MEDIA RELEASE
2 September 2004

Former magistrate Brian Deegan supports the Dome of Conscience

Former magistrate Brian Deegan, father of Bali bombing victim Josh, and candidate for the seat of Mayo said today, "The Dome of Conscience represents exactly what I am standing for, transparency and honesty in government."

The Dome of Conscience is a transparent online conscience voting chamber just for elected officials. However until October 9th all federal candidates can join the vote. It operates through the website www.domevote.com.

"I am delighted to be the first to commit to a regular vote in the Dome. If all candidates did this, the parliament would be transformed overnight. Why would any candidate, asking for trust, not commit to a regular transparent conscience vote? It only takes a minute to vote in the Dome," said Brian Deegan.

"If parliamentarians commit to a regular online conscience vote our democracy will be much stronger, people will have more trust in the process of government and feel more connected to the parliament. Ultimately a stronger democracy can only mean greater security, wealth and wellbeing for all," said Brian Deegan.

"I think this is a great idea and I hope all Members of all Parliaments will join it," said leading political analyst, Malcolm Mackerras.

"John Howard has made trust the big issue in this campaign. I say can politicians be trusted to tell us what they stand for? Can politicians be trusted to put their loyalty to constituents above all else? Well here is their `ladder of opportunity', just commit to a regular vote in the Dome of Conscience," said Brian Deegan.

"It's an opportunity for candidates to demonstrate a real commitment to transparency in government," said Deegan.

Brian Deegan is the first to vote in the Dome since the campaign started, more important, he is the first candidate to make a public commitment to a regular transparent online conscience vote, if elected.

The Dome of Conscience is a global initiative to create a window into the conscience of each parliament and national assembly. This window is an online scoreboard of opinions and ideas in the minds of lawmakers.

In the leadup to the election the Dome will show which candidates are fully committed to transparency in government and which opinions and issues are most popular with those candidates.

It's a polling invention that works like a continuous, transparent and competitive Opinion Market - an idea inspired originally by the way financial markets work. There are no questions, surveys or pollsters. Any federal candidate can float a new opinion in the virtual voting chamber any time. Opinions are expressed as concise single line statements called "placards". All opinion placards compete continuously for votes from candidates and are ranked live in a leaderboard for all to see. Each placard also has a separate dedicated debating forum where candidates can post comments and speeches.

Repeat voting is encouraged and never causes vote stacking as the system counts the last vote only for each candidate.

Voting is fully transparent. The Dome shows the collective voice of all candidates, the parliament as a whole, the Senate and House of Representatives separately, as well the vote count of each party and each candidate.

"In the Dome, all elected officials and candidates have equal power to set the agenda and all have equal opportunity to represent their constituents. Lawmakers can see where their colleagues stand on the issues of the day. The people can see how their representatives and candidates are thinking at any time," said Ralph McKay, founder of BigPulse.com, the company that donates the use of the Dome of Conscience website to the parliament.

"It's an opportunity for parliamentarians to engage the public. Many more people will feel connected to the seat of power. More people will take an interest in democracy and lawmakers will reflect a more enlightened society. This is the mechanics of the *D*ome-ocracy *o*f *m*ass *e*nlightenment," said McKay.

To see the Dome, comments from people of influence and the Dome history visit www.domevote.com. The Federal Parliament voting chamber can be accessed directly with www.domeaus.com.