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New Possibilities: Young People and Democratic Renewal. Vibrant democracies require generational renewal as norms, values and cultures evolve. This project is a systematic study of Australian students in the climate change movement. Examining who the students are, why they participate, how they organise, how they represent themselves and are represented by others in social and mainstream media, the project ethically advances ways of co-researching students’ civic and political participation in o ....New Possibilities: Young People and Democratic Renewal. Vibrant democracies require generational renewal as norms, values and cultures evolve. This project is a systematic study of Australian students in the climate change movement. Examining who the students are, why they participate, how they organise, how they represent themselves and are represented by others in social and mainstream media, the project ethically advances ways of co-researching students’ civic and political participation in offline and online settings. Expected outcomes include improved capacity for investigating student political action, new knowledge of the motivations, norms and practices that characterise student climate politics and concepts and tools for democratic renewal through engagement with young people.Read moreRead less
Mapping & Harnessing Public Mistrust: Constitutional Values Survey 2023-27. Declining public trust is well recognised as a problem of democratic government, including in Australia. However solutions are more elusive, confounded by the reality that mistrust and distrust play not just negative, but positive roles in our existing political and constitutional traditions. This project aims to be the first to comprehensively map the positive values of mistrust in citizen political attitudes and experi ....Mapping & Harnessing Public Mistrust: Constitutional Values Survey 2023-27. Declining public trust is well recognised as a problem of democratic government, including in Australia. However solutions are more elusive, confounded by the reality that mistrust and distrust play not just negative, but positive roles in our existing political and constitutional traditions. This project aims to be the first to comprehensively map the positive values of mistrust in citizen political attitudes and experience, building on previous Constitutional Values Surveys (2008-21) to test new measures of the content of trust including a first-ever longitudinal study of changing trust over time. The results will inform concrete solutions to three key policy reform dilemmas, providing better answers for sustaining public trust overall.
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Government Popularity, Political Responsiveness and Democracy in Australia. This project aims to understand what affects government popularity and how this shapes the health of democracy. What citizens are concerned about and how their concerns are satisfactorily addressed is central to an effective democracy and to responsible government. The project expects to generate new knowledge about the operation of democracy by identifying the factors that shape government popularity and how and in what ....Government Popularity, Political Responsiveness and Democracy in Australia. This project aims to understand what affects government popularity and how this shapes the health of democracy. What citizens are concerned about and how their concerns are satisfactorily addressed is central to an effective democracy and to responsible government. The project expects to generate new knowledge about the operation of democracy by identifying the factors that shape government popularity and how and in what ways governments respond to them. Expected outcomes include a comprehensive understanding of how democracy in Australia functions, which should provide the benefit of insight into how Australian democracy might be reformed to better meet the expectations of the public at a time of declining public trust in politics. Read moreRead less
Hiding in Plain Sight: 'Associated Entities' and Australian Democracy. Associated Entities (AEs) are organisations that are formally linked to political parties. This project aims to examine how AEs interact with Australian democracy by investigating their impact on elections, the law, and party system dynamics. This project expects to generate new knowledge about the impact of these nearly 200 key political actors, with a particular focus on how they are able to elude significant scrutiny of th ....Hiding in Plain Sight: 'Associated Entities' and Australian Democracy. Associated Entities (AEs) are organisations that are formally linked to political parties. This project aims to examine how AEs interact with Australian democracy by investigating their impact on elections, the law, and party system dynamics. This project expects to generate new knowledge about the impact of these nearly 200 key political actors, with a particular focus on how they are able to elude significant scrutiny of their activities. Expected outcomes include a new typology of AEs, a new financial index to measure their impact, and proposals to improve their regulation. The key benefits generated include: a strengthened campaign finance regime, and enhanced transparency and integrity to Australia's democracy.Read moreRead less
Governing Aboriginal self-determination in NSW: 1980-2025. This project aims to examine how Aboriginal affairs governance in NSW has operated in the era of self-determination since 1980 to today. Using an ethnographic approach to study political power through time, it can develop a new understanding of the real practice of self-determination as policy. It expects to investigate whether governance processes have enabled improvements in the lives of Aboriginal people in NSW. Today, as policymakers ....Governing Aboriginal self-determination in NSW: 1980-2025. This project aims to examine how Aboriginal affairs governance in NSW has operated in the era of self-determination since 1980 to today. Using an ethnographic approach to study political power through time, it can develop a new understanding of the real practice of self-determination as policy. It expects to investigate whether governance processes have enabled improvements in the lives of Aboriginal people in NSW. Today, as policymakers negotiate co-design and partnership in Aboriginal affairs, this project can create new knowledge on the potential of resetting relationships between government and Aboriginal people. This will provide a significant contribution to crucial debates on advancing Aboriginal self-determination today.Read moreRead less
Australian Parliamentary Speech: How Deliberative? How Representative? . This project aims to assess the Australian Parliament’s representativeness and quality of debate from 1901-2020. It expects to generate new tools and knowledge about the development and workings of parliament using innovative quantitative text analysis methods. Expected outcomes include analysis of the relationship between representation (class, gender etc) and policy outcomes, an information-based measure of parliamentary ....Australian Parliamentary Speech: How Deliberative? How Representative? . This project aims to assess the Australian Parliament’s representativeness and quality of debate from 1901-2020. It expects to generate new tools and knowledge about the development and workings of parliament using innovative quantitative text analysis methods. Expected outcomes include analysis of the relationship between representation (class, gender etc) and policy outcomes, an information-based measure of parliamentary speech and a standardised dataset of Hansard. This should provide significant benefits to the scholarly community by removing cost and time barriers and build capacity for international collaborations. The objective information generated can contribute to public discussion about the efficacy of parliamentary debate.Read moreRead less
Strengthening political representation in an era of democratic change. This project aims to understand and strengthen how politicians represent their constituents. As trust in politics declines, there is more pressure on politicians to engage with citizens. Understanding how these demands are reshaping the representative work of politicians is crucial to building trust and legitimacy in modern democracies. By interviewing and observing Australian politicians, this research will build important k ....Strengthening political representation in an era of democratic change. This project aims to understand and strengthen how politicians represent their constituents. As trust in politics declines, there is more pressure on politicians to engage with citizens. Understanding how these demands are reshaping the representative work of politicians is crucial to building trust and legitimacy in modern democracies. By interviewing and observing Australian politicians, this research will build important knowledge about the dynamics, demands and practices of contemporary representation. A national and international audit of novel ways to engage constituents will lead to valuable resources that politicians and citizens can use to assess and improve representative relationships, enabling stronger democratic institutions.
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