Week Six - Refinement

This week I have been looking into how members of parliament would view our proposition.

I started by finding a general definintion of what members of parliament do in Australia-

As the elected representatives of the people, parliamentarians need to be aware of the needs of their constituents, and will be expected to respond to those needs. Engaging the citizens in decisions that affect their lives is therefore essential to good governance, and a cornerstone of parliamentary procedure. Parliamentarians are also an important link between the electorate and the executive government, and play a key role in voicing the concerns of the people they represent and in advocating for changes that will improve their lives.

I then found an article from the queenland governement looking at our exact issue of promoting public presence in parliament. It identified two key issue which we will have to deal with as well-

It seems, that two major obstacles stand in the way of attracting greater community participation in committees. The first is that the existence of parliamentary committee inquiries are not, as a matter of course, publicised beyond major metropolitan newspapers. Efforts are made by committee secretariats to reach relevant individuals and groups but, largely due to time constraints, these efforts are focused on the most 'obvious' potential witnesses.

The second obstacle is to break down public perceptions of the irrelevance of parliamentary activities to their lives. Clearly this cannot be done only through the work of committees. At the same time, however, given that one function of the committee system is to 'take parliament to the people', a strong case exists to use innovative and experimental methods in order to fully carry out this role.

I then looked overseas for more on our topic of public presence and found these statments which reflect our thoughts from Barack Obamar-

Government should be transparent.  Transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what their Government is doing.  Information maintained by the Federal Government is a national asset. My Administration will take appropriate action, consistent with law and policy, to disclose information rapidly in forms that the public can readily find and use. Executive departments and agencies should harness new technologies to put information about their operations and decisions online and readily available to the public. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public feedback to identify information of greatest use to the public.

Government should be participatory. Public engagement enhances the Government's effectiveness and improves the quality of its decisions. Knowledge is widely dispersed in society, and public officials benefit from having access to that dispersed knowledge. Executive departments and agencies should offer Americans increased opportunities to participate in policymaking and to provide their Government with the benefits of their collective expertise and information. Executive departments and agencies should also solicit public input on how we can increase and improve opportunities for public participation in Government.

Government should be collaborative.  Collaboration actively engages Americans in the work of their Government. Executive departments and agencies should use innovative tools, methods, and systems to cooperateamong themselves, across all levels of Government, and with nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individuals in the private sector.  Executive departments and agencies should solicit public feedback to assess and improve their level of collaboration and to identify new opportunities for cooperation.

I also looked into the parliamentry stucutre in Austalia to understand it more