DemocraMap

Team Name

DemocraTeam

Team Members

Project Description

We are DemocraTeam, and our project is DemocraMap.

We created this civic-tech prototype for GovHack 2025 to directly address two pressing challenges:

• Closing the Gap on Indigenous Outcomes
  
• Connecting New Citizens to Australian Democracy
  

Australia’s participation rates are high overall, yet the disparities are stark. Indigenous Australians remain around 5% less likely to be enrolled compared to the national average, with enrolment in some remote areas dipping into the mid-80s. New citizens face parallel challenges: each year nearly 200,000 people become Australians, but electorates with large migrant populations show lower turnout and higher ballot error rates, often caused by language barriers, limited resources, and insufficient civic onboarding.

DemocraMap is our response. It consolidates open government data into an interactive platform that enables users to:

1. Visualise participation gaps through a geospatial dashboard of Australia.
   
2. Configure analysis by focus—Indigenous, new citizens, or holistic—adjusting the entire application.
   
3. Explore data consolidation tables with turnout, enrolment, and informality metrics alongside ranked priority lists.
   
4. Generate actionable briefs via the Brief Strategy tool, producing region-specific outreach strategies tailored to Outreach Plan, Budget, Demographics, or even custom themes such as children or imprisonment.
   

This end-to-end journey takes users from seeing where gaps exist, to understanding why they exist, and ultimately to generating strategies that can be put into action.

Data Story

To build DemocraMap, we relied on trusted open government data, cleaned and structured into CSV files for geospatial mapping, tables, and the Brief Strategy engine.

Datasets used:

- AEC Divisional Enrolment & Turnout Data (June 2025 snapshot) – current enrolment, turnout, and informality by division.

- AEC Tally Room Archive – historical turnout and election results.

- ABS Census – Indigenous population counts, migrant demographics, language use, and education access.

- AIHW Regional Insights for Indigenous Communities (RIFIC) – regional Indigenous health, education, and outcomes.

- Closing the Gap Data (Targets and Outcomes) – indicators for education, participation, and wellbeing.

- Closing the Gap Information Repository (Productivity Commission Dashboard) – interactive dashboard with national and regional performance on targets.

- Australian Cohesion Index 2023 – belonging, trust, engagement, wellbeing.

- Mapping Social Cohesion 2024 – longitudinal survey data on migrant participation and belonging.

How the data powers DemocraMap:

1. Mapping layers highlight Indigenous enrolment gaps, migrant participation gaps, and NEEC outreach opportunities.

2. Configuration controls allow users to set the focus—Indigenous, new citizens, or holistic.

3. Consolidation tables combine turnout, enrolment, and informality metrics with severity rankings.

4. The Brief Strategy tool transforms these insights into tailored outreach briefs, aligning data evidence with practical policy actions.

Illustrative Findings

New citizens face lower turnout in electorates with high migrant populations.

Indigenous enrolment lags behind the national average, particularly in remote divisions.

Social cohesion domains—trust and belonging—align with regions of electoral under-participation.

By combining these insights, DemocraMap strengthens the impact of initiatives like the National Electoral Education Centre, DemocraBus, and DemocraCity, ensuring outreach is targeted, measurable, and effective.

No community—from the farthest outback to the heart of our cities—should be left behind in Australian democracy.

Through this layered approach, DemocraMap shows not just where the gaps are, but also why they exist, and how they can be addressed.