One hundred and fifty randomly selected people from across Australia, spent four days deliberating about how to strengthen the Australian democracy to serve them better.
How does it work?
An invitation went to 8,000 randomly selected citizens to attend the Citizens' Parliament for discussing the political system. From the 3,000 who responded, the final 150 were random selected across gender, age, educational level and cultural background.
The 3,000 who had expressed interest were invited to join an 'Online Parliament' to deliberate and develop proposals (using software developed by Brian Sullivan from CivicEvolution).
The 150 attended one day regional meetings and received copies of the online proposals before attending the Citizens Parliament in the capital city, Canberra.
A number of different methods were used: 21st Century Dialogue/Town Meeting, World Café, small group dialogue and deliberation, Reflective Panel, Fishbowl, Expert Panels, and a limited version of Open Space.
A random selection of the Citizen Parliamentarians recommended by their fellow CPs, present the Final Report to Government.
The synergy and the output created by these committed teams, was extraordinary and exceeding all expectations. [This is independently verified by Bob Dick]
This page is abridged from a note by initiator Janette Hartz-Karp and circulated 14/02-09 (2+1pp)
via Varun Vidyarthi (manovodaya.org.in)
Related info at Australia CP at Delta and Australia's First Citizens' Parliament
Final report is freely available at www.citizensparliament.net.au for public use. (18pp)