The assertion that all democrats policy is balloted by members is inaccurate, or at the very least dated. The policy taken to the last federal election that parents should not be able to share their religion with their children, was an abomination forwarded by a small handful of members with no formal roles in the policy process.

Your article describes that despite the outward appearance of no elected members, the democrats are producing good policy behind the scenes in line with their traditional values. They are not.

I was a devoted and active member of the Australian Democrats from 1981 to 1992 when I resigned for a number of reasons, despite still believing in the 23 objectives. Basically, the constitution was flawed, not allowing proper disciplinary measures against those that sought to destroy the party. The concept of every elected member having their own conscience vote on every issue undermined the work of the party, though it sounded good in theory. As for policy, very often the party members would go through the painstaking voting procedure only to have the senators ignore it, most notably on immigration policy. But probably the biggest flaw was the members electing the leader. That was fine until the duly elected leader (it happened to at least two of them) lost the support of the party room. It then became unworkable. Finally, it would have been better to vote on broad principles, rather than specific policy, because the average member didn't care or know that much about every issue and didn't want to vote.

That said, I was proud to be an Australian Democrat for much of my time in it. The elected members were very good on the whole and worked hard. History will remember the Democrats for breaking the two-party culture and making people realise that they could split their vote between the House and Senate, or upper and lower houses generally. They paved the way for the Greens and other small parties. Democracy has been the winner.

The irony is that with the rise and rise of centrist politics, the democrats went down the gurgler faster than many would have predicted.
Not since Cheryl Kernot day of glory has this party enjoyed relevance in Australian political discourse because in those years there was a distinction to be made between the Left and Right political spectrum.
When Kernot jumped ship for love and glory to the Labor Party the ideological safeguards that held the democracts together quickly fell away. Voters saw the democrats as nothing more than a rump of Labor. Andrew Bartlett was never going to revive its chances at the booth, he was too preoccupied with trying to be fair and impartial on all matters before him to realize that politics in Australia required clear declarations about what they stood for, rather than the sophistry of their own ponderings. He still hasn't worked this out and you see him haunting public forums in Brisbane, putting audiences to sleep at record speed.

Yes the Democrats have not folded, but I think their near death experience has taught them nothing about the game of politics.

...Another reason for a persistent approach to the engaging dialogue on OLO, is relevant comment such as Geordie, Rainier and popnperish. The end to the Democrats could only be described as “ignominious” to those uneducated on the subject, such as myself!

@Geordie:

Instead of making wildly inaccurate claims, why don't you pinpoint how the Aus Democrats policies "The policy taken to the last federal election that parents should not be able to share their religion with their children"?? Here is the policy, http://www.democrats.org.au/policies/Action2010/Church_State_AP.pdf, where does it say that?

That quite simply is a joke! Many of the Democrats members are Christian, with some even claiming the Democrats were the home of the Christian middle and left. In my opinion there is a lot of work to be done, but the Democrats have the right attributes to continue to make a positive contribution to political discourse and I wouldn't be suprised to see them make a comeback.

"The Australian Democratic party isn't dead, just simply resting."

What, just because it's nailed to the perch?

All together now: "It is an ex-party, it has gone to meet its maker and joined the Choir Invisible!"