Democracy in Australia

Paper Summary:

This paper contends that, although Australia is in essence a democratic society, there are areas of Australia that can be improved to make Australia more democratic. The paper focuses on two of these areas: Australia's whistle-blowing system and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation's ability to publicise scientific information or opinions on government policy issues. The paper explains why these areas are important in the building or maintenance of democracy in Australia, how they are being threatened and what could be done to improve these functions to create a more democratic country.

From the Paper:

"Whistle blowing is important to democracy in Australia. Whistle blowing is the act of disclosing immoral, illegitimate or illegal practices of an organization, by a member of the organization, to persons that may be able to effect action. When whistle-blowing is applied to government entities and their agencies, it provides a system of ensuring public accountability of governments. It does this by allowing the exposure of corruption, dishonesty or improper conduct of any government on any level of government. This is important to democracy in Australia because public government accountability is a key factor in democracy. Without government accountability, the people would be given a less-than-true impression of their government. By virtue of its nature, whistle-blowing is an indirect avenue for government criticism. Freedom to express criticism of a government and to do so without fear of reprisal (or simple freedom of speech for that matter) is also paramount to a healthy democracy."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Australian Government Budget 2007-2008, in CSIRO, 2007, viewed on 12 May 2007, . http://www.csiro.au/news/Budget2007.html.
• Brown A. 'Public Interest Disclosure Legislation in Australia: Towards the Next Generation?' in Democratic Audit of Australia, 2006, http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au/papers/20060830_whisbl_ajbrown.pdf.
• 'Concern Over Journalists' Case', in World News Australia, May 2007, viewed 6 May 2007, http://www.worldnewsaustralia.com.au/region.php?id=118747&region=7.
• Dahl R. A. 'democracy and its critics' in P. Green (ed), Key concepts in Critical Theory: Democracy, Humanities Press, New Jersey, 1993, pp. 57-66.
• Davies A. D. Australian Democracy: An Introduction to the Political System, Longman's Green and Co, Melbourne, 1964.

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