How can Australia’s democracy be improved? Assessment Answer

Introduction

Australia is an inventive and thriving democracy, however, in the face of democratic decline globally; people must protect and strengthen the political institutions with various measured reforms. ‘Australia is referred to as a federation, a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy (Grattan, 2019). Throughout this essay, it will be discussed as to what can be done in order to improve Australia's democracy by highlighting its importance and advantages. This essay will be focusing on parliamentary democracy. What will be highlighted is how appointing the house’s speaker who is independent as well as the state’s president will improve democracy in Australia (APH, 2011). Further to this, it will be unpacked that Australia's democracy will improve by appointing a citizen jury where there is a small representation of the community when it comes to making major national issues. Finally, this essay will discuss how limiting the amount of money parties can spend during an election benefits Australia's democracy. The paper introduces key aspects of Australia’s democracy and elaborates it in diversified ways. Further, it showcases the democracy’s improvement areas and its benefits for the country in conclusion section. These core suggestions will be unpacked further.

Main Body

With a looming federal election, it has been found that common people are experiencing difficulty to conjure enthusiasm for either labor or liberal party or the strenuous campaigns, provide that when Bill Shorten will win, and further the individual shall become the eighth Prime Minister that Australia acquired within twelve years. People are past the halfway mark in the election campaign of the year 2022 and it has been found to be uninspiring (Fenna et al., 2014). Australia is considered among the richest, most diverse and safest countries in the world and this means people have each end every ingredient which actually can enhance the political landscape of Australia. The prime defining values of the democracy of Australia are election freedom and being elected, assembly freedom and political participation, speech freedom, religious belief and expression, and rule of law including other basic rights of humans. Appointing the senate’s president and the house’s speaker who is unconventional in characteristics will improve democracy of Australia. Supporting evidence is presented in data collected by the Department of foreign affairs and Trade (2020). They denoted Australian people’s three quarters (74%) have the opinion that 'democracy can be considered preferable to every unique government type', an increase of nine points from 2019' (Department of foreign affairs and Trade,2020). This continues to explain the step-by-step process as to how this can be achieved without any bias. This issue will require the collective input of members of the community in order to ensure that the decision-making process is fair and representative of the entire community (Head, 2008). By involving the community in the decision-making process, the effects of the issue can be better understood, and a more informed outcome can be achieved. However, not all members of the community may be comfortable with or have the ability to participate in a face-to-face discussion.

In these cases, other methods of consultation, such as an online survey, may be more inclusive and allow for a greater diversity of voices to be heard (Fenna, et al, 2014). As a result, the public would have a more tangible voice in the outcome, and the decision-makers would be better informed about the thoughts of their constituents (Newdemocracy, 2011). Restricting the amount of total money which parties might spend during the occurrence of an election campaign might be advantageous to Australia's democracy (Reid, 1989). This would allow candidates to compete on a more level playing field, rather than simply relying on the resources of their sponsors. It would also reduce the influence of large corporations and special interest groups in the election process (Commonwealth Parliament Library, 1957). This would help to ensure that the people's voices are heard, and their interests are represented in the government. 'Australian Prime Minister makes A$549,250 salary altogether, which constitutes the foundation of salary obtained by every parliament’s member (A$211,250) in addition to one hundred sixty percent salary which is allotted for the prime minister's role ( Grattan Institute, 2019). This additional salary is one of the highest paid in the world among elected officials, making the prime minister's total salary an impressive figure. The salary is not tied to the office-holder, meaning that the salary remains the same regardless of who is elected as prime minister (Commonwealth Parliament Library, 1957). This salary is the highest of all elected officials in the country and is more than double the average salary of an Australian worker, which is estimated to be around A$66,000 (Hirst, 2000).

It has been found that Australia has maintained a liberal state of democracy since the federation in the year 1901. They uphold their values of a liberal system of democracy highly and they also meet their core values. Room for enhancement is always there in specific areas of democracy of Australia like focusing on significant public policies (Andrews, 2022). The incident of Murray River being a significant example shows that when the state and federal government does not work together then the requirement of the public can be easily neglected. There are several things that can be done by the government in order to enhance the democracy of Australia. Some of the ways include reviewing the parliamentary terms to gain the ability to sustain much more certainty as well as to enhance the process of decision-making, reforming campaign financing and political donation (Browne & Shields, 2022). They can also undertake a procedure where after each and every election, the citizens gain the ability to vote on a procedure itself. The prime values of liberalism and democracy are on the basis of the engagement and opinion of the citizen of the country. When engagement is not there, it is called a dictatorship and this permits the government to hold on all the powers and the citizen cannot say anything. Lack of integrity within the political system of Australia is considered an important threat to the democracy of Australia, in order to enhance the democracy of Australia, it is much more important to enhance the transparency of the donations to political parties (Gardner et al., 1990). A donation generally buys access and it also acts as an influence for the donors as well as their interests. The voters of Australia must be informed in a better manner about the information of donors. It has been found that a better standard of reporting of media is required.

