The NSW Legislative Council has a poor reputation. Many MPs have been there too long, including some crossbenchers who find it easier to cut deals with the government instead of fighting for new and important policy agendas.

This has allowed the Labor/Liberal/Nationals/Greens NSW policy consensus to float along unchallenged. One Nation aims to disrupt this consensus, given the way in which it has failed the State in key policy areas such as school education, energy policy, anti-discrimination laws, Sydney’s urban planning, water policy and neglect of the bush.

All One Nation policies are designed to give voters a real choice, a better option, advocating commonsense solutions to longstanding problems. Part of our approach is to improve the Legislative Council, making it a better-informed, deliberative and activist chamber.

The upper house needs to establish processes whereby important matters are not rammed through. Legislative Councillors need to go out of their way to ensure suburban, regional and country NSW voices are heard. The dominance of inner-city elites in policy making must end.

One Nation will work with other parties to insist that a proper Green/White Paper process must precede any Ministerial Bill of a highly contentious nature introduced in State Parliament. This should have happened, for instance, before the government rushed in to its disastrous greyhound-racing ban in 2016.

The Green Paper should inform the public of:

1. The relevant facts and figures about the social, economic, environmental or other problems that the legislation is meant to address; and
2. The alternative solutions to fixing the problem and the pros and cons as well as the quantified costs and benefits for each of these policy options.

The White Paper should inform policy makers and affected parties of the:

1. Public responses to the Green Paper, including the views of impartially-chaired focus groups representative of the wider public (suburban, regional and country NSW) and exposed to contending arguments; an
2. The reasons for the Government’s decision to favour a particular policy in preference to other options in its proposed legislation.

In assessing whether the Government and its public servants adhered to a proper Green/White paper process, we would ask questions drawn from the work of the Evidence-Based Policy Research Project hosted by The New Democracy Foundation (https://www.newdemocracy.com.au/our-work/477-evidence-based-policy)

These questions are:

1. Need

Is there a statement of why the policy was needed based on factual evidence and stakeholder input?

2. Objectives

Is there a statement of the policy’s objectives couched in terms of the public interest?

3. Options

Is there a description of the alternative policy options considered before the preferred one was adopted?

4. Mechanisms

Is there a disclosure of the alternative ways considered for implementing the chosen policy?

5. Analysis

Is there a published analysis of the pros/cons and benefits/costs of the alternative options/mechanisms considered in 3 and 4?

6. Pathway

Is there evidence that a comprehensive project management plan was designed for the policy’s rollout?

7. Consultation

Was there further consultation with affected stakeholders after the preferred policy was announced? Did this consultation take full account of the views of suburban, regional and country NSW?

8. Papers

Was there (a) a green paper seeking public input on possible policy options and (b) a white paper explaining the final policy decision?

9. Legislation

Was there legislation and adequate Parliamentary debate on the proposed policy initiative?

10. Communication

Is there an online official media release that explains the final policy in simple, clear and factual terms?