating is critical of NSW Labor’s record on developer donations and planning decisions. NSW Labor has collected over $5 million in developer donations since its re-election in 2003, and, along with the Liberals and Nationals, voted down a Greens private members bill aiming to ban developer donations to political parties.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Iemma-wants-ban-on-developer-donations/2006/11/02/1162339962978.html
The issue of political donations was discussed by Janet Albrechtsen in The Australian:
http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20718822-32522,00.html
How to do US elections
Electoral expert Professor Richard Hasen writes in the New York Times on the problems with electronic voting machines in the US mid-term elections. He argues that the problem lies less with technology than with the people administering elections. Instead of party hacks, the US needs nonpartisan professionals such as those that administer Australian and Canadian elections.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/11/opinion/11hasen.htm?_r=1&oref=slogin
(free registration may be necessary)
Australian Parliaments and the protection of human rights
As part of the Senate Occasional Lecture Series, Dr Simon Evans, University of Melbourne, will consider how well Australian parliaments identify the impact on human rights of legislations, and reforms that might assist in this. The lecture is in the Theatre in Parliament House on Friday 17 November 2006, between 12.15 and 1.15. Admission is free, no bookings necessary. Inquiries on (02) 6277 3074 or, by email, to [email protected].
National Republican Lecture
The 2006 National Republican lecture will be given by Dr Rebecca Huntley on ‘Trust Matters: politics, trust and the republican cause’ on Wednesday 29 November 2006 at 6:15pm (drinks available from 5.30pm), at Wesley Music Centre, National Circuit, Canberra. The lecture is free, no RVSP is necessary.
http://www.republic.org.au/ARM-2001/news&events/2006%20National%20Republican%20Lecture.pdf
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696 or 1600
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
Update from The Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Season's greetings from the Audit team. This is the last Update of 2006.
To see the current team click here. http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/aboutus.htm
Victorian Election, November 2006
In a new Audit paper, Nick Economou, Monash University, reviews the Victorian State election of 25 November 2006.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20061218_economou_vicelec.pdf
The Age reported that the covert advertising campaign against the Greens by the conservative Christian group, the Exclusive Brethren, had continued in the Victorian election. This had aroused concern in the Tasmanian State election earlier in the year:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/11/23/1163871549994.htm
Trust matters
Rebecca Huntley, author of The World According to Y: Inside the New Adult Generation, gave the 2006 National Republican lecture in Canberra on 29 November. Her lecture, ‘Trust matters: Politics, trust and the republican cause’ is issued as a discussion paper for the Democratic Audit of Australia.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20061213_huntley_repub.pdf
Representation for the Italian diaspora
In this Audit paper Elisa Arcioni, University of Wollongong, considers the decision to include seats for the Italian diaspora in the Italian parliament. The decision was of even greater significance since it was the results in the Australasian seat that gave the Prodi government its majority in the Senate.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20061113_arcioni_ital_diasp.pdf
50 years of campaign finance
Colin A Hughes, Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of Queensland, looks at the history of the study of campaign finance in Australia and why it has been so under-developed.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20061213_hughes_50yrfin.pdf
PM’s Chief of Staff leaves takes post with investment bank
Arthur Sinodinos, John Howard’s longstanding Chief of Staff, has left to take up a senior post with the investment bank Goldman Sachs JB Were. Sinodinos’ move has proved controversial because the company was involved with the most recent Telstra share floatation. Former public servants and politicians are prevented from moving straight into related private sector posts by ‘cooling off’ periods in many democracies, including Canada, the UK and the USA. This move, as well as former NSW Premier Bob Carr’s move to Macquarie Bank in 2005, has highlighted the absence of codes governing post-separation employment in a number of Australian jurisdictions.
Read the PM’s press statement:
http://www.pm.gov.au/News/media_releases/media_Release2291.html
The Commonwealth Parliamentary Library’s e-brief on Codes of Conduct includes post-separation employment regulation:
http://www.aph.gov.au/library/intguide/POL/conduct.htm#post
The Cole inquiry reports
The Cole Inquiry into the AWB bribery scandal reported on 24 November 2006. The voluminous report (the summary and recommendations alone run to nearly 350 pages) concludes that responsibility lay entirely within the AWB and not with members of the government or the public service. Senior figures within the AWB had paid bribes to Iraq to secure wheat export contracts, and had consistently lied to cover themselves. The full report is available here:
http://www.ag.gov.au/agd/WWW/unoilforfoodinquiry.nsf/Page/Report
The report is, however, critical of the lack of adequate procedures for responding to suspicions of corrupt practice, a point taken up by Prof Pat Weller who argues, in a piece in The Australian, that even if ministers and senior public servants had not deliberately turned a blind eye to AWB’s dealings, they should have known what was going on:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,20830728,00.html
Queensland corruption inquiry
The Queensland premier Peter Beattie has forbidden all Labor members from any dealings with the former Industrial Relations and Health Minister Gordon Nuttall. Nuttall stepped down in September 2006, after it was revealed by the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission that he had received a large undisclosed loan from the CEO of a coal firm lobbying for a road and rail diversion to one of its mines. He is currently facing a ‘fast-track’ expulsion from the ALP.
