Australians hungry for detailed debate and policy

The demand for policy - preferably substantial, detailed policy – was as palpable in these discussions as it has been in many similar conversations since. Now, I'll concede the audience is somewhat skewed: the likes of current and former Democrats or similar party members, policy wonks, well educated professionals, highly connected internet natives… they all like their detail. But the extent of the hunger for policy, to discuss issues and debate ideas, has really blown me away.

The Committee, which I'm please to say is now a solid team of people committed to the Exploratory Committee concept, will be researching this hunger in coming months. So I'll concede it's just my anecdotal observation at the moment… but it is an observation based on a very large number of anecdotes and impossible to ignore.

There seems to be a lot of votes - and potential party members and activists for that matter - going begging at the moment, almost entirely due to the lack of real policy or issue debate. Numerous Australians all wanting to have real discussions about real issues, discuss detailed solutions and options that embrace the nuance and complexity that is inevitable in our blurred and messy reality.

This demand for detail and policy is extraordinarily disconnected from the overly simplified debate and nonsense on display by our politicians. Threatening to shut down the government over a number in a bill? Harshly punishing any asylum seeker without care for their individual circumstance? Refusing to answer basic questions? These are all arguably products of the denial of detail trend.

The Greens denial of Labor's request for an inquiry in to carbon pricing also fits the trend.

Detail bad. Policy bad. Questions bad. Information bad. Debate bad. One may come to wonder what remains to be good in our parliamentary system.

It would seem the rest of us live in a different world where we can actually handle more complex issues and discussions. Our so-called leaders should feel free to join us any time they like, and feed their hungry public with the informed debate they crave.