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