Member participation in the major parties is in decline and at an all-time low where many candidate selection processes are no longer democratic—but what about community Independents? That’s what the Indie Democracy Scorecard is all about: how different Voices and Independent groups around the country have been, or plan to preselect their candidates ahead of the federal election.
It’s our hope that this forms a new benchmark for public participation in the community Independent movement, where community members can search and see for themselves how their local Independent group is contributing to rebuilding democracy.
The scorecard is expected to be live in late November and will be made publicly available in a digital format. In the meantime, you can see the survey questions sent to all known groups and Independents here.
From hollowed-out parties under factional control to independent campaigns dominated by donors, ordinary people are increasingly squeezed out of politics. We want to change that.
True change requires more than just listening— politics must involve people. We advocate for open preselection contests that give all Australians a say over who will stand for the right to represent them at elections.
At the heart of a thriving democracy is integrity. Bringing people with integrity into politics can only happen when they are chosen through a transparent process. That means open merit based contests not backroom deals.
Our second discussion paper offers a constructive critique of the lack of candidate selection processes of the community independents movement, alongside its promise of a new era of representative democratic politics. It is becoming increasingly clear that today's major political parties are designed for an Australia that no longer exists. Despite adopting the rhetoric of community-powered politics, a new crop of independent candidates and minor parties have been even less democratic than the major parties in practice. New political movements must be built on democratic processes: the lesson of two decades of frustrated reform has been that the promise of change from above is never realised.
Co-founder of Progressive Action Lab, Justin Ryan, is the author of the forthcoming book ‘The High-Performance Political Party’ (HP3) which will be launched in late 2024. HP3 is a concept of creating a new, broad, transparent, and functional organisation on the progressive side of politics.