Read more in the Courier Mail:
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,20912199-3102,00.html
UK party loans
The controversy surrounding party finance in the UK has continued, as the full extent of the major parties’ reliance on loans has emerged. Labour and the Conservatives owe around £59 million (more than AU$147 million at the current rate of exchange). These private loans have come to light since a change to the Electoral Commission’s disclosure regulations: loans were previously hidden as the disclosure rules only covered donations. Many of the loans were effectively donations as they were never intended to be repaid.
Read more in The Guardian:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/funding/story/0,,1959000,00.html
Canada strengthens accountability
The Canadian Federal Accountability Act received Royal Assent on 12 December 2006. Under the Act;
All corporate and union donations to political parties and candidates are banned;
The amount an individual can donate to a party or candidate is reduced to $1000 p.a., as is the contribution an individual can make to their own campaign;
A new Commissioner of Lobbying is created, as an Agent of Parliament;
Ministers, ministerial staffers and senior public servants are prohibited from lobbying the Canadian Government for five years after leaving office;
The role of the Ethics Commissioner and the Auditor General is strengthened;
Transparency of the commissioning of public opinion research and advertising is increased;
An independent Public Servants Disclosure Protection Tribunal is created, to increase protection for whistleblowers.
AND there is more: http://www.faa-lfi.gc.ca/index_e.asp
‘Politics and the media’ conference call for papers
Proposals are invited for papers (5000 to 8000 words) for presentation at a conference on ‘Politics and the Media’ to be held at The University of Melbourne in January 2008. The focus of the conference will be on political reporting/political journalism in Australia.
The papers should fit into at least one of the following categories:
Media reporting of politics and/or elections in Australia
Media reporting of the 2007 federal election
How legal issues impact upon media reporting of politics in Australia
How political economy issues impact upon media reporting of politics in Australia (e.g. resources, structures of media/news organisations, incumbency benefits, political finance issues).
Abstracts (no more than 300 words) for all papers are due on or before 15 January 2007.
To submit an abstract please send details in the body of an email to Sally Young [email protected]
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696 or 1600
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
Update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
The Australian Wheat Board and the Oil for Food Program
Linda Botterill, Australian National University, considers the outcome of the Cole Inquiry into the AWB Ltd’s alleged bribery in Iraq. The problem was not so much one of government culpability, she argues, but shortcomings in the way in which the original privatisation of the wheat exporting institutions were carried out.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20070213_botterill_awb.pdf
Time to tighten the caretaker conventions?
The Canberra Times’ Paul Malone reviews the current caretaker conventions, designed to ensure that a government does not exploit its position once an election is called. The conventions are, however, interpreted very differently between departments, particularly in relation to departmental websites. New guidelines should minimise the scope for conflicting interpretations.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20070213_malone_caret_conv.pdf
An upper house for Queensland?
Nicholas Aroney (University of Queensland) and Scott Prasser (University of the Sunshine Coast) look at the debate surrounding the merits of restoring an upper house to the Queensland parliament. A second chamber could contribute to far greater executive scrutiny in Queensland, but much would depend on how a restored upper house was structured
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20070213_aronprass_upphqld.pdf
Matters of Public Importance debates cut
The government has slashed the time available in parliament for debate on Matters of Public Importance (MPI). MPI debates are held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday during sitting weeks, and allow MPs to raise matters of the concern to their electorates and the government is halving the time available from two hours to just one. Independent MPs in particular, have used MPI debates: Independent MP Tony Windsor has said the moves are aimed to reduce the influence of Independents. Independent MP Peter Andren said 'The Howard government continues its undermining of parliament with Tony Abbott now attacking me and my Independent colleagues for speaking out in debates such as the daily matter of public importance'.
