Yee-Fui Ng

Democratic Representation and the Property Franchise in Australian Local Government

Australia remains one of the last liberal democracies to retain a property franchise at the local government level. This particular feature is both the result of historical particularities and contemporary political arrangements. This article analyses the property franchise in the City of Melbourne, the capital of the Australian State of Victoria, based on democratic theory and an empirical study. It illustrates the tensions between the democratic principles of representation and political equality in defining structures for representation at the local government level. The authors suggest that a more nuanced interpretation of representation can be adopted at a local level based on territorial residency rather than legal citizenship. Despite this, based on analysis of both electoral and non-electoral mechanisms, the property franchises are found to be anachronistic and indefensible from a democratic perspective and unrelated to the status of capital city. The article concludes that, at a local level, deliberative democracy holds the promise to better represent various interests, including property interests.

Comparing Australian garment and childcare homeworkers' experience of regulation and representation

Labour markets in Australia have long been segmented by gender and race. This study compares two highly gendered and racially segmented labour markets, home-based family day care workers and garment homeworkers. The comparative cases examine the broader trends of migration, production and consumption that reinforce gender and racial stereotypes, and discourses that underpin representations that women workers are ideally suited to such work. We theorise the gender and racialised inequalities of homework based on the literature on invisibilisation and social reproduction to explore the vulnerable position of migrant women and the consequences of having limited options, such as legal and social protections and any capacity to collectively organise. Our analysis examines the roles and responses of institutions and conceptualises the socio-political factors that affect the characterisation of homework as non-work or as self-employed entrepreneurial activities. By mapping the differing regulatory trajectories of these two groups of homeworkers in terms of regulation and representation, we find both similarities and differences. While garment homeworkers have achieved recognition through legislation and social mobilisation, their circumstances leave them less likely to access such rights. By contrast, the failure to recognise family day care homeworkers, has left them to market forces. JEL code: J01

Dispelling myths about conventions: ministerial advisers and parliamentary committees

ABSTRACT There is a tension between a key principle underpinning liberal democratic governments and the associated political practice. Responsible government demands that the Executive is responsible to the Legislature. Governments, however, are generally inclined to evade or limit their accountability to Parliament wherever possible. In addition, ministerial advisers have thus far been excluded from the accountability framework of responsible government. This has led to an accountability deficit in terms of ministerial advisers appearing before parliamentary committees. Indeed, Ministers in the Australian Commonwealth and State of Victoria have claimed that there is a constitutional convention that ministerial advisers do not appear before parliamentary committees. This article challenges this claim and argues that there are no strong grounds based on precedent, reason, and the beliefs of political participants to conclude that there is a constitutional convention preventing ministerial advisers from appearing before parliamentary committees.

Prenatal Testing, East and West: Regulating Disabled Foetuses in China and Australia

Prenatal testing is a technology which is being used increasingly often to screen foetuses for genetic defects. This article focuses on the economic, political and social implications for prenatal testing for China and Australia.