The diary of a jury member

Name: David Smith

Age: 20

Occupation: Unemployed graduate

A day in March

I got letter today from the electoral office. It said that I was to be a member of the jury that checks up on politicians. I've seen these people on TV on Sunday nights, but I didn't think it would ever happen to me.

I'm pretty excited about this, and so is my family. My younger sister is excited because I'm going to be on TV. My father says it'll do me good to see how the country works - and he wants a full report when I get back. My mother is worried about the poor company I'll keep - politicians, lobbyists, journalists. But dad says they're only dangerous when they're near a microphone.

Sunday

I packed my bags and made my way to the airport. I flew to Canberra and was met there by the Jury Coordinator, a public servant who ensures that the jury process goes smoothly. She took me to a hotel where I was given a clean, luxurious room (so this is what mum means when she says "a clean bedroom").

After unpacking I went down to the hotel's restaurant where the Jury Coordinator introduced me to the other five members of the jury. Two of the jurors had been doing this for a week already, and another two had completed two weeks. I recognised them from their television appearances. I was a bit daunted by meeting TV personalities, but as I got to know them I realised that they were just ordinary people. One of the other members, like me, was just starting her service.

As we consumed our meal the senior jury members starting talking about their experiences, and explained the tricks that people try on you to get you to see things their way. It's a great idea having this rotation system, where the two longest serving members finish and two new members are added. It means that the knowledge gained by members gets passed on to future generations of members without it being lost as it would be if a fresh jury was selected every three weeks.

I rather enjoyed the meal, but I wasn't too impressed with the smoked salmon entree, which tasted like raw fish.

Monday - How the government works

Today four of us were given a run-down on how the government departments work - as opposed to the work done by the politicians. (The two most senior members of the jury weren't with us because they were into their "optional week", where they were free to visit anyone they wanted). We were shown a documentary that summarised the operation of the various departments. It also gave us an insight into how the country functioned from the perspective of the public service, and recommendations on how it should function.

Towards the end of the day I was surprised to discover that we actually had to do some work. During every one of our visits we had a "time-out". In it, we had half an hour to do the following:

• Write down our understanding of what it would be like to be in these peoples' shoes.
• Review the material that they had provided to us.
• Talk amongst ourselves.
• Come up with a list of questions to present to these people.

There was a bit of skirmish when one jury member suggested that public servants were more interested in keeping their jobs than serving the public, while another jury member (a public servant) said that at least it's better than being a greedy capitalist. These two agreed to disagree, leaving us just enough time to prepare some questions.

At the end of the day we were apparently privileged to spend 10 minutes with each of the heads of the major government departments - Treasury, Foreign Affairs, and the Prime Minister's department. I hadn't known who these people were or what they did, but when I found out it blew my mind. These people actually run the country! Good job too - they're a lot smarter than the average politician, and know a lot more about what they're doing.

Tuesday - Big business and unions

The Business Council of Australia had prepared a documentary for us to watch. In it, they tried to explain how they thought the country was being run, and how could be run better. The idea that the government shouldn't be borrowing money on our behalf to fund election promises sounded OK - but the idea of Dick Warburton as Australia's first President seemed a bit far-fetched. After our 30 minute time-out, we barraged them with questions.

The afternoon was spent in much the same way, this time with the ACTU.

Wednesday - The disadvantaged

I'm starting to see a pattern here. You visit a group of people and they provide you with glossy brochures explaining how they act entirely in the country's best interest, and that it's other people who are stopping them from doing a better job. But you ask them some hard questions, and the cracks start to appear. That was especially evident today when talking to people charged with looking after society's disadvantaged.

One of the organisations we visited was called "Big Brothers - Big Sisters" in Melbourne. For a while it had been funded almost exclusively by rich people through trusts, but now half the money was coming from the government.

We met a "regional coordinator" who told us about how this great scheme introduced youngsters from troubled homes to stable adults with whom they could spend a couple of hours a week. During the introductory piece we were very impressed with their presentation, but during the time-out period we got a chance to review their financial documents and read statements from volunteers, parents, children, and the social-workers who ran the operation. We came up with some interesting questions:

• Why were there only 66 new matches in a year when the waiting list for big brothers and sisters is 362? Doesn't that imply a waiting time of at least 6 years for prospective youngsters (by which time they might have grown up and gone to jail?)
• What would the real length of the waiting list be if parents weren't discouraged by such long waiting times?
• What support is offered to kids while they're on the waiting list?
• Are the 8 paid coordinators working flat out? - if not why don't you sack one of them and use the money to advertise for badly needed big brothers?
• If the coordinators are working at full stretch - how can more matches be supported without more of these coordinators? Does this mean that the problem is not a shortage of volunteers, but a shortage of money for social workers?

You should've heard the answers!

Thursday - Small business day

Today we tried to understand as much as we could about small businesses. We listened to their problems and their perspective on the world. My English teacher was right - these business people are obsessed with making money. But unlike the picture that my teacher had painted - it seems that most small business people were just "making a living" rather than "making a fortune."

One thing that small business people shared with everyone else was that they were pretty much concerned with making life more comfortable for themselves. I guess it's just human nature when you think about it.

Friday - My first broadcast recording day

Today I make my first public broadcast. The show is actually goes for 10 minutes on Sunday night at 7:30, but it is recorded on Friday afternoon. The other first-timer has decided to join forces with one of the other jury members to produce a 3 minute (2 x 90 secs) presentation on what should be done to make the tax system more fair (based on their own experiences, and what they had learned when we visited the tax department on Monday). They are going to get a professional news-reader to read it for them. But there's no way anyone is going to talk me out of my 90 seconds of fame.

I didn't know where to start on the script - so I followed the guide provided to me by the Jury coordinator. I wrote down all the important points I wanted to make, and then massaged them into a tight script using a word processor. I thought the result was pretty good - but the professional script-writer who reviewed it recommended some changes. These changes, I admit, were also pretty good.

Saturday

I flew down to Melbourne to spend the weekend at home, to relax, to wind-down, and to watch myself on television.

Sunday

The big day, it's almost 7:30 and the family is assembled around the TV in eager anticipation.

My face appears alongside an written introduction and voice over: "The next juror is David Smith from Collingwood, Victoria."

Here's my speech:

"I think that younger people like me should be made to feel more a part of the community, like this jury makes you do. Before coming on to this jury I felt that I didn't really feel like what I did made a difference. This may sound stupid to some people, but when you've been knocked back for more than 20 jobs you start to feel that there might be something wrong with you, or that there's a conspiracy to shut young people out. Now that I've had a week to see where a lot of different people in the community are coming from, I start to see that's not that they're against young people, it's just that everyone is so concerned about protecting their own particular patch, that they never get around to do anything for anyone else.

I understand that older people might be afraid of losing their jobs if we make it easier for young people to find work. But we should be able to do accommodate the need to help young people assimilate into the work-force without creating massive job uncertainty for everyone else. I admit that I haven't tried for every job that has come along, but I didn't do Uni for 3 years just to get a job as a waiter. If there weren't the jobs for graduates at the end of the course, why was the course there in the first place? Someone will have known that we were wasting our time in that course, but no-one said anything. I'm sure there are people who could have said something, but as this week has shown, they were probably too absorbed in their own world to say it."

After the show all my friends rang me to tell me how dorky I was, but I sure they're jealous.

Next time I will make a speech about other things, so people don't imagine that all I can think of is myself.

What's in store…

Next week I'll be visiting other places and looking at more issues, like education and health.

The week after that, I'll be able to focus on any issue I like.

I can't believe that there are countries in the world that don't have a jury that watches over the government.