http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=355568
Party funding figures revealed
The Australian Electoral Commission has disclosed the donations from companies to the political parties for 2005-06. The full returns can be found on the AEC’s website:
http://www.aec.gov.au/_content/what/media_releases/2007/02_01.htm but some of the largest donors to the federal parties are as follows:
Liberal Party
Pratt Holdings Pty Ltd – $200 000
Westfield Holdings Ltd – $160 000
ANZ Banking Group limited – $100 000
Inghams Enterprises Pty Ltd – $100 000
Kingold Group Companies Ltd – $100 000
Walker Corporation Limited – $100 000
Westpac Banking Corporation – $65 000
Paul Ramsay Holdings Pty Ltd – $53 000
Goldman Sachs JBWere – $50 000
Gunns Ltd – $50 000
Leighton Holdings – $50 000
Resmed – $50 000
True James Erskine – $50 000
Phillip Morris – $35 000
Coca-Cola Amatil – $32 500
British American Tobacco Australia – $25 000
Adsteam Marine Services Ltd – $20 000
Wesfarmers – $10 000
Total Receipts (includes other receipts): $4 212 557
Labor Party:
CFMEU Mining & Energy Division – $100 000
Westfield Capital Corporation Ltd – $100 000
ANZ Banking Group limited – $50 000
Leighton Holdings Ltd – $50 000
Westpac Banking Corporation – $40 000
Coca Cola Amatil – $40 000
Adsteam Marine Ltd – $20 000
Profile Ray & Berndston – $15 000
Wesfarmers Limited – $10 000
Total Receipts (includes other receipts): $3 785 737
National Party:
Manildra Group of Companies - $31 000
Adsteam Marine Ltd– $20 000.00
Philip Morris Limited – $20 000.00
British American Tobacco Australia – $16 600
Wesfarmers Limited – $10 000
Leighton Holdings Limited – $10 000
Westpac Banking Corporation – $10 000
Total receipts (includes other receipts): $900 177.00
Australian Democrats:
Under official AEC definitions, the Democrats received no donations this year.
Total receipts (includes other receipts): $144 642
Crikey has a review of the disclosures that also lists the details from the States and Territories: see http://www.crikey.com.au/ (subscription required).
Silencing Dissent
A new book, Silencing Dissent, edited by Clive Hamilton and Sarah Maddison, and featuring a number of Audit contributors, considers the way in which the Howard Government has sought to undermine and discredit, not only independent and dissenting opinion, but also the dissenters themselves. Bullying, intimidation, personal attacks, withdrawal of funding, and manipulation of the rules have all been employed as ways of limiting public debate. The victims have included charities, academics, researchers, journalists, judges, the public service, and even parliament itself: http://www.silencingdissent.com.au/
The SMH’s review:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/book-reviews/silencing-dissent/2007/02/09/1170524288496.html
and The Australian’s:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21142636-5003900,00.html
Freedom of information?
The Sydney Morning Herald carried a bizarre story illustrating the shortcomings of the current FOI framework. Herald journalists were faced with a prospective bill for $13 000 by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations for making a decision on whether various papers relating to the welfare-to-work might be released. They went to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for a discount on public interest grounds but were denied it on the grounds that FOI requests were part of the newspapers’ normal commercial activities. The full saga can be found here:
http://blogs.smh.com.au/newsblog/archives/freedom_of_information/009581.html
House of Lords reform proposals
The UK government has published a White Paper outlining proposals for a partially elected House of Lords. Reforms eliminating the right of almost all hereditary peers to sit in the second chamber were introduced in 1999, and were generally expected to be the first step in the introduction of an elected Lords. But in 2003, all the options for introducing an elected component were rejected. The government currently favours 50 per cent elected, with 50 per cent remaining appointed, though the Lords are expected to reject this. However, it has been reported that Gordon Brown, the favourite to succeed Tony Blair, will force through reform making the Lords entirely elected, once leader, if these proposals are blocked.
Read the White Paper: http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm70/7027/7027.pdf
Re-thinking Westminster
The Audit's Norman Abjorensen spoke on ABC Radio National's Perspective program on 31January 2007, on the South Australian Rann Government's rewriting of the Westminister system of government by appointing non-Labor members to cabinet.
Several minutes in duration, you can read the transcript, listen online or download the MP3 (right-click and 'save as') and listen later.
Going backwards? Women in federal politics
In the run up to International Women's Day, women's presence in the federal Cabinet has been reduced from three to two (Senator Helen Coonan and Julie Bishop). Women now make up 11 per cent of the federal Cabinet (2 out of 18) and 13 per cent of the ministry as a whole (4 out of 30). This compares poorly with countries such as Sweden, Norway, Spain and Chilé where women make up half of Cabinet.
Australia has also slid to its lowest-ever place in the league table of representation of women in national parliaments compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Union. The latest figures (30 November 2006) show Australia to have dropped to 33rd place internationally, down from 15th in 1999. The ranking is based on representation in the lower house of the national parliament.
Women are somewhat more evident on the federal Labor front bench, making up 7 out of 31 shadow ministers (23 per cent), and with Julia Gillard as Deputy Leader. On the other hand, women's presence in the Victorian Labor Cabinet dropped from seven to four (35 per cent to 20 per cent) after the election in late 2006.
The Audit will be publishing a major new report, How Well Does Australian democracy Serve Women? in advance of International Women's Day. The report, prepared by Sarah Maddison and Emma Partridge, finds that while Australia was once a leader in the global struggle for gender equality, many of the achievements have been undone in recent years. Inquiries about advance copies should be made to the Audit project manager on [email protected].
End of year deregistration of 19 political parties
On 27 December 2006 19 political parties were de-registered when Schedule 3 of the Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Act 2006 came into effect.
