Than Luck “From Climate Change and Sustainability to Proper Governance and Strengthening Our Democracy, the Ideas in More Than Luck Come at the Right Time
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
More Than Luck “From climate change and sustainability to proper governance and strengthening our democracy, the ideas in More Than Luck come at the right time. And we need politicians who are willing to take them seriously. If we cannot think bigger than tweets, we are in trouble. If our politicians won't think bigger than sound-bites, we are lost." – JULIAN BURNSIDE, QC “Politics is not a horse race, but if you're anything like me and you're only just recovering from the "mule-trading" vibe of Election 2010, More Than Luck is a brilliant place to restore your faith. What sweet relief to find a collection of words, sentences, pages, chapters, a whole book that reminds us of the possibility these current times offer us.” – CLARE BOWDITCH, MUSICIAN More Than Luck: Ideas Australia needs now is both a collection of ideas for citizens who want real change and a to-do list for politicians looking to base public policies on the kind of future ideas australia needs now Australians really want. In this collection of essays, CPD fellows and thinkers show what’s needed to share this country’s good luck amongst all Australians, now and in the future. They examine where we are now and where we need to go if we are to move beyond the stasis that has settled over government and opposition in Australia. The result is a mix of easy wins that are ready to be implemented and some big, bold nation building ideas that may require a bit more backbone on the part of our political leaders. Fiona Armstrong Ben Eltham Miriam Lyons Tani Shaw Larissa Behrendt Kate Gauthier Ian McAuley Ben Spies-Butcher Chris Bonnor LEE Godden Kathy MacDermott Adam Stebbing Eva Cox Elizabeth Hill Peter Newman Marcus Westbury Mark Davis Ray Ison Barbara Pocock More Than Luck Jennifer Doggett Norm Kelly John Quiggin Ian Dunlop Phil Lynch Marian Sawer Mark Davis &Miriam Lyons Davis Mark by Edited ideas australia needs now Edited by Mark Davis & Miriam Lyons ISBN: 978-0-9808356-0-1 Centre for Policy Development 2010 “BothofAustralia’smajorpoliticalpartiesseeminglylost sightofprincipleandphilosophyinthe2010election campaign.Itwasshamefulhowmuchtimewasdevoted totrivia andpork-barrellingwhileclimatechange, sustainabilityandthelong-termreformofthehealthand educationsystemswererelegatedtothefootnotes.The hysteriasurroundingthequestionofboat-people,andthe silenceaboutclimatechangedemonstratedhowoutof touchAustraliaiswiththerestoftheworld. Geographicallyweareanisland,butingeo-politicswe arenotanisland,wearepartofthemain.Theelection campaignandtheoutcomesuggestedanationoutoftouch withreality.Fromclimatechangeandsustainabilityto propergovernanceandstrengtheningofdemocracy,the ideasinMoreThan Luck comeattherighttime.Weneed politicianstotakethemseriously.Ifwecannotthinkbigger thantweets,weareintrouble.Ifourpoliticianswon’tthink biggerthansound-bites,wearelost.” –JulIAnBurnsIde,QC. “Thisisatimelycallfornewthinkinginacountry accustomedtogettingbyonluck,andinspiteofits leadership.TheauthorsofMore Than Luckhavemade anearnestandconstructiveattempttograpplewiththe unthinkabilityofan‘officialfuture’thatseemstoassume thatcurrentconsumptioncanbesustainedandthatcurrent productioncanberescued.More Than Luckisaclarioncall topreventsuchfollywhilethere’sstilltime.” –GuyPeArse,AuthoroFHigH & Dry And Quarry Vision, reseArChFelloW-GlobalChAnGeInstItute, unIversItyoFQueenslAnd. The Centre for Policy Development is a progressive think tank dedicated to seeking out creative, viable ideas and innovative research to inject into Australia’s policy debates. Our work combines big picture thinking about the future of government with practical research on options for policy reform. We give a diverse community of thinkers space to imagine solutions to Australia’s most urgent challenges, and connect their ideas with policy makers, media and concerned citizens. The CPD is a non-profit organisation, and donations to our research fund are tax deductible. If you’d like to join the CPD supporters or hear about future CPD publications go to: http://cpd.org.au/ First published in 2010 Centre for Policy Development. Some rights reserved. PO Box K3, Haymarket Sydney, New South Wales, 1240 ISBN: 978-0-9808356-0-1 Cover design by Kevin Bathman Set in Trade Gothic & Ingleby by Liza Manshoor, http://eclecticdsgn.com Printed and bound in Australia by Griffin Press To comment on this book and for full references please see the e-book version at http://morethanluck.cpd.org.au As the publisher of this book, the Centre for Policy Development wants our authors’ work to be circulated as widely as possible. Therefore, the contents of this book are released under a Creative Commons licence. Extracts, summaries or