Direct democracy

22 November 2010In Switzerland voters not only elect the government, they also directly vote on policy issues and legislation passed by the parliament. What can Australia learn from Switzerland?

Guests

Hanspeter Kriersi
Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Zurich

Bruno Kaufmann
Political Scientist and Founder and President of the Initiative and Referendum Institute.

Wolf Linder
Political scientist, emeritus from the University of Bern.

Noticeboard

07 March 2012

In May 2011 the Federal Government announced that the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) would commence operations from 1 July 2012 and that it would initially be responsible for determining the legal status of groups seeking charitable, public benevolent institution, and other not-for-profit (NFP) benefits on behalf of all Commonwealth agencies. 

01 March 2012


The Productivity Commission has been asked to report within 9 months on Regulatory Impact Analysis: Benchmarking. The study requires a benchmarking of the efficiency and quality of regulatory impact analysis processes used by the Commonwealth and state and territory governments, as well as those of the Council of Australian Governments.
20 December 2011

On 18 November 2011, Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Senator the Hon Kate Lundy, announced the establishment of an independent panel of eminent community leaders to conduct an inquiry into Australian Government services to ensure they are responsive to the needs of Australians from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.