The People's House initiative expands to all federal politicians

The Canberra Forum participants reflect on their experience with DemocracyCo’s The People’s House deliberative democracy program.

Transcript

00:00 As a young person you don't really get involved in politics that much, so I saw it come in

00:04 the mail and I just thought, why not give it a go.

00:07 I never win raffles or anything like that so it was really, really special to get that

00:13 letter to say, hey, you've been chosen.

00:16 That first session at Parliament House, that was awesome.

00:19 I took a picture, I put it on my social media, like, it was very exciting.

00:23 During campaigns, somebody, you know, comes and knocks on your door and says, hey, I'm

00:27 the person who, you know, I'm trying to get elected in your electorate and it's a bit

00:32 stilted, like it's a cold call.

00:33 Whereas when you do this, it's deliberative, right?

00:37 Like, it's like, okay, we've got all these people from my electorate in the room and

00:40 I can listen to the sorts of things they say.

00:44 What I really, really liked about it, what really drew me in was the experts having that

00:50 information and being able to learn.

00:52 I think that was the most important thing for me because then I could engage in discussions

00:56 with people who had a lot more life experience and a lot more experience within that field,

01:02 but be able to still contribute to the conversation.

01:04 I sort of have my very set point of view on lots of different things, but even I had opinions

01:11 that were changed by other people and I think a lot of people found that sort of their ideas,

01:16 that was opened up by other people's perspectives.

01:19 For me, it was a sense of everyone wanted what was best.

01:27 People cared a lot more about the community, Australia, than they did care about some single

01:35 focus issue about them.

01:38 Part of me really loved it so much that I want to do it again, but then part of me would

01:43 not do it again so that someone else would have the opportunity to do it in my place.

01:48 I'd like to see more of it.

01:52 Standing in a cardboard box once every several years, putting numbers in boxes, that's one

01:57 part of democracy, but the other part is really having conversations with people.

02:02 This really brings you in closer contact with a whole lot of people with quite diverse views.

02:09 We all have thoughts and opinions and we might just mumble them to each other, but to put

02:15 it together to something that can be productive, that goes straight to the people who then

02:23 can bring about that change, that's where the difference is.

02:27 Without people and without the interest of the people, democracy just falls down the

02:31 tube.

02:32 I think it's a start to something and a start to a bit more of a connection between people

02:36 and politics.

02:37 It was so great.

02:38 It felt good.

02:39 It was great.

02:40 I'd do it again.

02:40 [Music]

02:42 [Music]