The purpose of the deregistration was to eliminate liberals for forests. In the JSCEM inquiry into the 2004 federal election it was alleged that voters were misled into believing liberals for forests had some connection to the Liberal Party. In particular, liberals for forests were blamed for the Coalition's narrow loss of the seat of Richmond.
The Commonwealth Electoral Act was promptly amended in 2004 to prevent the registration of new parties with names that might lead a reasonable person to assume a connection to an already registered party. However, liberals for forests were already registered—so the new provision for deregistration was included in the 2006 Electoral Act amendments. The deregistration of 19 parties to achieve the deregistration of one seems somewhat extreme and contrary to the encouragement of pluralistic party competition and access to the ballot paper. At least reregistration without fee can be achieved within the next six months as long as the parties still satisfy the requirement of having 500 members and comply with the new naming provisions.
The parties de-registered were:
Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)
Citizens Electoral Council of Australia
Citizens Electoral Council of Australia (NSW Division)
Help End Marijuana Prohibition
Hope Party – ethics equality ecology
liberals for forests
New Country Party
No Goods and Services Tax Party
Non-Custodial Parents Party
One Nation Queensland Division
One Nation Western Australia
People Power
Progressive Labour Party
Queensland Greens
Republican Party of Australia
Socialist Alliance
The Australian Shooters Party
The Fishing Party
The Great Australians
* Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, Parliament of Australia. The Australian Electoral Commission had initially refused the registration of liberals for forests but the decision was overturned by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in 2001.
Read the Audit’s Norm Kelly’s article in The Canberra Times: http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20070213_kellyn_canbtimes.pdf
Skewing electoral competition
The Special Minister of State, Gary Nairn, announced on 11 January that all federal members of parliament would be entitled to one extra staff member: four instead of three for party backbenchers and five instead of four for Independents.
Federal members of parliament serve very large numbers of constituents by international standards. At the 2004 election the average enrolment in federal electorates was 87 323 - far higher than the number that triggered an increase in the number of seats in 1984. By contrast, the average number of registered voters in the 2005 New Zealand general election was under 43 000 and in the UK under 68 000. At the 2004 Canadian election the average number of electors was under 73 000.
All of this adds up to an argument for more politicians or perhaps more staff to assist the existing ones to service their electorates. However, in the absence of guidelines restricting the activities of parliamentary staff, the increase of staff further skews electoral competition in favour of incumbents. There cannot be political equality and fair competition where the balance is weighted so much against new contenders.
The increase in staff, taken together with the increase in allowances that can be used for campaigning, such as last year's increase in the printing allowance to $150 000 (plus allowable carryover) creates an immediate and unfair advantage for incumbent politicians in an election year. Other parliaments explicitly prevent the use of parliamentary allowances such as these for campaigning purposes. In Westminster, as well as in the Scottish Parliament, there are guidelines whereby staffers paid for out of the public purse are not allowed to canvass or campaign during working hours - they may take leave or campaign out of hours, or their salaries should be reimbursed by the parties for the relevant period.
Independent MP Peter Andren has announced his refusal of the extra staff allocation. Australia needs to start clearly distinguishing between the use of staff and parliamentary allowances for constituency and legislative work and their use to give incumbent politicians more than a head-start in electoral competition.
The Audit's Norm Kelly has more in the Canberra Times.
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696 or 1600
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
How well does Australian democracy serve Australian women?
The Democratic Audit’s Focussed Audit Number 8, How well does Australian democracy serve Australian women? by Sarah Maddison and Emma Partridge, is now available, in advance of International Women’s Day. It finds that Australia, once a leader in efforts to establish equality between men and women, has slid backwards on gender equality over the past decade, with many of the gains made by women in earlier decades now undone. The report is available to download from the website. Limited numbers of hard copies are available from the Audit (individual copies free, additional copies at $10.00).
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/
Dr Maddison will present the findings of the paper in the 2007 Pamela Denoon Lecture on 7 March at The Australian National University. Full details are available here:
http://billboard.anu.edu.au/event_view.asp?id=11265
Election funding in New Zealand
Andrew Geddis (University of Otago), author of Electoral Law in New Zealand; practice and Policy (LexisNexis, Jan 2007), reviews New Zealand’s system of election funding in the light of the 2005 election in a new paper for the Audit. A series of serious breaches of the rules by several parties have been documented, but with little prospect of punishment. Enforcement of the rules is weak, with breaches treated as ‘victimless crimes’. However, such continued breaches risk undermining the legitimacy of the whole electoral process
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20070302_geddis_fundnzelect.pdf
Funding arrangements for parliament
The Hon David Hawker, Speaker of the House of Representatives, considers the funding arrangements for the Australian parliament. Drawing on examples from overseas, he suggests changes to parliament’s funding and administration to strengthen its independence.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20070302_hawker_parlfund.pdf
Senate votes against accountability measures
Australian Democrats Senator Andrew Murray recently moved a motion in the Senate, noting last year’s Canadian reforms in the area of accountability. The Canadian reforms cover the issues of political donations, whistleblower protection, and restrictions on Ministers and staffers engaging in lobbying work after they have left office. Senator Murray’s motion called for the government to consider whether Australian legislation sufficiently addresses these issues of transparency and accountability. The motion was defeated on government numbers. To see how your Senators voted, look at Hansard, p.13, here:
http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/dailys/ds080207.pdf.
