Rick Snell discusses the ACT government's fees for Freedom of Information requests, and its belief that responding to FOI requests is not part of a government's normal work.

In recent years, there has been debate and criticism over the influence that non-government organisations may have on public policy decisions. Bronwen Dalton and Mark Lyons assess the roles of NGOs, looking both at their external impacts through public participation and involvement in policy processes, and also at NGOs' internal structures that provide varying degrees...

Proportional representation was first used in 1840 for the Municipal Corporation of Adelaide election (the first municipality established in Australia). South Australia was the first colony to give women the vote in local government elections, in 1861. The first woman elected to local government in Australia was Susan Grace Berry, elected to Brighton Council in...

In the lead-up to Western Australia's state election on 26 February, Peter van Onselen examines questions regarding the state's electoral process. Issues addressed include malapportionment, prisoner voting, public funding and media coverage.

Sharon Beder takes a look at the increasing use of 'strategic lawsuits against public participation', or SLAPPs, by corporations against individual citizens and groups for exercising their democratic rights.