Deliberations

The Australian Citizens' Parliament project has just lifted off! 9000 citizens were randomly selected from the electoral roll and received invitations last week to participate. Ten days later we have received an outstanding 1700 registrations! Here we were worried that we wouldn't achieve the required 150 participants, one from each federal electorate. These are all people who are willing to travel to a regional orientation meeting, deliberate online for ten weeks and then engage in an intense 3½ day assembly at Old Parliament House in Canberra in February 2009. They will be responding to the big question "How can Australia's political system be strengthened to serve us better?". Their recommendations for reform will be presented to the elected parliament and the Prime Minister. We are reminded every day that people are sick of contemporary Australian politics. But the response to our project demonstrates that we should not mistake malaise for lack of desire. Many people want change and are willing to join an adventure to not only talk about it, but design it. As organisers, we're just so pleased! Invited citizens have until 22 August to register their interest to participate. Then the 150 Citizen Parliamentarians will be randomly selected from those who have registered, distributed by census proportion across age, gender and education.