---
title: Australian Democrats
type: party
status: active
country: AU
website: https://democrats.org.au
logo: /assets/org-logos/australian-democrats.png
contact:
  checked: 2026-08-01
  form: https://www.democrats.org.au/contact/
  source: https://www.democrats.org.au/contact/
summary: A re-established Australian centrist political party with a strong focus
  on democratic reform, electoral integrity, and evidence-based policy — including
  explicit support for citizens' assemblies and proportional representation.
concepts:
- citizens-assembly
- mixed-member-proportional-representation
- sortition
location:
  latitude: -37.8136
  longitude: 144.9631
  name: Melbourne, Australia
  precision: city
rss_feed: https://democrats.org.au/rss.xml
events:
- date: '1977-01-01'
  title: Founded by Don Chipp, emerging from the Liberal Party split, running on 'keeping
    the bastards honest'
  url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Democrats
  quote: The Democrats' inaugural leader was Don Chipp
  proof_level: high
  url_checked: '2026-08-10'
  notable: true
- date: '1980-10-18'
  title: First elected to the Senate, winning balance of power — five Senators elected
    on a 9.3% vote
  url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Democrats
  quote: At the 1980 election, this increased to five seats
  proof_level: high
  url_checked: '2026-08-10'
  notable: true
- date: '1990-03-24'
  title: Peak electoral result — 12.6% Senate vote in the 1990 federal election
  url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Democrats
  quote: the 1990 federal election heralded something of a rebirth
  proof_level: high
  url_checked: '2026-08-10'
  notable: false
activity:
  rss:
    checked: 2026-06-08
    date: 2026-05-24
    note: 'Latest post: We took part in a Facebook Q&A'
    url: https://www.democrats.org.au/posts/6v15DUfhxyWNVoSqBBFje4/we-took-part-in-a-facebook-q-a
last_checked: '2026-06-28'
---

The Australian Democrats were originally founded in 1977 by Don Chipp with the stated aim to "keep the bastards honest" — a positioning as a principled centrist force holding the major parties accountable. The party held the balance of power in the Senate for many years before collapsing around 2008. It has since been re-established and is rebuilding a presence at state and federal levels.

## Relevance to democracy reform

The Democrats are notable in the current landscape for making democratic reform a substantive part of their platform rather than a peripheral concern. Their Victorian branch in particular has published detailed policy positions on:

- **Citizens' assemblies** — supporting the use of a randomly selected citizens' assembly to decide how Victoria's Upper House electoral system should be reformed before putting the outcome to a referendum
- **Proportional representation** — advocating for statewide PR for the Victorian Legislative Council, which would lower the election quota from 16.7% to ~2.4% and enable more diverse representation
- **Evidence-based framing** — their policy positions cite the 2025 Australian Election Study (48% support for citizens' assemblies, 32% trust in government) and the Victorian parliamentary inquiry findings

See the [blog post on the Victorian Upper House inquiry](../../blog/posts/2026-05-24-vic-upper-house-citizens-assembly.md) for context on the specific proposal.

## Position and caveats

The Democrats are a political party with a full platform across many issues. We track them here because their democracy reform positions are substantive and evidence-grounded — not because DOD endorses the party or its broader platform.

## Links

- Website: [democrats.org.au](https://democrats.org.au)
- Victorian branch: [vic.democrats.org.au](https://vic.democrats.org.au)

## See also

- [Citizens' Assembly](../concepts/citizens-assembly.md)
- [Mixed-Member Proportional Representation](../concepts/mixed-member-proportional-representation.md)
- [Sortition](../concepts/sortition.md)
- [PRSA](prsa.md)