Voice

And the transgressive nature of democracy

The departure of DjabWurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara Senator Lidia Thorpe to the crossbench—a development that is hardly unprecedented—brings into focus, once again, an abiding problem of contemporary politics, namely, the limitations of the whole idea of a political party.

For the record, I am impressed by what she has done, and I also think the Greens have handled the fallout pretty well. But let’s step back a bit for a clearer view of what else we can see playing out in this year of unusually substantive debate around big, meaningful ideas.

Since the rise of the “teals”, there has been a renewed focus on the democratic shortcomings of political parties, with the success of the independents showing the extent to which voters were sick of a system where community interests were being subsumed by partisan priorities; where evidence-based policy, nation building, public interest and provision of needs-based essential services are over-ridden by ideology, religion, and corporate power.

In the p…