Updates, explainers, and news about building a participatory democracy party for Australia.
Australian politicians vote on their own pay, travel allowances, and office budgets - and unsurprisingly, they've been remarkably generous with themselves. Here's what your taxes are actually funding, and why the people spending the money are the last ones who should be deciding how much to spend.
Read moreWhen politicians leave office and walk straight into high-paying jobs lobbying for the industries they once regulated, democracy doesn't just look broken - it is broken. Here's how Australia's revolving door works, who it's making rich, and why it keeps spinning.
Read moreIn 2016, the major parties rewrote Australia's Senate voting rules - officially to crack down on preference deals, but the real winners tell a very different story.
Read moreAustralian state governments spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year on advertising - much of it thinly veiled self-promotion paid for by you. Here's why it happens, who benefits, and why voters would never approve it if they had a direct say.
Read moreAcross Australia, state planning ministers are quietly overriding local councils and community objections to approve major developments - and the evidence suggests it's residents, not developers, who are being left out in the cold.
Read moreBillions of dollars have been spent trying to save Australia's most important river system - yet the Murray-Darling continues to die. How did we get here, and who decided to freeze the one program that was actually working?
Read moreAustralian state governments collected over $1 billion in speed camera fines last year - but if safety were truly the goal, the evidence suggests they'd be spending that money very differently.
Read moreAustralia is one of only 21 countries that enforces compulsory voting. With $20 fines for non-voters and turnout above 90%, is mandatory attendance at the ballot box a pillar of our democracy or an outdated obligation that deserves a rethink?
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