This year marks a significant anniversary in Australian political history. But few Australian citizens will be celebrating it mainly because they simply don’t know what it is. In 1924, as Australia entered its third decade of federation, our federal parliament passed legislation mandating compulsory voting. 100 years later, that innovation has been meshed into our political lives and democracy as utterly normal. The “democracy sausage” effect. Our turn out for elections is persistently high, unlike most other democracies we might compare ourselves with.

How has compulsory voting shaped our democracy over the last century? What are the positives and negatives? What might we lose if we abolished it as has been tried relatively recently.

Emeritus Professor of Politics at Monash University, Paul Strangio, co-edited the 2021 book Compulsory Voting in Australia : Genesis, Impact and Future. He speaks with Peter Clarke about the history, current status and potential future of compulsory voting in Australia.

RESOURCES

Compulsory voting in Australia is 100 years old. We should celebrate how special it makes our democracy by Paul Strangio

https://theconversation.com/compulsory-voting-in-australia-is-100-years-old-we-should-celebrate-how-special-it-makes-our-democracy-234801

Compulsory Voting in Australia : Genesis, Impact and Future

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-33-4025-1

From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia Got Compulsory Voting by Judith Brett

https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/from-secret-ballot-to-democracy-sausage-how-australia-got-compulsory-voting

Ultimately, it happened at lightning speed. After weeks of apparent digging in, USA president, Joe Biden, finally bowed to the inevitable and withdrew his candidacy from the presidential election contest, endorsing his Vice President, Kamala Harris, as he did so. She, within 24 hours, had secured sufficient Democrats' delegates to the upcoming national nomination convention to instantly become the putative nominee. Harris immediately started campaigning with feisty, speeches, taking on her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, frontally and laying out her policy themes under her slogan "We're Not Going Back!" to counter Trump's, "Make America Great Again", making the intensely fractious, febrile contest ostensibly about the past versus the future. Peter Clarke and Margo Kingston take stock of the first days of this utterly transformed and crucial US presidential election contest.

Denise Shrivell is an Australian democracy activist, media critic and analyst. Her background is in advertising and public communications. More recently, Denise has worked on political campaigns including as an advisor to "community independent", Kylea Tink, now the independent federal MP for North Sydney. She produces and presents a weekly, "live" podcast titled, Spinproof, and curates a daily newsletter, TrueNorth, which aggregates Denise's selections of quality, independent, Australian journalism.

She is in conversation with #transitzone anchor, Peter Clarke.

DENISE SHRIVELL TWITTER: @DeniseShrivell

https://linktr.ee/deniseshrivell

TrueNorth: https://linktr.ee/truenorthnews

@TrueNorthNewsAU

SpinProof Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spinproof--4577848

Tasmania has just had an election called by disgruntled premier, Jeremy Rockliff, who wanted to escape the "chaos" (his words) of an unstable, minority government. The election did not go well for Rockliff. The Tasmanian Liberal party did gain the most seats in the new parliament but below an absolute majority. However, the Tasmanian Greens gained significant ground adding new seats , as did the Jacqui Lambie Network. A sprinkling of independents made up the rest. Peter Clarke, Margo Kingston and guest, Nicholas Gruen, discuss the prospects for this inevitably more deliberative parliament (if it can be formed and sustained). Nicholas then lays out his visions for a standing Citizen Assembly, made of citizens not elected but sampled from the population. And, with the roiling USA presidential and congressional election campaigns now well under way (with about seven months to go to voting day) Peter, Margo and Nicholas take a brief look at the looming possibility, Donald J. Trump could return to the Oval Office.

NICHOLAS GRUEN is CEO of Lateral Economics and Visiting Professor at King's College London? He publishes a regular newsletter, and is a podcaster.

https://nicholasgruen.substack.com/about?utm_source=subscribe_email&utm_content=learn_more

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/uncomfortable-collisions/episodes/Democracy-doing-it-for-ourselves-e2c6q47?%24web_only=true&_branch_match_id=1306783627365838322&utm_source=web&utm_campaign=web-share&utm_medium=sharing&_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA8soKSkottLXLy7IL8lMq0zMS87IL9ItT03SSywo0MvJzMvWT9U3LotK8XAPyE7zTAIAMhH1vTAAAAA%3D

Just over a year ago, on 21 May, 2023, Australia experienced a seismic shift in its political landscape with a federal election that saw six community independents, six women, elected to parliament by defeating sitting Liberal Party members in affluent, blue ribbon seats in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Late in the campaign, the media, catching up on what the polls were saying about those seats, by way of a shorthand tag, started calling them “teals” because some of their campaigns, not all, featured turquoise, not teal, livery. That “teals” label has stuck.

