I can see where you’re coming from, but I can’t recall a Royal Commission that actually helped. Arguably the two most recent, Financial Services and Aged Care, actually made things worse!

One of the key problems is that Royal Commissions are called by politicians, who set the terms of reference, and run by lawyers, who bring their unique baggage of privilege to the subject.

I recently read “Why We’re Polarised” by Ezra Klein, which is a devastating critique of the American political system. Put an Australian version of that on Netflix and you might achieve a better result, as with The Social Dilemma for social media and David Attenborough’s Life on Earth for climate change.

Thanks for your feedback Ricky T. I thought the Financial Services Royal Commission was productive in raising issues. I was surprised for example that a Trustee of an investment fund didn't seem to understand fiduciary responsibility. Seems though that many of the recommendations didn't proceed. https://insidestory.org.au/banking-their-winnings/

Not sure about the Aged Care Royal Commission.

I was also interested in points made by The Social Dilemma  https://ideaspies.com/posts/tips-in-fixing-social-media

Ricky,

Thank you for your interest and thoughtful comment.

I agree that there are challenges with the Royal Commission route and this is somewhat a 'stalking horse' suggestion.

There is a major challenge in how do we get the electorate engaged with doing something about our country's governance, which lacks trust. Although a lot of politicians recognise the problem of lack of engagement and trust from the electorate they lack the motivation to do something about it. If faced with a broad call for a Royal Commission into how politics operates there may be sufficient incentive for politicians to reform some practices and improve transparency and integrity of processes.