Letter

In response to What’ wrong with America’s democracy? There has never been one

Democracy in Australia?

This article makes us ask, what about here? Anthony Albanese has just declared unilaterally at Balmoral that Australians are to have no referendum on a republic. Yet, within a day he was at the UK Labour Party conference lauding democracy.

His government intends to bring down swingeing changes to freedom of information laws. His government has also relentlessly pursued two whistleblowers who ought to have been protected by any decent whistleblower law. Important elements of the surrender of sovereignty under AUKUS continue to be withheld from the Australian public. And the promised NACC had turned into a dead dog.

The three legacy parties have ganged up to make it harder for other parties to be elected, and the Albanese Government has cut the research staff they need. There is continued evasion by some government witnesses at parliamentary inquiries, which even some of the questioning by the most skilled senators, such as David Pocock and Malcolm Roberts, fails to crack. According to information obtained under FOI, the prime minister has not answered any correspondence on Gaza, although Penny Wong has answered about a third, though not mine. I am sure readers could contribute more examples.

— Geoff Taylor from Borlu (Perth)