ACT joins experts measuring democracy in Asia's parliaments
16 December 2015 | Ipoh, Malaysia | Feature
Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, Tom Duncan, has joined officials in Malaysia this week as part of a team assessing Asia's parliaments against a democratic benchmarks.
The workshop, convened by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and hosted by the Perak State Legislature, assesses the parliaments of South and South-East Asia against the CPA's 2006 Benchmarks for Democratic Legislatures. Mr Duncan is at the meeting in his role as part of the CPA resource team, sharing knowledge and experience of building a democratic legislature here in the ACT.
Parliamentary democracy is the most widely practiced form of governance. The benchmarks were developed to evaluate parliaments against a series of democratic gold standards, provide advice on how to achieve them ,and measure their progress towards them. They are split into four categories- elections, organisational structure, function, and values - and for the basis of an ongoing program of benchmarking workshops for developing democratic legislatures throughout the Commonwealth of Nations.
The workshop runs from 14-17 December, and brings together approximately 15 experts from across the region.
What is the CPA?
The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association is an organisation of most national and state-level parliaments in the Commonwealth of Nations, representing almost 17,000 members of parliament across the globe. Established in 1911, the CPA hosts workshops, develops best practice frameworks, and provides a forum to promote parliamentary democracy.
Most events are organised at a regional level, run by each of the CPA's nine geographical regions. The ACT Legislative Assembly is a member of the Australia Region and often collaborates with the Asian and Pacific Regions. The Assembly is also a member of CPA Small Branches, a group for the Association's smaller jurisdictions.
Click here to find our more about the Assembly's inter-parliamentary relations.