Updates, explainers, and news about building a participatory democracy party for Australia.
Adelaide's northern suburbs receive a fraction of the infrastructure investment that flows to the south, yet house a disproportionate share of the city's most vulnerable residents. This isn't an accident - it's a policy choice, and voters in the north have been paying for it for decades.
Read moreSouth Australians pay some of the highest water prices in the developed world - and despite promises of reform, bills keep climbing. Here's who's benefiting, who's paying, and why nothing changes.
Read moreTasmania relies on poker machines more heavily than any other Australian state - and successive Labor and Liberal governments have protected the industry at the expense of public health. Here's what the numbers reveal, and why politicians keep looking the other way.
Read moreTasmania continues to log its ancient native forests despite overwhelming public opposition, a collapsing export market, and a tourism industry worth ten times more than timber. Here's who benefits - and why politicians keep saying yes anyway.
Read moreA decade ago, Hobart was Australia's most affordable capital city. Today it's the least affordable relative to local incomes - and the policies that caused this disaster were chosen by politicians, not people.
Read moreThe ACT government scrapped stamp duty and replaced it with ever-rising annual rates - sold as a fairer system, but in practice it's shifted the burden onto renters and long-term residents while property investors quietly benefited from the transition.
Read moreIn 2016, footage of children being tear-gassed and hooded in a Northern Territory detention centre shocked the nation. Eight years on, the systemic failures that made Don Dale possible are still largely intact - and Aboriginal children are still paying the price.
Read moreThe Northern Territory has been the testing ground for some of Australia's most interventionist alcohol policies - but decades of bans, restrictions, and federal overreach have produced mixed results at best, and serious harm at worst. Here's what the evidence actually says.
Read moreAustralia has committed up to $368 billion to a nuclear-powered submarine program that won't deliver a single vessel until the 2040s - and ordinary Australians were never asked if this is how they'd spend the money.
Read moreAustralia has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on defence equipment that arrives late, costs far more than promised, and often doesn't work as advertised. This isn't bad luck - it's a predictable pattern enabled by a system that rewards contractors and insulates politicians from accountability.
Read moreSince 2015, every Australian's phone and internet metadata has been stored by telcos for two years - accessible by dozens of government agencies without a warrant. Australians were never asked if they wanted this. Here's why that matters.
Read moreBetween 2016 and 2019, the Australian government sent hundreds of thousands of unlawful debt notices to welfare recipients using a flawed automated system. The Robodebt scandal is a case study in what happens when bureaucratic convenience trumps human rights - and why citizens, not politicians, should have the final say on policies like this.
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