Deliberations

On Friday, I gave a lecture to grade 12 students who are studying an elective unit in Victoria called National Politics. The event was organised by Social Education Victoria (SEV), who provide the textbook and other resources to students, under contract to the Victorian government. My talk followed Michael Thurston, United States Consul General, who described the American political system, and Professor Brian Costar of the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University, who spoke about different electoral systems. I introduced deliberative democracy, which is not currently included in their learning content. I described deliberative processes, provided some examples and finished with a run-down of what happened at the Citizens' Parliament. I concluded with the following:

After the completion of the Citizens Parliament, many participants went straight to their MPs and spoke to them about it. Many spoke of the experience as transformational, including some who came quite fixed in their ideas and outlooks. So if nothing else, these processes reinvigorate people to learn and to re-engage with politics and their communities. I am particularly delighted to be standing here talking to you today because the Citizen Parliamentarians proposed that the public and especially youth learn about deliberative democracy. So I've done as they asked, and I thank you for giving me this opportunity.

There were a couple of questions from students which were very telling about how citizen participation is viewed by conservatives. I'll write about that later. In the meantime, here is the handout I provided and the audio of my talk:

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