CDI's inaugural Political Party Development course (PPD) concluded in Canberra on 20 October. PPD's focus was on parties and governance, the role of parties in ensuring political stability, and the need for parties to represent all segments of society, including women. National party secretaries and leaders from major political parties in Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Vanuatu participated in this year's course.
PPD is a unique training course which aims to strengthen political parties through an intensive two-week program on the skills needed to run a successful party organisation. Working in close cooperation with the major Australian parties, CDI designed a program which covers the nuts and bolts of party politics from the inside. Topics addressed include the functions of political parties; running effective campaigns; public opinion and polling; successful electoral strategies; media relations; policy development; membership recruitment; issue management; and political party funding .
The PPD course features presentations from all the major Australian political parties, federal parliamentarians, senior party officials, current and former party secretaries, relevant government agencies, academic experts and the press.
As part of PPD, participants were also guests of the National Party of Australia at the Nationals' Federal Conference on Saturday, 14th October, which was a feature of the 2006 course.
For more information on the course, including the project report, program and participants list, click on the links below.
