<story><title>Australia’s status as an open democracy downgraded by The CIVICUS Monitor</title><url>https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2019/12/5/downgrading-of-australias-open-democracy-status-a-stark-reminder-of-the-need-to-create-an-australian-charter-of-human-rights-and-freedoms</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>RVuRnvbM2e</author><text>Yeah the current government has been accelerating an authoritarian slide unencumbered by a bill of rights. Neither major party supports such a document and without it you get bullshit like this recent secret trial and imprisonment:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mobile.abc.net.au&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;2019-11-21&amp;#x2F;canberra-prisoner-prompts-secrecy-debate&amp;#x2F;11726654&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mobile.abc.net.au&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;2019-11-21&amp;#x2F;canberra-prisoner-...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Australia’s status as an open democracy downgraded by The CIVICUS Monitor</title><url>https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2019/12/5/downgrading-of-australias-open-democracy-status-a-stark-reminder-of-the-need-to-create-an-australian-charter-of-human-rights-and-freedoms</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>ajxs</author><text>I was hoping that this article was going to be more of an in-depth critique of the poor state of regulatory capture and disruption of democratic institutions by bad actors in the private sector. My local state government ( NSW ) has been steadily growing more ostensibly corrupt over the last decade. I don&amp;#x27;t think there&amp;#x27;s many people denying the fact that wealthy business stakeholders get a disproportionate say in legislation and the allocation of public resources at the moment.</text></comment>