Drawing on insights from Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan and Kyrgyzstan, this report connects the global decline of democracies to digital disruption and calls for strengthened regulatory frameworks along with its enforcement to prevent monied interests and hidden actors from influencing the outcome of democratic elections.

The VEC's role is to ensure all Victorians actively participate in their democracy and to deliver high quality, accessible electoral services with innovation, integrity and independence. This statement aims to provide transparency and predictability in the Commission's compliance responses.

This report sets out the need for democratic innovations and digital participation tools to move beyond one-off pilots toward more embedded and inclusive systems of decision-making.

With the new Federal Government’s commitment to the Statement from the Heart, there is a need for new narratives that support the healing of the Indigenous-State relationship in Australia to support better ways of governing that are grounded in mutual respect.

This study finds that despite drawbacks, the Chinese messaging app, WeChat, plays a vital role in the democratic participation of Chinese-Australians. It argues that the greatest challenge with WeChat remains a lack of regulatory oversight from the Australian government and the platform’s niche role within broader Australian civil society.