National

Welcome to Project Democracy

Phase one of GetUp's E-Democracy project aims to help you get closer to your Senators. Click on your State or Territory above to see the Senators that represent you. Click on the "Your Senate" button in the sidebar to see the whole chamber. Click on the "blogs" and "news" sections in the sidebar to see what other Australians are saying about the political issues that matter, and what the news media's covering.

During this parliament, we hope that the Senate can be a genuine house of review. No major party has the numbers to force its will on the Senate, and this should mean that Government legislation will be subject to proper debate and review.

GetUp! has developed a range of tools for you to use here on the site. They're all designed to help you engage more closely with the people who represent you, and the institutions of your democracy. You can use them to:

• Find news and information about individual senators
• View senators' Senate speeches, their bios, media reports and blog posts about them.
• Scan news and information about your State
• Contribute blog posts or comment on other people's.
• See the Senate chamber at a glance with our interactive "Your Senate" model.

Explore the site, and give your feedback on the site by emailing us. We're still in Beta mode, and more functionality (including a House of Reps section) will be added in the coming weeks and months.