The Albanese Government has today announced the expert advisors who will guide the Strengthening Democracy Taskforce.
Australia has a strong democracy and a proud tradition of democratic resilience and innovation.
However we can see that democracies around the world face a range of challenges, including foreign interference, rising disinformation and discord online, polarisation, and declining reserves of public trust.
Drawing on Australia’s tradition of democratic resilience and innovation, the taskforce will consider what challenges our democracy may face. This will include considering how the three key areas of trusted institutions, credible information and social inclusion can be maintained and further strengthened.
The Taskforce benefits from high-level advice from four independent expert advisors who bring diverse experience in academia and business, in Australia and internationally. Their role is to help guide, challenge, test and support the work of the Taskforce.
The expert advisors are Professor Larry Diamond, Senior Fellow at Stanford University, Professor Rod Sims AO, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU, Ms Leila Smith, CEO of Aurora Education Foundation and Professor Ngaire Woods (CBE), founding Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. The Australian Government welcomes these appointments and the important work they will do.