Recently an Australian parliamentary inquiry from the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters published its report, titled “From Classroom to Community.” The purpose of the inquiry was to determine how civics education can be improved in Australian schools to ensure that each individual is provided with the necessary skills to understand and participate in Australia’s democratic processes.
The inquiry noted, “The strength and stability of Australia’s democracy depends on the capacity of our citizens to confidently engage with politics and cast an informed vote.” This is particularly important given Australia system of compulsory voting. Currently there is an onus on the Australian Electoral Commission to make sure that everyone is registered to vote – and to make it as easy as possible to do so. But this onus needs to also extend to Australia’s broader civic arrangements to make sure that people first know how to vote, and have a good idea of what they are voting for.
To achieve this, the inquiry made 23 recommendations that seek to enhance Australians’ knowledge of their electoral system, build a stronger sense of citizenship, and reinforce the social stability that flows from having an informed and engaged public.
While the improvement in civic education is something that is recommended through all levels of schooling, the inquiry specifically recommends that there are mandatory civics and citizenship courses for all students in their final two years of school to prepare them to participate in elections once they reach 18 years of age. Ideally, there should be no instances where an 18 year old enters a voting booth and is unaware of how to correctly fill in a ballot paper.
This is vital as Australia uses a preferential voting system – otherwise known as ranked choice voting – where all candidates on the ballot need to be ranked in order or preference. While this may be relatively straightforward in the House of Representatives, the Senate ballot paper is far more complex – with two choices on how to cast a vote, and two different ways of voting for either choice. Given the larger number of candidates that run for the Senate, the ballot paper is also often dauntingly massive, potentially confusing people who are unaware of how the electoral system works.
Importantly, the inquiry also recommends a greater need to focus on civics education programs for adults in new migrant communities. The last election saw a worryingly high number of invalid votes – that is, people filling out a ballot paper incorrectly – in electorates with large migrant communities. Many migrants may come from countries with voting systems very different from Australia’s, or where it is not required to vote. Many also may come from undemocratic countries. It is therefore essential that these people are given the opportunity to understand Australia’s system and how to participate in it.
This is not simply about the practice of voting, but about building a sense of citizenship and belonging within migrant communities. A more “hands on” approach to migrant integration is often viewed with suspicion in progressive circles – seeing it as an attempt to strip people of their culture. However, the simple objective is to advance each person’s ability to meaningfully participate in Australia’s civil society, and this requires a certain base knowledge about the functioning of the country’s institutions. These civic virtues are the responsibility of all citizens – new and old.
The inquiry also highlighted that this civic knowledge is “particularly important at a time when democracies around the world, including Australia, are facing rising disengagement, distrust, and misinformation and disinformation in an increasingly complex online information environment.”
Stemming from this is a recommendation that, as part of Australia’s national media literacy strategy, there is a need to “gain a better understanding of how all Australians receive and process civics and electoral information on social media.” With the ability for social media to undermine trust in Australia’s democracy, the Australian Electoral Commission recently launched its “Stop and Consider” campaign to try to counteract misinformation around Australia’s forthcoming election.
High-trust societies are essential for peace and prosperity, but “trust in government” is often not the right way to frame this issue. What instead should be fostered is a strong knowledge of how government and public bodies should work, as cynicism and conspiracy theories often flow from a lack of understanding of how these institutions operate.
For the public to do its duty in being able to scrutinize and hold government to account, it needs to have strong awareness of how institutions are ideally intended to function. This means not only that public institutions need to be focused on maintaining their own integrity, but that governments need to invest heavily in educating the public to have high levels of civic knowledge.