Renewing Democracy: can women make a difference?

• Provide for private bills which allow private citizens or groups (with sufficient backing) to bring certain matters before the Parliament (probably through sponsoring MPs);

• Require that all petitions be investigated, if necessary by special hearings, of a dedicated petitions’ committee;

• Commission citizens’ juries or deliberative polls on contentious and complex issues;

• Invite expert and community representatives to address the chamber in session and engage in debate with members;

• Promote and sponsor the establishment of groups such as civic and youth forums to enable more regular and efficient consultation with the public;

• Strengthen freedom of information legislation to reduce the number of exemptions from disclosure.

As well as engaging the general public and their representatives more fully in the democratic process, I believe such initiatives could transform politics in the way that many women have dreamed about; into a more engaged and active democracy. The goals of greater participation, more civil and co-operative parliamentary conduct and an informed public debate are worth striving for. Policy development could be more widely shared and it could be a more consensual enterprise, the atmosphere of the parliament could be less reflexly adversarial and we could all become more focused on solving the problems we face as a nation. We need a project for a new democracy.