newDemocracy Foundation
newDemocracy is one of Australia's most active organisations in the deliberative democracy space. It conducts real-world trials using random selection and deliberation — the jury model — to show that citizens, given good information and time to deliberate, can reach considered decisions on complex public issues.
The foundation is non-partisan and works across government, community, and institutional settings. It publishes research on what works, what doesn't, and why — with the explicit goal of making deliberative methods a normal part of democratic governance rather than an experimental curiosity.
Approach
newDemocracy's core argument is that the adversarial, partisan nature of representative democracy produces poor decisions on long-term or complex issues, and that randomly selected citizens' assemblies and juries consistently outperform what elected bodies produce when given the same brief. Their work is empirical — they run trials, document outcomes, and publish findings.
Key people
- Luca Belgiorno-Nettis — founder and principal funder of the newDemocracy Foundation. A Sydney-based infrastructure developer and philanthropist who became a significant advocate for deliberative democracy in Australia after growing disillusioned with conventional politics.1
- Kyle Redman — Executive Director, appointed September 2026. Previously joint Research Director at newDemocracy, and returned after an 18-month secondment with the Federation for Innovation in Democracy – Europe and the AI & Democracy Foundation.2
- Iain Walker — Director, Advocacy, and a Board member. Executive Director from 2011 to 2026, during which he led over 30 deliberative projects for state and local governments.3
- Nicholas Gruen — prominent economist and longstanding collaborator, who has presented to DOD on deliberative democracy and the concept of isegoria. One of newDemocracy's most visible intellectual contributors. See 2017 presentation
Links
- Website: newdemocracy.com.au
See also
- Citizens' Assembly
- Sortition
- Isegoria
- Cognitive Division of Labour
- Citizens' Democracy: Presentations and Q&A — Nicholas Gruen and Hubertus Hofkirchner present to DOD, 2017
- Isegoria: The Way Citizens' Juries Deliver It, How Elections Destroy It — Nicholas Gruen in conversation with DOD, 2020
- G1000
- MASS LBP
- DemocracyNext
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"The newDemocracy Foundation was launched in 2007, with Luca Belgiorno-Nettis... as the inaugural directors." and "Luca had a 30-year career in Transfield, a large infrastructure and engineering company founded by his father," newDemocracy Foundation, History ✓ Verified. ↩
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"Kyle Redman is Executive Director of the New Democracy Foundation." newDemocracy Foundation, Board and Executive ✓ Verified. ↩
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"Iain Walker is Director of Advocacy." newDemocracy Foundation, Board and Executive ✓ Verified. ↩
History
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2007-01-01
newDemocracy Foundation launched — one of the first organisations worldwide dedicated exclusively to citizens' assembliesPlatform/product launch
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The newDemocracy Foundation was launched in 2007, with Luca Belgiorno-Nettis, Lyn Carson, Kathy Jones and Ian Marsh as the inaugural directors.
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2009-01-01
Australian Citizens' Parliament — 150 citizens deliberate on strengthening Australia's democracyFirst flagship citizens' assembly project
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Our first big project was the Australian Citizens’ Parliament in 2009, which was an Australian Research Centre-funded citizens’ assembly involving 150 Australians deliberating on how to strengthen Australia’s system of government.
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2017-01-01
Democracy R&D international network founded with newDemocracy as a founding member
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Carson prompted newDemocracy to establish a global hub for communication and learning, and thus Democracy R&D was born in 2017 as an international network, with over 120 affiliates reaching across all 5 continents and nearly 50 countries.
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2018-01-01
Helps design Ostbelgien's permanent Citizens' Council — world's first embedded in a parliamentWorld-first permanent parliamentary citizens council
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Still in 2018, we were invited to travel to Belgium with a several other academics and practitioners to consult on what would become the world’s first permanent Citizens’ Council in Eupen, the capital of the autonomous Ostbelgien region.
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2026-09-14
Kyle Redman appointed Executive Director as Iain Walker steps back to Director, Advocacy after 15 yearsLeadership transition
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After 15 years at the helm of the newDemocracy Foundation, Executive Director Iain Walker is stepping aside, and the Board is pleased to announce that Kyle Redman has been appointed Executive Director.
Walker remains with the foundation part-time as Director, Advocacy and joins the Board alongside Kathy Jones, Lyn Carson and Luca Belgiorno-Nettis.
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2026-09-15
Launches the second edition of the "Democracy Beyond Elections" citizens’ assemblies handbook at UN Headquarters in New York, produced with UNDP and the UN Democracy FundPublication launch with UN agencies
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On 15 September, International Day of Democracy, Iain will travel to New York to launch the second edition of our book, Democracy Beyond Elections: A Handbook on Citizens’ Assemblies.
newDemocracy announced that outgoing Executive Director Iain Walker would launch the handbook’s second edition at UN Headquarters on International Day of Democracy. The handbook itself was published on newDemocracy’s site on 14 September 2026 and is free to download. newDemocracy has since advised that a short video edit of the launch will be published (newDemocracy correspondence, September 2026).
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