State of Inertia - Iain Walker On The Necessity For New Democracy

On the show today is Iain Walker, Executive Director at the newDemocracy Foundation, a Sydney-based organisation that works to develop and deliver alternative decision making processes and outcomes that aim to uphold Australia’s and other nations healthy functioning. I’m coming to appreciate that how we relate to each other - or maybe more appropriately how we don’t relate to each other - is one of the most substantial issues this country and many other nations face in not only upholding civil order and long held societal norms, but what are we to do if we can’t come together to participate in ways to address issues both large and small? From local issues around housing supply and planning decisions, to structural shifts like the energy transition, in the organisations that we work in and are trying to evolve some sustainability practice and outcome, to the infamous family get togethers where fear of conflict and tension seems pernicious? If there is just one common theme from doing 100 episodes of this show, it’s that there is a major bottle neck in our democratic system that is holding back the evolution and reform of Australia’s policy settings - from health and housing to climate and environmental protection, gender-based violence and how to regulate artificial intelligence. There’s no doubt there is a growing frustration and despair in the inertia at a system many have lost faith in.

Iain’s work for more than 15 years has centred on exactly this - how can deliberative processes create the space to have more rational, respectful and reasonable dialogues on how to make decisions? We cover a fair bit in this chat - from his diagnosis of why inertia now seems the status quo, his stories and evidence of how citizens assemblies drive change, the reasons politicians do and don’t appreciate the idea of these seemingly complimentary structures, and what all of us can do to play an active role in our democracy beyond voting and scrolling through soundbites and election promises.

Democracy, trust and having a sense of agency in the society that you live are some of the most vital aspects required to maintain a healthy, functioning group of people, and Iain is someone we can all learn from to protect and promote each of them. 

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