How can community democracy be strengthened in your local area?

He went on to recommend that policy makers, teachers and parents and students continue to examine the role of civic education in the school curriculum so that Australia’s citizens of the future would be well prepared for their role in a democratic society.

But what plans have been put in place since then?

According to the international study students are drawn to television as their news source: as high as 80 per cent in the case of Australian students! Does this not represent an opportunity? If the Federal Government can legislate on minimum levels of local broadcasting content, surely it can legislate to require a percentage of content promoting civic engagement and community democracy? Whether or not adults choose to watch those programs, when children are engaged their parents follow.

The importance of community participation needs to run through the blood of every generation. We need to put aside outdated etiquette that “we never discuss politics or religion” and have faith in the capacity of ourselves or our children to engage in mature, sensible and open minded discussions about the issues that affect us. Every member of every community must feel that they can express their opinions without fear of ridicule, intimidation or reprisal.

But informed citizens who will think, contribute and act are only one half of the equation. The other fundamental requirement for a strong culture of community democracy is governments which disseminate accurate information, which encourage uninhibited discussion and which listen to and act on what citizens say.

Democracy is never a given, and true community democracy is a rare bird in Australia. In fact, the track records of our governments on promoting truth and transparency and doing what their citizens want are sufficiently bad to represent by themselves our best argument for a bill of rights!

So the path to victory needs effort to bring about changes in how we think and how we and our governments behave. It begins with defining what community democracy really means and understanding how it is successfully shaped and preserved.

Inevitably, it will also require us to cast aside societal norms about what are appropriate and suitable areas of discussion, and educate ourselves on how we should go about having those discussions effectively at community, regional and higher levels.

And finally, it will require “structural” changes in our systems of government to guarantee first, an “input route” for community opinion, and second, a “processing system” that means that community input will be given appropriate weight.

Political issues affect almost all aspects of our lives: the things we do, the way we live, the water we drink and the air we breathe. Silence is not golden. Freedom is. It’s time to finally get the silent majority to speak.