THE first question to the community in the lead up to this year’s George Briscoe Kerferd Oration has been answered by Scott Landells.

Veteran ABC journalist Barrie Cassidy will deliver his oration titled 'The Fragility of Democracy' on Sunday, July 7.

The question asked is ‘In recent years, surveys have been finding people trust governments less and less.

Has the quality of government really declined or do we just know more about what they do?

"As we know in Australia, we have a three-tier system of government - Federal, State and Local," Scott said.

"In 2024, governments collectively face a number of formal processes and bodies to ensure good governance.

"These include freedom of information, senate estimates, royal commissions, corruption commissions, ombudsman, auditor general’s office, state ministers for local government, integrated planning reporting frameworks and customer satisfaction surveys, to name a few.

"The mere existence of these checks and balances suggests that there are government practices and behaviours that warrant scrutiny.

"At a Federal level, the self-interest of MPs from major parties and their reluctance to tackle deeper social and environmental issues has been an unfortunate feature of recent governments.

"The relatively short three-year election cycle is a contributing factor I think and encourages the ‘kick it down the road’ approach.

"The steep rise in community driven independent MPs in the House of Representatives at the 2022 Federal election, is evidence that the quality of government is improving markedly, these past two years.

"This cross-bench now boasts 16 MPs from Greens, minor parties or independents.

"Many were elected on the back of community driven campaigns where issues such as climate change, gender equity, respectful behaviour and integrity were priorities.

"The internet has given us access to quality information - and misinformation - at the touch of a button.

"Access to this technology is mainstream, however, it is accessed very differently by the generations.

"I often hear from people under 30 that I interact with, that they access their news from TikTok - a format geared for very short sound bites.

"A legacy of the internet is a global 24-hour news cycle, hence I think that we definitely know a lot more about the work of governments.

"This has added pressure to governments, which they tend to acknowledge in various ways, one being the releasing of unflattering reports late in the day on the eve of a long weekend, for example, preferring the glancing blow, to the knock-out punch.

"Given my glass half-full tendency, I believe that the quality of our Federal government has improved significantly in recent times, albeit from a very low base.

"I am cautiously optimistic that we are progressing towards improved quality.

"Whether a natural flow-on effect of quality government extends to state and local tiers will be an interesting watch.”

For more information about the event and registration visit www.kerferdoration.org.