From donations and lobbyist reform and the institution of a national corruption commission to the introduction of Multi Member Proportional Representation in the House of Representatives; from becoming a Republic to potentially abolishing the States, empowering local government and entirely reconfiguring our federation; from building local mechanisms for participatory democracy to building the case for global representative democracy, and of course ensuring sovereignty for first nations people, there are huge ideas to be discussed!
Mikaela Valtersson (Green) and Thomas Östros (Social Democrat) at a 2008 press conference, where the Swedish Greens and Social Democrats, for the first time, presented a common budget initiative. With a federal election just weeks away and a real chance that the Greens could find ourselves in balance of power…
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From Holly Hammond’s presentation Almost two years ago, in a snap webinar days after Australia went into our first lockdown, The Green Institute hosted the first public conversation in Australia to discuss how we stay together while keeping apart. In the last two years, we’ve seen a huge burst of…
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Welcome to 2022. And life doesn’t get less interesting, does it? As we head into our third year of pandemic, with the climate and ecological crisis hanging over us, and with threats to our weakening democracies looking ever more worrying, it’s hard to feel this is a happy new year.
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What does borrowing dress up clothes or lending a lawnmower have to do with democracy? Quite a lot, as it happens! When you do it thoughtfully. When the Canberra Alliance for Participatory Democracy announced a call for pre-recorded videos for their DemFest21, celebrating local democracy, I…
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From reflections on lived experience to academic analysis of real life impacts to analysis of what people actually believe, the launch of our new paper, “Unconditionally: COVID response and the future of welfare” was a brilliant way to help us imagine a future where welfare is unconditional. The event featured…
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I was absolutely privileged on October 10 to join a panel for the Asia Pacific Greens Federation, discussing the question “What is Green Politics?” with Greens colleagues from Lebanon, Japan and Indonesia. It was a wonderful insight into how, in different circumstances and from different perspectives, our challenges, issues and…
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This opinion piece was first published in The Canberra Times on 15 August, 2021. “So, New Zealand looks like the best place to ride out the apocalypse. When are we moving?” If I had a tonne of coal in the ground for…
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So far this year, amidst the challenges we’re all facing, The Green Institute has brought you two fantastic quarterly editions of Green Agenda – Into The Fire and On (in)security, webinars on youth & democracy and climate grief and action, a bunch of blog posts, and a democratic…
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The devastating fires across eastern Australia as the 2020s began burnt a hard black line across history – before the fires and after. Former Greens Senator Scott Ludlam and Professor Danielle Celermajer both faced those fires from terrifyingly close up. And their remarkable new books, Full Circle and Summertime, take…
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“Does a story of survival and recovery offer us redemption? Or does it at least spare us the burden of feeling condemned for the crime of omnicide?” These words from towards the end of Professor Danielle Celermajer’s beautiful book, Summertime, ring in my mind as I ponder that difficult, tenuous,…
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