Renewing Democracy: can women make a difference?

In the House of Representatives there is almost no opportunity for individual members (or even the opposition en bloc) to introduce or modify legislation. Scrutiny of the Executive is limited to the charade that is Question Time, when no questions are answered. Committees in the Lower House, while they often inquire into matters of great significance, have no capacity to quiz ministers and bureaucrats about budgets and legislation. Some of our brightest and best are effectively excluded from the tasks they were elected to perform.

Aspirations by voters for greater participation are often quashed by the claim that further democratisation/ participation is not desirable because the people are too ill informed or too irrational to be trusted with power. This at a time when the community is better educated than at any time in the past.

It is possible to do much better, to open up decision making, to involve more MPs and engage the wider community, to actually thrash out the issues in real debates. Australia was once considered the "democratic laboratory" of the world. It’s time to conduct a few new experiments to revive our body politic and embrace the principles of openness, accessibility and accountability.

As a start we could:

• As in the new Scottish Parliament, establish an all-party Business Committee to determine the business of the Parliament including the allocation of business to committees. The Committee would require regular endorsement of the Parliament for its plans.

• Amend standing orders to require that a greater proportion of parliamentary time is devoted to non-government business;

• Ensure that legislation introduced by the Executive undergoes a substantial period of pre-legislative development and consultation through the relevant committees, interest groups and the general public;

• Give committees the power to initiate legislation arising from their inquiries, especially if the government has failed to respond to major recommendations;

• Establish joint estimates and legislation committees with the power to question public servants and ministers from either House and to take submissions and commission independent research;

• Limit the number of speakers on legislation and change the standing orders to ensure that a real debate occurs with members from both sides to provide a quorum;

• Restrict Question Time to genuine questions without notice, with a majority going to the Opposition;

• Devote the second chamber to a more extensive deliberation of the bills in committee;