This keynote will explore why Australia’s governing institutions tend to work better than other western nations and the extent to which it depends on compulsory voting and an absence of constitutionally entrenched rights. When contentious issues are routinely left to courts or civil servants, it is corrosive to good governance, leading to a politicised judiciary and ineffective legislature. Meanwhile, influential insiders take legislative power and break it up, distributing it among those most like themselves — often excluding views held by electoral majorities and rendering political party manifestos inoperative. This process undermines trust in all democratic institutions and the health of civil society.