THE 7 — ROYAL COMMISSIONS
The Sunlight Agenda: seven Royal Commissions in the first term, full coercive powers, no carve-outs, the first within 90 days. Here they are.
1 — COVID-19 Response. Full Royal Commission into the COVID-19 pandemic response — federal and state, no exclusions. Terms of reference cover: the legal basis for emergency powers; cost-benefit analysis of lockdowns, border closures and mandates; full accounting of vaccine adverse events; suppression of dissenting medical and scientific voices; RBA monetary policy decisions during and after the pandemic; and the long-term economic, educational and social cost of the response.
2 — Media Monopoly. Australia has some of the most concentrated media ownership of any liberal democracy. News Corp Australia holds around 59 to 65 per cent of metropolitan and national newspaper readership and Nine around 23 to 26 per cent; News Corp, Nine and Seven together take roughly 80 per cent of free-to-air and subscription television revenue. A 2016 study ranked Australia’s newspaper sector the most concentrated of 26 countries. The RC will examine what ownership limits serve a functioning democracy, what relationships existed between media proprietors and successive governments, and what reforms can restore the diversity of voices a democracy requires.
3 — Lobbying & Foreign Influence. Australia has a lobbying register that is largely decorative. Foreign influence laws applied selectively. Former ministers taking industry positions within months of leaving government. The RC will examine every aspect of the lobbying industry — who paid whom, what access was purchased, what decisions were influenced, what legislative changes were made — and design enforceable rules to replace the current ornamental ones.
4 — Family Law. Whether the adversarial model serves children; whether ex parte FVROs are used tactically; whether the 2023 removal of equal parental responsibility was evidence-based; why proceedings cost $100,000-plus per party; and the deeper question of why marriages are failing at this rate.
5 — Indigenous Governance & Royalties. The Aboriginals Benefit Account holds over one billion dollars in mining royalties that have not reached communities. Most royalty agreements are confidential. The RC will audit every resource royalty payment made over twenty years, examine every body holding funds on behalf of Aboriginal communities, and determine — with full coercive powers if necessary — how much money has accumulated, where it sits, who controls it, and how it is to be returned to community control.
6 — Local Government. The council took me to court over a compost toilet and a shed. That experience — multiplied across thousands of Australians every year — illustrates the problem. Local government has accumulated powers disproportionate to its democratic mandate and accountability. The RC will examine rate-setting, enforcement conduct, CEO accountability, council planning decisions, and the systemic failure of state-level oversight.
7 — FOI Abuse & Government Secrecy. Freedom of Information is a theoretical right in Australia. In practice: requests are delayed for years, documents are redacted into meaninglessness, exemptions are applied to routine operational information, and agencies have developed sophisticated strategies to exhaust requesters. The RC will examine the full architecture of government secrecy — who developed it, who benefits, and how to restore the right to know that the FOI Act was supposed to deliver.
The full policy, with every source: Royal Commissions — The Sunlight Agenda, and Part 1.9 of the platform.