Crime and Corruption Commission transcripts
The hearings of the Western Australian Crime and Corruption Commission inquiry into former WA premier Brian Burke and his associates are coming to an end, with two State ministers being sacked in three days as a result of evidence from phone taps. Three ministers in all have been sacked as a result of the inquiry. The transcripts of the hearings are available from the CCC website:
http://www.ccc.wa.gov.au/transcripts-notice.php
The independence of electoral administration
Audit contributor and former Australian Electoral Commissioner, Professor Colin Hughes, is giving a Senate Occasional Lecture on 'The independence of electoral administration'. The lecture will cover the development of the Australian system of electoral administration and consider the level of independence achieved. Admission is free, inquiries to the Senate Procedure Office (Tel. 02 6277 3074; Email.
[email protected])
When: Friday 23rd March 2007, 12.15 - 1.15
Where: Main Committee Room, Parliament House, Canberra
ACT electoral compendium
The ACT Electoral Commission has published an Electoral Compendium, full of information about the electoral process for the Territory. It is available from their website:
http://www.elections.act.gov.au/adobe/ElectoralCompendium.pdf
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696 or 1600
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Railroading democracy
In the wake of the Brian Burke scandal in WA, Dr Carmen Lawrence, federal MP for Fremantle and former Premier of WA, argues for more stringent rules governing lobbyists’ activities and politicians’ dealings with them. Drawing on international examples, she argues that, at the very least, the transparency of the lobbying process needs to be far greater, yet the WA proposals fall well short of what is required.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20070329_lawrence_railrddem.pdf
Resources for members of parliament: More Australian anomalies
The Audit’s June Verrier argues that the decision to grant MPs an extra staff member is a boost to the incumbency benefits enjoyed by sitting members. Parliament will function better if resources are diverted from support for incumbents' campaigns towards areas of benefit to the parliament as a whole, such as parliamentary research services.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20070329_verrier_mpresources.pdf
NSW election 24 March 2007
The Iemma Labor government was returned in the NSW State election, but in an interesting development almost a third of the Legislative Council vote was for minor parties or Independents.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/elections/nsw07/allphotos.html
Independent speaker for NSW
An interesting development of the election is that Premier Morris Iemma has reportedly given the post of Speaker of the House of Assembly to the Independent member for Northern Tablelands, Richard Torbay. The Speaker is supposed to be impartial in overseeing the conduct of parliamentary business and so appointing an Independent should bolster this impartiality.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/iemmas-surprise-an-independent-speaker/2007/03/28/1174761571370.html
Commonwealth whistleblower found guilty
On 27 March a former Customs officer was found guilty of leaking information about flaws in security at Sydney airport and faces up to two years in prison. The leaked information was published in the Australian and led to a major upgrade in security. The Australian has commented that public servants who leak information about flawed public administration deserve medals not criminal convictions. The Commonwealth provides least protection to whistleblowers of all Australian jurisdictions. Read more in the Australian.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21466247-2702,00.html
FOI legislation ‘woeful’
FOI expert Rick Snell has said that the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act ‘performs woefully’ in important respects. Whilst requests for access to personal information are generally being responded to swiftly and positively, requests for information relating to policy are systematically failing and the situation appears to be worsening: 46.3 per cent of requests for non-personal information were rejected in full or in part.
http://theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21423684-7582,00.html?from=public_rss
Disclosure failure forces minister’s resignation
Queensland Senator and Minister for Ageing Santo Santoro has been forced to resign his post and his seat, following revelations of undisclosed share deals. When he was initially pulled up for his failure to disclose a share trade in a biotechnology firm, he blamed an oversight. But he has subsequently been revealed to have had some 72 other such ‘oversights’. The issue of whether ministers should be able to hold and trade shares is a contentious one: even outside their portfolio, they can have access to information that can directly benefit them and can participate in cabinet discussions that can affect their value. Putting shares out of reach in ‘blind trust’ for the duration is one option. Transparency through disclosure is a minimum safeguard against such potential conflicts of interest, and Santoro’s commercial dealings should have been disclosed on the Register of Members’ Interests.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21440164-5006029,00.html
The accessibility of the Register of Members’ Interests is also an issue. At the moment, the registers are held by the Parliamentary Clerks’ departments, available for inspection in person. But in Westminster and the Scottish parliaments and in New Zealand, a version of the register is available on the webpage. This one of the measures recommended by ICAC in the wake of revelations that the then-Leader of the Opposition in NSW, John Brogden, had asked parliamentary questions whilst working as a public affairs consultant for PwC, and which was apparently disclosed reluctantly (and partially) following media probing. However it appears to have been kicked into the long grass for the foreseeable future.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/waters-still-muddy-for-moonlighting-mps/2007/03/02/1172338881118.html?page=2
Proof of ID
The proof of identity (POI) requirements introduced as a result of last year's amendments to the Commonwealth Electoral Act have come into force. From 16 April 2007, people wishing to enroll or to amend their enrolment details will be required to prove their identity by providing a driving licence number or, in the absence of driving licence, to prove their identity in other prescribed ways.
