This paper examines the state of Australian democracy and considers some mechanisms that have been said to have the potential to improve democratic representation.

Viewed from the outside, and especially against a global trend of rising authoritarian populist parties and political forces, and governments opposed to key tenets of liberal democracy, Australia appears as a relatively resilient outlier.

For instance, most democracy assessment indices (although far from perfect as reflections of reality) have not registered any declines for the past decade. The country enjoys extremely high levels of voter enrolment and participation – 96.8 per cent of eligible voters were enrolled for the last federal election, and 91.9 per cent voted. In addition, the tampering with polling, electoral laws, and gerrymandering seen in a range of democratic states worldwide, is not a feature.

That said, a dominant narrative of crisis, paralysis and even decline has taken hold in recent years regarding the deficiencies of Australia’s political system. The federal government and parliament’s public image has been tarnished by a variety of factors including: the increasingly regular ousting and resignation of prime ministers (since 2007 Australia has had six prime ministers, as compared to six prime ministers in the previous 36 years (1971-2007)).

In addition, the composition of parliament still does not reflect the diversity of the Australian community. For example, women remain very underrepresented in parliament: they comprise 36.6 per cent of the federal parliament after the May 2019 elections; and the proportion of women in senior leadership positions in parliament is far lower.

Some polls suggest that public faith in the political system and democracy has plummeted: A broad survey of polling data in December 2018 showed that fewer than 41% of Australian citizens are satisfied with the way democracy works in Australia, a stark drop from 86% in 2007.