Media has been found to have a great impact on the democracy of Australia in a positive manner. However, it is creating several public sentiments arguably in a negative manner which is disproportionately and unfairly directed towards the individual who is from marginalized backgrounds people are still now no comfortable with ideas that cause deviation from traditional leadership style and media have the answer to lots of question that raised about perpetuating ideas with average Australian (Lee, 2022). Most of the people of Australia are disinterested famously in politics and this contrasts the general disinterest within the context of politics favorably with passion as well as intense debates in America regarding the democracy of the US. While huge support for the fact is there that this country is among the few democracies where it is compulsory to vote, perhaps sense is there that the democratic duty of an individual is fulfilled when the individual is lining up in order to cast a vote during states, federal or local election. People often fight for their rights. While building democracy, there are various challenges that the country might face. Those are corruption and inefficiency. In several democratic countries, the officers, and political leaders, are likely to be dishonest, corrupt n inefficient. They mostly ask for bribes. This results in a lack of trust of citizens in a negative manner (Lindsay, 2019). This impacts the democratic performance within the country badly. The role of anti-social components raises during elections. Many individuals are bribed or forced to vote for a certain party or candidate. Rigging generally takes place during the elections (Woldring, 2020). Lots of socio-economic inequalities among individuals have been found. Hence, this is also considered a great challenging factor for enhancing the democracy of Australia. During the elections in Australia, it has been found that a huge number of voters offer weight to the religion and caste of candidates, the political parties basically

Conclusion

The Commission of Australia is concerned increasingly about the negative effect that foreign interference through the platforms of social media has the ability to have on human rights and democracy potentially within Australia. This highlights mainly three specific risks, disinformation and misinformation as well as there are risks to privacy and maximizing censorship.

References

Andrews, C. (2022, May 5). Ideas: Can we improve Australian democracy? . Zee Feed. https://zeefeed.com.au/how-improve-australian-democracy/

APH. (2011). Parliament of Australia: Parliamentary library: Parliamentary handbook . Home – Parliament of Australia. https://www.aph.gov.au/binaries/library/handbook/index.htm

Browne , B., & Shields, T. (2022, November 1). Fortifying Australian democracy . The Australia Institute. https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/fortifying-australian-democracy/

Fenna, A., Robbins, J., & Summers, J. (2014). Government and politics in Australia . Pearson Australia.

Gardner, H., Reid, G. S., & Forrest, M. (1990). Australia’s Commonwealth Parliament, 1901-1988. Ten perspectives. Labour History , (59), 124. https://doi.org/10.2307/27509031

Grattan. (2019, November 10). A simple reform to improve our democracy . Grattan Institute. https://grattan.edu.au/news/a-simple-reform-to-improve-our-democracy/

Head, B. W. (2008). Promoting integrity: Evaluating and improving public institutions . Ashgate.

Hirst, J. (2000). THE SENTIMENTAL NATION: The Making of the Australian Commonwealth . www.aspg.org.au . https://www.aspg.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/21-Bookreview-Martin.pdf

Lee, J. (2022, March 9). The risks to Australia’s democracy . Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-risks-to-australias-democracy/

Lindsay, S. (2019, May 7). 15 points to improve our Australian democracy and win back disillusioned voters . Triple M. https://www.triplem.com.au/story/15-points-to-improve-our-australian-democracy-136739

Newdemocracy. (2011). The Wran speech: the full transcript (as published in Sydney Morning Herald) . www.newdemocracy.com.au . http://www.newdemocracy.com.au/docs/activeprojects/symposium/Item%201%20-%20John%20Faulkner3.pdf

Woldring, K. (2020). How to improve Australia’s democracy: Breaking the vicious cycle! Klaas Woldring.

You Might Also like:

Legal System Assignment Help

Administrative Law Assignment Sample Online

POIR2030 Theories of World Politics Assignment Sample