The Connecting to Parliament project is a flagship project of the Centre for Deliberative Democracy at the University of Canberra. The project’s central goal is to find ways to involve more Australians in the processes of parliament by making democracy more deliberative: that is, building direct, informed, and consequential channels of engagement between citizens and their elected representatives.
Assess the attitudes of citizens and political elites toward deliberative democracy processes, including the key drivers of support and resistance.
Develop a framework for implementing deliberative citizen engagement practices in Australia, identifying the most suitable models to strengthen representative democracy.
The project adapts and extends the successful Connecting to Congress led by Professor Michael Neblo at the Institute for Democratic Engagement and Accountability at Ohio State University, which leverages digital technology and deliberative principles to improve representative democracy in the United States.
In 2020 and 2021, the project team trialled Deliberative Town Halls in Australia with promising results.
In 2020, the Centre for Deliberative Democracy convened a deliberative town hall in the ACT electorate of Fenner with the Hon Dr Andrew Leigh MP on the topic of mitochondrial donation. Over two days, constituents deliberated on the issue, and their recommendations later influenced parliamentary debate, with Dr Leigh citing their input when casting his conscience vote in line with their conclusion.
In 2021, Alicia Payne MP hosted an online Deliberative Town Hall on increasing youth engagement in politics, which not only sparked further initiatives such as the Canberra Forum, but also provided a model for sustained dialogue between citizens and their representatives.
The second phase of research (2023-2025) involved the collection of data on the level of support for deliberative engagement in Australia, and analysis of how deliberative practices influence the public’s political attitudes and participatory behaviour.
The national survey was conducted in October 2024 with 4,200 individual Australian respondents aged 18 years or older. Along with questions about political interest, partisanship, satisfaction and trust, the survey examined public perceptions of deliberative processes, levels of support for deliberative citizen engagement in Australia, and how people’s conceptions of democracy shape responses to deliberative democratic innovations.
What is Deliberative Citizen Engagement and why does it matter?
Meet the C2P Team
Collaborations