http://www.aec.gov.au/_content/What/publications/tallyboard/0704.pdf
War on allowances
An article in the Canberra Times drawing on Democratic Audit data has highlighted the 'mutually assured incumbency' resulting from increased federal parliamentary allowances and lax rules governing their use. MPs are now permitted to use the resources received for electorate work for party political purposes and to roll over unspent allowances for use in an election year. Independent MP Peter Andren and Democrat Senator Andrew Murray have been leading critics of this trend.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/misc/20070310ct_allowances.pdf
Parliamentary privilege blocking WA corruption inquiry
The WA Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) has been forced to suspend its inquiry into possible misconduct by members of the Legislative Council's Standing Committee on Estimates and Financial Operations. Evidence suggested that two members of the committee were being manipulated to hold an inquiry to benefit clients of Brian Burke and Noel Crichton-Browne. The Labor President of the Legislative Council has refused to hand over documents to the CCC on the grounds of parliamentary privilege. The parliament is instead holding its own inquiry, which will not have access to the CCC's phone tap and other material.
Read more in The Australian:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21434975-5006789,00.html
An elected House of Lords?
British MPs have voted in favour of an entirely elected House of Lords. Though the vote was not binding, the strength of the backing for an entirely (or almost entirely) elected upper house has sent a clear message to government. The proposals were subsequently strongly rejected by the House of Lords.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6420965.stm
UK party funding
The report of Sir Hayden Phillips’ review of party funding in the UK was published in March 2007. The report calls for caps on donations and greater transparency about party income. However, many of the recommendations are tentative, reflecting disagreements between the main parties about the nature of the problem and the preferred solutions. The report is available to download from the inquiry’s webpage:
http://www.partyfundingreview.gov.uk/index.html
Coinciding with the Phillips report, Audit contributor Keith Ewing, professor of law at Kings College, London, has published his own investigation into the subject, The Cost of Democracy, in which he argues that spending caps are a more effective means than donation caps for reducing the British parties’ reliance on large donations. It is published by Hart: http://www.hartpub.co.uk/books/details.asp?isbn=9781841137162
Canberra Public Lecture: Human Rights in Australia: Whatever happened to a fair go?
Julian Burnside QC, Director, The Justice Project
Saturday 31 March 2007
4 - 5.30pm Coombs Lecture Theatre (Bldg 9), Fellows Road, ANU, Canberra
Julian Burnside will speak about current developments in human rights in Australia. He will address in particular: What’s Australia’s past record in human rights? How have Australia’s laws and policies changed recently? Why should Australians be worried? What can we do to re-establish a ‘fair go Australia’? Afterwards, Kurt Esser, Chair of The Justice Project (TJP), will give a brief introduction to the work of the organisation, in particular, the Human Rights Questionnaire to be presented to all sitting members and candidates prior to the next federal election.
More info: http://law.anu.edu.au/nissl/burnside.pdf
Enquiries E: [email protected] or T: 6255 1643
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696 or 1600
update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
The Audit update is back after a brief hiatus whilst I was away on research leave.
Gender and the NSW election
In a new Audit paper, Tony Smith analyses the representation of women in the New South Wales parliament following the election on 24 March 2007. He argues that the Coalition’s failure to make greater inroads into the Labor government’s majority can, in part, be attributed to their failure to promote women candidates in winnable seats and to their weakness on gender issues.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20070525_smith_gendernsw.pdf
Political equality in Australia
The pursuit of political equality is one of the four underpinning values of the Democratic Audit of Australia. In this new paper, Audit leader Marian Sawer reviews the state of Australian democracy in relation to this core principle. Restrictions on voting, a lack of transparency surrounding political finance, and the use of public money for party political ends are some of the areas in which Australia currently fails to measure up.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20070525_sawerdemvals.pdf
Amnesty International's 2007 report critical of Australia
Amnesty International (AI) has published its report on the state of the world's human rights in 2007. The Australian government is one of the ones singled out for criticism for adopting ‘the politics of fear’ in relation to asylum seekers. In addition to its refugee policies, violence against women and the counter-terrorism measures were areas highlighted as concerns.
