Fucked that one up didn’t I? Or did I not not fuck it up?

Was supposed to read:

“Not doing the thing that nobody had ever thought of not doing.”

…

“What mistakes did you make last time?”

“Do not do what everyone else is not doing.”

“Abandon normal instruments”

” If these people are “the best and the brightest”, take them outside their comfort zones and get them talking without the same scripts they’ve been using for years. “

That is bloody brilliant!

One of the reasons ABC LateLine [a.k.a. The Professor Show] had scorn poured on it by my colleagues was that any experts [or quasi-experts] on it were never taken outside their comfort zones.

Who knows what insights will emerge if people with an interest in one field are allowed into discussions in another field.

I attracted one Labor Left response which said that I was proposing that student unions be run by “randomly selected Trots”

I didn’t realize that so many tertiary students subscribed to the political theories of Leon Trotsky. Oh sorry that’s right. The ALP define a ‘Trot’ as anyone who doesn’t blindly obey the ALP. I forgot. Silly me.

…and one Labor Right response which was purely personal abuse.

Really? That’s so surprising. After all the ALP Right is so well known for their gentility, excellent manners, commitment to democracy and interest in other people’s views. Not to mention their commitment to physical fitness and a healthy diet.

Buuuuuut, a) Deliberative polling hinges very heavily on people _actually_ being informed before they start talking. Not making them experts when they enter the room, but not asking a cellist from Mt Druitt what she thinks about banana tariffs in qld, without educating her about the issues.

b) I’m a fan of deliberative polling first and foremost for democratic reasons. You can make an argument for, but I’m not entirely convinced that good policy is the inevitable outcome. Goodish, I’ll grant, but not good necessarily.

Some years ago I suggested that random selection of student union councils might be worth considering as an alternative to elections. I attracted one Labor Left response which said that I was proposing that student unions be run by “randomly selected Trots”, and one Labor Right response which was purely personal abuse.

The next year I raised the idea within the Greens. The balance of responses were positive, but one individual (who is no longer a Greens member in good standing) said that sortition would be a “recipe for mediocrity”. None of the three responses I have cited made any attempt to argue rationally against the idea.

The Crikey proposal puts its finger on what I perceive as a flaw in the working groups as currently constituted. The environmentalists and environmental scientists have been (mostly) appointed to the environment group, the indigenous people have been (mostly) appointed to the indigenous group, the econocrats have been (mostly) assigned to the economics groups, etc. Apart from the question of expertise and getting people to think outside their comfort zone, this approach also reinforces the disciplinary and sectoral compartmentalisation and lack of integration which is the bane of conventional public policy processes.