whole chapters may be reproduced provided the author, the book’s title and CPD are attributed, with a link to the More Than Luck website at http://morethanluck.cpd.org.au. For more details on the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia licence that applies to this book, see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/au/ More Than Luck IDEAS AUSTRALIA NEEDS NOW Edited by Mark Davis & Miriam Lyons Contents Contributors 6 Introduction • Mark Davis & Miriam Lyons 15 Sharing the luck Getting health policy into shape • Jennifer Doggett 29 How to end social apartheid in schools • Chris Bonnor 47 It takes a bleeding heart to see the bleedin’ obvious • Kate Gauthier 59 Human rights at the cross-roads • Phil Lynch 75 Work and care • Elizabeth Hill & Barbara Pocock 91 Cultural policy in Australia • Ben Eltham & Marcus Westbury 103 Closing the evidence gap • Larissa Behrendt 117 Making it laSt Shifting from fear to hope • Fiona Armstrong 131 Sustainable cities • Peter Newman 149 Facing our limits • Ian Dunlop 159 From water supply to water governance • Lee Godden & Ray Ison 177 Living off our resources • Ian McAuley 185 More than luck Strengthening democracy • MARIAN SAWER, Kathy MacDermott & Norm Kelly 201 Governance that works • Ray Ison 215 Strengthening the social fabric • Eva Cox 229 What does progress mean to you? • Tani Shaw 241 Surviving the next crisis • John Quiggin 251 Getting value for public money • Ben Spies-Butcher & Adam Stebbing 267 Editors Mark Davis is the author of The Land Of Plenty: Australia in the 2000s and Gangland: Cultural Elites and the New Generationalism. He is well-known as a cultural and political commentator, and is Director of the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Melbourne, and a fellow of the Centre for Policy Development. Miriam LyonS is the Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Development. Formerly the policy coordinator of New Matilda, Miriam has a history of bringing policy ideas to new audiences, as the founding director of the Interface Festival of Ideas in Sydney, and director of the Ideas Program for the Straight Out of Brisbane Festival. She has also worked as a freelance writer and a media development consultant in East Timor with the international NGO, Internews. Miriam was a delegate to the 2020 Summit and was profiled in the Thinkers category of The Australian’s Emerging Leaders series, as a ‘Woman Shaping Australia’ in Madison magazine and as an AFR Boss 2010 ‘True Leader’. Authors Fiona Armstrong is a public policy analyst and advocate for comprehensive health reform and evidence-based climate policy. She is a co-author of the 2009 Centre for Policy Development Policy Paper Putting Health in Local Hands: Shifting Governance and Funding to Regional Health Organisations. Fiona has a background as a health professional, in health policy, and as a journalist. She has a Masters in Politics and Public Policy and has recently been researching climate policy options for Australia. Fiona works with organisations on a range of health and climate policy issues, and is a CPD fellow. Larissa BehrendT is a Eualeyai/Kamillaroi woman. She is the Professor of Law and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney. She was admitted to the Supreme Court of the ACT and NSW as a barrister. Larissa is a Land Commissioner at the Land and Environment Court and the Alternate Chair of the Serious Offenders Review Board, a member of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia and a founding member of the Australian Academy of Law. She is the Chair of the Humanities and Creative Arts panel of the Australian Research Council College of Experts. She is the author of several books on Indigenous legal issues. She won the 2002 6 David Uniapon Award and a 2005 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for her novel Home. Her latest novel, Legacy, is due for release in October 2010. Larissa was named 2009 NAIDOC Person of the Year. Chris Bonnor AM is co-author with Jane Caro of The Stupid Country – How Australia is dismantling public education (UNSW Press), a former high school principal and former President of the NSW Secondary Principals Council. He also manages a media monitoring website on education issues: www.futuredforum.blogspot.com. Eva Cox AO was until recently Program Director, Social Inquiry at the University of Technology Sydney, and is now an unattached change agent while reviving her consultancy, Distaff Associates. She is the national Chair of the Women’s Electoral Lobby – an organisation in which she was a founding member in 1972. A strong feminist and advocate for women’s issues, she delivered the 1995 ABC Boyer Lectures on A Truly Civil Society (published by ABC Books). Eva’s current research interests include devising a more civil society, teaching community research skills, policy formulation, indigenous