6.30PM Thursday July 30th – Dr. Nicholas Gruen on
Detoxing our democracy: a new role for ordinary people in politics
Zoom Link will be sent upon RSVP
Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump have humiliated political elites. But Australia led the pack in 2013 when Australia’s Parliamentarians humiliated themselves – abolishing carbon pricing when the overwhelming majority of them understood the folly of doing so. Why? Because of the imperatives of political combat in our vox pop democracy. With the political-infotainment complex degrading representative politics, creating space for ordinary people to influence our politics at every level could see our democracy reborn. It could also help young Australians, less educated and lower income Australians fight back against their political and economic eclipse by the baby boomers.
Lateral Economics’ CEO Nicholas Gruen is a widely published policy economist, entrepreneur and commentator. He has advised Cabinet Ministers, sat on Australia’s Productivity Commission and founded Lateral Economics and Peach Financial.
He is Visiting Professor at Kings College London and Adjunct Professor at UTS. He chairs the Open Knowledge Foundation (Australian Chapter) and is Patron of the Australian Digital Alliance, which brings together Australia’s libraries, universities, and major providers of digital infrastructure such as Google and Yahoo. He is a member of the Council of the National Library of Australia.
