The newdemocracy Foundation

The newdemocracy Foundation is an independent, non-partisan research organisation aiming to identify improvements to our democratic process. We aim to replace the adversarial with the deliberative, and move out of the “continuous campaign” cycle. http://www.newdemocracy.com.au/

In 2012, newDemocracy Foundation is involved in  two signifacnt projects using citizens' participation in Governement decision making.

In May 2012, with the assistance of newDemocracy Foundation, the City of Canada Bay began a process to devolve decision making to a panel of 36 randomly selected citizens. The Panel  was asked the question "What services should we deliver in the City of Canada Bay, and how should we pay for them?" The Council has agreed that the Panel will set the level of service to be provided for their 2014-18 Delivery plan, subject to final approval by Council.

InJuly, as part of the Inquiry into the Economics of Energy Generation  the Public Accounts Committee [PAC]of the NSW Governement  commissioned the newDemocracy Foundation to operate two policy juries - one in metropolitan Sydney and the other in the regional centre of Tamworth.Particpants are randomly selcted to represent community demographics. These juries are asked to provide a communtiy view on the "The order of preference, barriers to adoption (including financial aspects and public perception issues) and recommended course of action with regard to alternative forms of energy generation (eg:tidal, geothermal) in NSW". The PAC  has undertaken that the juries' recommendations will be provided to the NSW Government as part of its final report.