One of those six was Dr Sophie Scamps, who spoke to us in the #transitzone, way back in October 2021, BEFORE she became a candidate. Sophie became the independent MP for Mackellar north of and adjacent to Warringah where Zali Steggall had defeated former prime minister, Tony Abbott, in the previous federal election. Steggall was re-elected in 2022.

One of the key policy planks of the community independents, along with climate change and the nature of representative democracy itself, was integrity, and the creation of a federal ICAC. The newly formed National Anti Corruption Commission has just opened for business. The independents were active and prominent in its design. But their influence has been clear in other policy areas too. They have not been sidelined in the political debates and the processes of forging legislation, although climate change and the grip of the fossil fuels industries on the Labor government remain very contentious.

So what has it been like entering the crucible of Canberra politics as a community independent with very limited support staff and no political party backing? Sophie Scamps spoke to Margo Kingston, Tim Dunlop and Peter Clarke about her first year as a federal parliamentarian how she sees the evolving role of a community independent in our system and her hopes and expectations for the future with more community independents in the Australian democracy.

DR SOPHIE SCAMPS: https://www.sophiescamps.com.au

MARGO KINGSTON'S SITE, No Fibs: https://nofibs.com.au

TIM DUNLOP'S SUBSTACK SITE, The Future of Everything : https://tdunlop.substack.com/

TIM DUNLOP'S LATEST BOOK, Voices of us: The independents' movement transforming Australian democracy: https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/voices-of-us-178349/

#transitzone Episode October 2021, Mackellar Rising with Dr Sophie Scamps: https://rss.com/podcasts/transitzone/600573/

Tim Dunlop, Margo Kingston and Peter Clarke meet in the Zone to gauge what 2023 has brought us so far and what may lie ahead. They touch on the Albanese Labor government one year in, the USA presidential contest just starting, artificial intelligence, the recent coronation in the UK , prospects for an Australian republic and the arc so far of the continuing Covid 19 pandemic including "Long Covid"..

A feature interview with the author of, Voices of us: The independents’ movement transforming Australian democracy.

Peter Clarke speaks with his fellow #transitzone podcaster, Tim Dunlop, about some of the key themes in Tim's latest and fourth book that charts and analyses the rise and electoral successes of the "teals", those community independents, all women, who won a swag of formerly blue ribbon Liberal Party seats from coalition incumbents in the 2022 federal election.

The overarching theme is the health of and future prospects for the Australian democracy as this form of governance is severely stress-tested globally and in many cases, eroded and corroded.

Was the last federal election, with about a third of voting Australian citizens opting for candidates not from the major parties, a kind of "reprieve" and, if so, how can we best use it for our collective democratic futures?

PUBLISHER'S LINK https://unsw.press/books/voices-of-us/

The micro-blogging, social media platform, Twitter, emerged into the media ecosphere in 2006, almost simultaneously with Facebook (now Meta). The era of pervasive social media, as we now know it, began.

Since then, Twitter has evolved through many changes and difficulties. It has always been much smaller than Facebook but its reach and influence has been globally significant.

The demagogue, Donald Trump, used the platform as his own personal broadcast channel. (He was later banned after the 2020 USA presidential election for contravening Twitter "rules" around disinformation.) It gradually became de rigueur for many politicians, corporations, governments and celebrities to issue statements and media releases on the platform.

More recently, the oligarch, Elon Musk, finally took Twitter private via a 44 billion US dollar purchase after a fraught period of trying to back out of the acquisition and a legal battle with the Twitter board and management.

Almost instantly, Musk started firing Twitter operational staff and key executives in crucial roles including privacy and security. Other top level executives resigned subsequently.

Historically, Musk has said, "I hate advertising" and advocated an absolutist "free speech" ideology. A spooked advertising industry has recoiled from a now chaotic platform with Twitter's authentication protocols now severely corroded (there has been a sharp uptick in "impersonations" and hate speech on the platform) and a Musk directed US$8.00 monthly charge for a "blue check" (without any identity verification) now in bewildering disarray. Musk has also said he is aiming for at least half of Twitter's income to flow from subscriptions. It appears non-paying Twitter users will be algorithmically "sidelined"?

Are we witnessing the demise of Twitter? Musk himself has raised the spectre of 'bankruptcy" as early as 2023. If the platform survives, what form will it take? And for whom? Could it become a right-wing hell-scape?

On this latest #transitzone podcast, Margo Kingston, Tim Dunlop and Peter Clarke, all long term Twitter users, discuss the unfolding plight of Twitter.