Conference on Democracy, Ethics and the Public Good
A conference is to be held in Wellington on 1 and 2 August with the aim of starting a NZ-wide discussion about the quality of our democracy. The conference is hosted jointly by the St Andrews Trust for the Study of Religion and Society and Public Good Aotearoa NZ.
The aim of the conference is to kick start a conversation about the health and quality of democracy in New Zealand. NZ has a rich democratic history with an early start to universal suffrage, the adoption of the MMP system and high scores on openness and transparency internationally. However the frequent use of urgency in Parliament, the lack of local democracy in Canterbury, the difficulties for the very poor in a highly unequal society and the recent news that only 69% of 18-24 years olds are enrolled to vote are signs that all is not well in NZ’s democratic arrangements.
The conference speakers, including some of New Zealand’s best- known academics, will develop a framework, and presentations from community and advocacy organisations look at democratic issues in specific sectors. The conference will include workshops and participants will have a chance to develop new thinking about the issues.
Following the conference, Public Good will publish the key outcomes and an action plan.
Venue: St Andrews on the Terrace
Friday 7.00pm –
9.00pm
Saturday 9.00am – 4.30pm
ENDS
The conference is open to the media and will be recorded
– video on Friday, audio on Saturday
Most speakers are
willing to do media work in connection with the
conference.
BACKGROUND
INFORMATION
Public Good Aotearoa
NZ
Public Good (www.publicgood.org.nz) is a network
focused on the public sphere. It has three areas for its
work: the need for a strong and well-resourced public
sector; genuine democracy and engagement; and community
wealth – strengthening community assets and capability.
The network brings together activists, academics and others
interested in supporting the work.
Conference programme
Full conference
information including registration details are at http://www.publicgood.org.nz/demconf
Friday evening (7-9pm)
• Bronwyn Hayward,
an academic based at the University of Canterbury, will talk
about how for a healthy democracy children need more than
civics education. They need hands on experiences of
deliberative democracy. She will discuss her recent research
to help us understand the kind of democracy we are
creating.
• Michael Macaulay the newly of
appointed head of Victoria University’s Institute of
Governance and Policy Studies will talk about the Open
Government Partnership and the opportunities for New Zealand
from the perspective of his UK and NZ experience with
transparency and integrity systems.
• Auckland
University Law Professor Jane Kelsey will be addressing the
risks to democracy of international ‘free trade’
treaties including the way they bypass the usual democratic
controls.
Saturday (9am – 4.30pm)
•
Wendy McGuinness, CE of the McGuinness Institute will talk
about the Institute’s work with young people on the 2013
Consitutional Review and the future focussed work including
identifying what is necessary to bring to fruition Prof Sir
Paul Callaghan’s desire to make New Zealand a place where
talent wants to live.
• Sandra Grey and Charles
Sedgwick will be speaking on grass roots organisations and
the challenges posed by the joint role they have in society
of advocating for their constituency as well as providing
contracted government services.
• Bill Ryan
Associate Professor in the School of Government at Victoria
University will talk on the pressures on government caused
by social media, openness and 24 hour news cycle and a
public sector legislative framework that is overdue for
renewal.
There will also be a series of shorter panel presentations and the opportunity for participants to debate and discuss the issues in a series of workshops throughout the day.
Other speakers are:
•
Myles Thomas will talk about the issues with a lack of
quality public broadcasting in NZ.
• Barbara
Bedeschi-Lewando will talk about the participatory democracy
approaches being used in Brazil and elsewhere.
•
Cath Wallace will address the impact of recent changes to
the Resource Management Act.
• Ben Knight from
Loomio will be discussing participatory democracy and its
role in supporting collaborative decision making.
•
Stephanie Rodgers will talk about social media and new
generation feminism.
• Meg Howie will talk
about the election engagement initiative AskAway and Kieran
Stowers will profile On the Fence. These initiatives are
part of Massey University’s Design & Democracy
Project.
• Max Rashbrooke will address the
democracy and participation issues related to high levels of
inequality.
• Julia Amua Whaipooti, Ngati
Porou from youth justice organisation JustSpeak will speak
about justice and imprisonment issues and the impacts of
the removal of the right to
vote.