The report can be downloaded from the AI website:
http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Homepage
Freedom of the Australian press
The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance has published its 2007 Report on Press Freedom. Disturbingly, the report finds that: ‘A creeping authoritarianism has been the hallmark of the past 12 months in the Australian press. Government and the courts continue to restrict what journalists can report and where they can go, criminalising the media’s professional obligations and wielding ever-greater unchecked power’. Download the report from the Alliance’s website:
http://www.alliance.org.au/sections/media/2007-press-freedom-report.html
Webscrubbing
New Matilda has an article on the way in which governments around the world are using their websites to rewrite history—or ‘webscrubbing’. Whilst the internet has allowed instant access to a vast amount of information, it also allows governments (and companies) retrospectively to edit embarrassing information from their websites and out of public view.
http://www.newmatilda.com//home/articledetail.asp?NewsletterID=315&ArticleID=2227&email=1 (subscription needed)
Investigation public service and ministerial staff in Canada
The Canadian Public Service Commission has launched an inquiry into the movement of public servants between departments and ministerial offices, and in particular the possible impact on the impartiality—both real and perceived—of the public service. The inquiry follows the Commission’s investigations into two incidents where ministerial offices tried to influence the public service appointments process. Writing in the Public Sector Informant (May 2007), Jack Waterford highlights the relevance of the inquiry to Australia, where the restrictions on the post-separation employment of public officeholders are less stringent, with the onus placed squarely on the individual to avoid conflicts of interest, and taking ‘improper advantage’ of their previous position.
http://www.psc-cfp.gc.ca/centres/news_releases/2007/scoping_e.htm
Prisoner challenges disenfranchisement
Vickie Lee Roach, an inmate of the Dame Phyllis Frost Women’s Prison in Victoria has mounted a legal challenge to the government’s 2006 decision to remove prisoners’ right to vote. The challenge is on the basis that, under the Constitution, a citizen can only be disenfranchised on the grounds of mental capacity.
The Age has the full story:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/prisoner-goes-to-high-court-to-win-right-to-vote/2007/04/24/1177180651410.html
Government advertising
Following the controversy over the publicly-funded advertising campaign in support of its WorkChoices proposals, the federal government has launched another campaign—this time for its ‘fairness test—that can be criticised for the same sort of abuse of public funds for party-political ends. With a Bill still some time off, full-page advertisements have already begun to appear in the press in the context of the forthcoming federal election.
Audit contributors Graeme Orr and Joo-Cheong Tham have a piece in the Age on it:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/turning-taxes-into-spin/2007/05/16/1178995233009.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
US electoral administration
Eight US States are allowing electoral registration up to, and including, election day itself. The move has seen turn out rise, and no apparent problems with fraudulent registration. The latter was the justification for the 2006 changes to electoral registration in Australia, which will, it has been predicted, disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters.
Read the full story in the New York Times (free registration required):
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/opinion/11dunlap.html?ex=1179547200&en=e2c13161d5ffcc02&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Less encouragingly, the six-member Federal Election Commission, the body responsible for overseeing US campaign finance laws, is entering the presidential election season with three temporary members whose appointments have not been ratified, two members whose terms have expired but who have not been replaced, and one vacancy. The appointments process is likely to bog down in controversy, both partisan and across party lines, on issues like restrictions on campaign expenditure.
Read more in the Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/05/09/politics_could_cloud_election_panels_work/
Charter of right for Australia
George Williams, Professor of Law at UNSW and a member of the Audit’s Academic Advisory Committee, has published an updated version of his book, A Charter of Rights for Australia. Australia is alone amongst democracies in having no national bill of rights: Williams argues that the matter has become more urgent in recent years. More information can be found on the publisher’s website:
www.unswpress.com.au
Law and liberty in the war on terror
The Gilbert and Tobin Centre of Public Law at UNSW is hosting a symposium on Law & Liberty in the War on Terror. The event is on the 4, 5, and 6 July 2007 at UNSW. Speakers include the Attorney-General Philip Ruddock MP. Full details are available from the website: http://www.llwt.unsw.edu.au/
Human rights conference
The Law School at the University of Melbourne is hosting a conference ‘Protecting Human Rights’ on 25 September 2007. Full details from the website:
http://cccs.law.unimelb.edu.au/
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696 or 1600
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
Update from the Democratic Audit of Australia .....
Shrinking electoral roll
In a new paper for the Audit, Peter Brent (ANU) and Simon Jackman (Stanford University) review the slowing rate of increase of the Australian electoral roll. They find that the Australian Electoral Commission has become more proficient at expunging than at enrolling or re-enrolling voters.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20070620brentjackmanaecroll.pdf
Scottish and Welsh elections
Elections for the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly, and for local government in most of England and in Scotland, were held on 3 May 2007. In a new Audit paper, James Jupp (ANU) reviews the background and results.
