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Conscience voters making their markDuncan Mcfarlane (Canberra press gallery) OCTOBER 15, 2002 FINANCE guru Ralph McKay had been flat on his back for more than a year with chronic fatigue syndrome when he finally dreamt up the Dome of Conscience. Listening to Radio National's roundup of the day's newspaper headlines, he was struck by the thought that there was no way to accurately measure what mattered to the public. "I used to think sometimes - 'that doesn't sound right, I think the public would have a different priority to what's being reported'," he says. "And I began to ponder this question of how would you measure public opinion." Four years and $3 million later his answer has emerged in The Dome of Conscience - a groundbreaking internet site that lets opinions compete against each other like shares on the stock market. Anyone with voting rights on a "billboard" can put forward a statement that other members can vote for. The more votes it gets the higher the statement rises on a list. McKay, and a growing group of supporters, believe this technique will measure the group's concerns better than any pollster. Some of the first people to use the Dome of Conscience have been NSW MPs who three weeks ago received their own "private board" they can access with a special password. Five NSW MPs covering all major parties have endorsed the Dome, claiming it will help to reinvigorate democracy. "MPs participation in the Dome will help enliven the interest of all people in the political process - we as MPs have this challenge," NSW independent MP Robert Oakeshott says. Despite this high praise, few MPs have so far taken up the challenge - although the time has been short. Judging by their contributions, which can be viewed at www.BigPulse.com, they have all been rural. The most popular statements demand improved regional health and education but there is also the more controversial "re-introduce grazing and selective logging in national parks". To McKay and some MPs, the attraction of his system is that members can put their beliefs forward anonymously and thus buck the party line without threatening party discipline. The freedom to vote according to conscience was one that federal MPs clearly relished during a rare conscience vote recently on stem cell research. "We've been at the mercy of the executive for decades, and it is only in very special occasions the parliament - in various guises, shapes and forms, reasserts its primacy in the political life of this nation," Labor MP Gavan O'Connor, told Parliament. Federal MPs are about to get access to their own Dome of Conscience billboard and although it cannot approach a real conscience vote in its impact it has already found some supporters. Liberal MP Greg Hunt says its benefits will be threefold. "It allows for an additional window on the Parliament. It has a unique function of trying to prioritise some of the concerns and third, for those that are not comfortable, it might give them an opportunity to express views which they might not otherwise do," Hunt says. Another use for the new polling system and the one McKay hopes will make money, will be as a way for industry groups and other associations to poll their members. He is already marketing private boards to groups, including the Business Council of Australia that represents the nation's Top 100 chief executives. These boards will allow the leadership to monitor the concerns of each of their members for a year for the same price as the postage on one letter. There are also public boards open to everybody, including the "main board" that pools all the statements from other boards covering issues ranging from defence to animal welfare. The top statement in the BigPulse world this week was: "The Queensland Premier thinks (state) police should be lowest paid in Australia." This indicates the problem with trying to use BigPulse as an indication of public sentiment at the moment - there are not enough users. The Queensland police wage dispute has become the hottest issue on BigPulse because a Queensland policeman happened to stumble across the site a month ago and arranged a private board for his colleagues. The miracle of the internet has also led many Americans to use the site as if it were in the US - its dotcom address does not give it away as Australian. To the casual Australian visitor their disputes are often more interesting than domestic ones. "Learn English to become a US citizen" is matched with the marginally less popular "Learn English to become a US President." But the award for most regional flavour must go to: "Highway patrol - taxman in a cowboy suit." Even if MPs don't adopt the idea that McKay conceived in the depths of his battle with chronic fatigue it seems there are plenty of people who will. |
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