Venture capitalist Paul Bassat is worried Australia is heading in the wrong direction and is launching a new deliberative democracy play in a bid to correct course, with backing from the Commonwealth Bank and a board stacked with high-profile C-suite executives and former state politicians.

Along with funding from the country’s biggest bank and the Sidney Myer Fund, Mr Bassat – who co-founded Seek in the mid-1990s with his brother – is also putting his money where his aspiration is, committing his family’s own funds to get the non-profit off the ground.