democracy might work

- holding a place for australia.gov.au

The .gov.au domain suffix is controlled by the Department of Finance.
australia.au goes nowhere.
australia.gov.au presently forwards to pm.gov.au

The role of media in the federal elections has been largely left open for the mainstream to deliver their usual "election coverage" plus expensive paid for advertising and the predictable corflute wars peppered with some "social media" activity for those who take the trouble to seek it out. Outside of the "social media" platforms dominated by rich kids there seems to be no focussed online community network building. This is surprising considering the ubiquity of internet connectivity and the massive efforts made to develop telecoms.

All the party candidates have their party's web site loaded with their party's message, predictably similar in promising a particular kind of world in exchange for my vote. None offered interaction beyond a contact form with a plea to join the party, sign up to a newsletter or donate money. Few parties had a web site which was able to offer a direct link from their candidates' pages to that candidates "social media" presence even though many had, at least, a facebook page. Some also had twitter and insta.

Within the "social media" the tone and message of the posts, grams and tweets typically surged between desperate advocacy and troll. There were some viscious attacks laced with disinformation.

Elections could be different!

There is an opportunity to use the internet - that ubiquitous social medium so feared by the mainstream - to build a strong online community network for the each electoral division.

Independent candidates have a lot of support. Party incumbents are losing credibility daily because of their association with failed losers. The field is reduced because the minors whose machinations have cost us so dearly have lost their focus. (But they still have money!)

An online social network for voters in each electorate can allow interactions to clarify the community's vision and deliver to their chosen candidate a platform for representing their constituents and a mechanism for interaction through them with our parliament.

Representative democracy requires democratic representation!

If we are to put our trust in a representative we must know they have our will uppermost in their actions.

State elections have produced dismal campaigns with voters knowing that both major parties suffer the same incapacity to engage costituents.

Here's some thoughts on doing democracy in gumbayggirr

Oxley Community is a site created to house a social network but sadly has not attracted a following. It will expire this year.

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Some other things:
I am giving attention to a local medium in persuit of locally based network integration.

Before the 2025 election it looks like there was a referendum - an opportunity to bring about change in the document which is intended to define how country is constituted.

However, re-drafting the expired colonial leftovers and tacking on a paragraph intended as makarrata is not nearly as exciting as an opportunity for us to engage in setting out the future we envision.

Personally I believe efforts to reconcile colonial and original inhabitants' visions will be futile without treaty. We have yet to answer two basic questions:

  • Whose land is it? (Answer: we belong to the land!)
  • Who makes the rules? (Answer: the land does.)

Meanwhile, once we have learned how to be truthful and negotiated a treaty between the tow groups of inhabitants of country then we can embody our agreement. Here's my idea for the referendum question on the voice. Consistent with the existing albeit 122 year old document but not too much too soon, putting mob into the executive with equivalence to the federal executive council there is future capacity to amplify.

I've spent a bit of time trying to translate the colonial constitution into something authentic: waroonga - just a thing - but with some relevance now in the climate of constitutional reform. (Lowitja for that one mirung, Pat Dodson for that mani)

Here's a bitter post mortem by Richard Flanagan on the 2022 election and the state of country at the time - again, not so much a cowper thing but calling out the party/mob rule.

There's a public facebook group called cowper which you can view but need to join to participate. There's a private Google group called cowper for which you need an invitation to join to participate. Neither of these have an audience.

Here's a suggestion for a question to candidates

Here's a community forum open source model for Scotts Head