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20070620juppuklocel.pdf
How well does Australian democracy serve sexual and gender minorities?
The latest publication in the Focussed Audit series, How well does Australian democracy serve sexual and gender minorities? by Sarah Maddison (University of Sydney) and Emma Partridge (UTS), will be published at the end of the month. The report will be available as a free download from the Audit website. A limited number of hard copies will also be available directly from us. Details at
http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/
Human rights for WA
The Western Australian Government has released a draft Human Rights Bill that draws on both the Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT) and the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities 2006. A consultative committee chaired by former Fraser Government Minister Fred Chaney has called for submissions by 31 August 2007. Australia remains the only western democracy without a national Bill of Rights but action is at least proceeding at the sub-national level. For more information, including a discussion paper and the draft bill, go to http://www.humanrights.wa.gov.au
Prisoner disenfranchisement
The Roach Constitutional challenge to prisoner disenfranchisement (Roach v Electoral Commissioner & Anor) is being heard in the High Court in Canberra.
Brian Costar, Professor at Swinburne University, had an episode of Perspective on Radio National on 4 June 2007 on it:
transcript: http://abc.net.au/rn/perspective/stories/2007/1941917.htm#transcript
audio http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/current/audioonly/pve_20070604.mp3
Fundraising at Kirribilli
Revelations that Prime Minister John Howard has been using official residences, Kirribilli House and The Lodge, to host Liberal Party events has sparked controversy. The Australian Electoral Commission has ruled that the rent-free use of Kirribilli House by the Liberal Party did not constitute a 'gift' that should have been disclosed under electoral rules.
The AEC’s release on the subject is here:
http://www.aec.gov.au/About_AEC/Media_releases/2007/06_14.htm
Read more in the Sydney Morning Herald:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/NATIONAL/AEC-clears-PM-over-Kirribilli-function/2007/06/14/1181414439339.html
Tightening the rules for voters
The Audit’s Norm Kelly and Audit adviser Colin Hughes (Emeritus Professor of Politics, University of Queensland and former federal Electoral Commissioner) were both interviewed for Radio National’s Law Report on 12 June 2007 on the changes to federal enrolment requirements. The Government has claimed that the changes are necessary to ensure the integrity of the electoral roll. But that integrity was not seriously in question before the changes and the new provisions are likely to deny the vote to tens of thousands of otherwise eligible Australians.
Read or listen here:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lawreport/stories/2007/1945642.htm#transcript
Offices of profit?
Audit contributor Peter van Onselen has published an opinion piece on the lack of rules in Australia governing the employment of ministers once they leave office. The latest example is Ian Campbell who has been appointed to the board of a company expected to tender for the smart card contract he had carriage of as minister. Canada, the UK and the US all have rules governing post-separation employment to prevent such conflicts of interest.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/too-easy-a-ride-into-private-gold/2007/06/17/1182018938417.html
Independent Electoral Commission for Ireland
Following the Irish election Fianna Fail has negotiated an agreement with the Greens to enter a coalition government led by Fianna Fail and also including the Progressive Democrats. Apart from provisions for new climate change initiatives, the agreement includes the creation of a new independent electoral commission with responsibility for electoral administration and the creation of a new electoral register. The electoral commission will also take over responsibilities in relation to electoral expenditure from the Commission on Standards in Public Life.
Sydney Democratic Deficit event
The Sydney Democracy Forum is holding an event on the Democratic Deficit and Australia. The event will explore Australia's democratic deficit and some novel ways for strengthening our democracy. Its three presenters are Dr Lyn Carson (University of Sydney), Dr Phil Larkin (Democratic Audit of Australia, Australian National University) and Professor Murray Print (University of Sydney).
This is a free event, which is open to SDF members and all other interested persons. For catering purposes RSVPs are required and should be sent to the SDF Program Coordinator ([email protected] or (02) 9036 5248) by Friday 22 June.
More information on the Forum and on this even can be found here:
http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/cah/news/sdf.shtml
Dr Phil Larkin
Democratic Audit of Australia
Political Science
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Tel: +61 2 6125 0696 or 1600
Fax: +61 2 6125 3051
business as usual .....
The Iemma Government is still selling access to its most senior ministers for more than $100,000, despite a pledge by the Premier to clean up the state's controversial election funding system.
A NSW Labor "Business Dialogue" program, distributed last week to Sydney businesses, offers donors exclusive incentives, including a "private boardroom lunch with senior ministers" and seats at a "boardroom welcome lunch" with the Premier, Morris Iemma, and the Treasurer, Michael Costa.
But people or companies wanting access must pay a hefty premium, beginning at $110,000 for a "Foundation Partner" down to $13,750 for "Executive Partners". In between are "Event Partner" packages for $59,850, "Business Partner" deals for $36,850 and "Associate Partnerships" for $22,000". All are "GST inclusive".
Still At It: Labor's $100,000 Lunches