Monday, November 04, 2013

Voice for Indi - a systemic governance innovation


I have been meaning to make a post about the phenomenon that emerged from the recent Federal Elections in Australia called the Voice for Indi (V4i).  Much has now been written about V4i in the Australian media - the excerpt below comes from the Bank of I.D.E.A.S newsletter (with thanks).

Cathy McGowan, now the Independent Member for Indi in the Federal Parliament completed an MSc at Hawkesbury in Systemic Development (or Systems Agriculture?) which is where I first met Cathy.  She is an amazing character as exemplified in many ways, including taking time to write me a hand written thank you note for my donation to her campaign - written only two days before the election.

"A remarkable campaign has been run in the recent national election in Australia, where the people of the rural electorate of Indi stood up against the party politics domination and demonstrated the power of community by electing a community member over a 12 year veteran and senior member of the Liberal Party.

Cathy McGowan was the nominated member of the Voice of Indi movement. Click on the following links to read about their achievement: Article 1 and Article 2.

The values that guide their actions and decisions are summarised as –
·         V 4 i is committed to encouraging a diversity of voices and opinion, and participation in the electoral process both regionally and nationally
·         V 4 i is committed to ensuring that our electorate voice is heard, and represented at the national level
·         V 4 i is committed to encouraging respectful and mature representation of our democratic voices
·         V 4 i is committed to undertaking activities which will create an invitation to participate in our democracy
·         V 4 i is committed to developing and using simple, elegant processes when engaging with the electorate
·         V 4 i is committed to being honest and respectful, to being well informed, and to referring to reputable sources when making statements"

What is important to take from this story is the design considerations that underpin the success in systemic governance innovation. In governance innovation terms it stands out against the systemic failure of so much of the rest of the election.

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