Norman Abjorensen, co-author of Australia: The State of Democracy, runs a tape-measure over the nation’s democratic institutions and practices.

This project sought to consider the existing research on young Australians’ participation in democracy. This was undertaken with the purpose of developing a series of recommendations to promote the active citizenship and participation of young people in the democratic life of Australia.

This paper considers the best legal arragements to ensure a balance between the need to protect some Commonwealth information and the need to maintain an open and accountable government through providing appropriate access to information. The ALRC has identified and considered 507 secrecy provisions scattered across 175 pieces of legislation, including 358 distinct secrecy offences...

This report recommends reinstating a number of longstanding provisions to protect the franchise for those who are entitled to exercise it. These include: • restoring the traditional seven day close of rolls period to enrol or update enrolment details; • restoring provisions allowing electors to notify changes to enrolment details in writing; • removing the...

Indonesia has held its third democratic elections since the fall of Suharto. Parliamentary elections took place on 9 April. Elections in Indonesia are now fairly routine and the country has become the most robust democracy in Southeast Asia. In the parliamentary election on 9 April, 38 parties contested but only 9 won seats. Parties in...