*Ø* Blogmanac | Latham: Work, Family & Community
Mark Latham recently became leader of the ALP (Australian Labor Party) and thus Leader of the Opposition. He will soon be fighting it out with the (misnamed) Liberal Party's John Howard, the Prime Minister, for political leadership of Australia.
The following is not news, but I thought his speech to the National Press Club contained some good, progressive ideas for Western nations in general, so I post some excepts here:
* Ø * Ø * Ø *
Work, Family & Community: A Modern Australian Agenda
Speech by Mark Latham
February 18, 2004
Two weeks ago, as part of my bus trip through northern New South Wales, I held a community forum at Gosford. It was a tremendous gathering – more than 500 people came along to put their concerns to me face-to-face.
Of the 31 questions, only two were about economics and one was on foreign policy. The rest were about people:
The quality of our society.
The breakdown in community relationships.
Loneliness, isolation and stress.
Youth homelessness and the drug problem.
Disabilities and the aged-care crisis.
Male suicide, mental health and the need for mentoring programs.
These are the concerns of mainstream Australia. After 30 years of globalisation and economic change, people are asking: what has happened to our society?
How do we relate to each other now? How do we help each other and create stronger communities? How do we rebuild the identities and relationships of a good society?
This is the pressing issue of our time, but unfortunately, it has gone missing in the public debate.
While the political system tends to argue for either more market forces or more government, the people themselves have a different priority. They want more society, more community – a new sense of belonging, a new set of social relationships.
Among the people that I talk to, there is a real interest in localism. During a time of constant change and uncertainty, many people glaze over at the thought of complex macro-politics.
Their primary interests are at a family and neighbourhood level. The things they can touch and influence: reading to their children, improving the local school, fixing up the local park and making the neighbourhood safer.
People haven't lost all interest in politics. They haven't totally disengaged. They just want politics to be relevant to their needs and interests at a local level.
This is a real passion among women in particular. Traditionally they have done much of the community work in society. Now they want more recognition and back-up from government.
This is where we need to rethink the role of public policy. Ultimately, the choice between market forces and state bureaucracy is flawed. It ignores the space in the middle where people come together with a sense of common purpose and community. It ignores the voluntary associations and interests that make up civil society.
A good society requires more than high incomes and government services. It needs strong, healthy relationships within active communities. For too long, government policy has ignored this vital part of our national life.
Labor recognises that there is more to life than money. We understand that our community is awash with social problems that will not be solved by government spending alone. We intend to tackle the challenges presented to our society by loneliness, family breakdown and youth alienation.
But to do so, we need to change our approach. Much of the modern state is based on a top-down system of control. The parliament passes laws and funds programs. And it is assumed that civil society will respond to these laws in a manner consistent with the government mould.
This is the traditional way of encouraging responsibility and creating services. But it doesn't necessarily create stronger communities. Civil society has its own agenda, determined in the complex relationships between people.
Top-down processes have little impact on community life. It's not possible, for instance, to introduce a Social Capital Bill into Parliament and think that this will automatically increase the level of trust and cooperation in society.
The new role for government is to act as a facilitator or enabler: creating the social environment in which people are more likely to have contact with each other, working together in trusting relationships.
Social capital is not like a financial asset or stock of goods that can be banked away. It lies in the relationships between people – if they don't use it, they lose it ...
Each year, governments in Australia invest just a couple of million dollars on mentoring programs – less than the travel bill for most Commonwealth agencies. Surely, we can make better use of our prosperity as a nation.
This is where a Labor Government will assist: linking generations of Australians through the power of mentoring, providing relationship support for our youth.
Mentoring will be our first investment in social capital, mobilising the leadership role of government to create stronger relationships. This is the best way of solving social problems: putting relationships at the centre of government decision-making and working with people locally to rebuild communities ...
More (has audio)
Mark Latham recently became leader of the ALP (Australian Labor Party) and thus Leader of the Opposition. He will soon be fighting it out with the (misnamed) Liberal Party's John Howard, the Prime Minister, for political leadership of Australia.
The following is not news, but I thought his speech to the National Press Club contained some good, progressive ideas for Western nations in general, so I post some excepts here:
Work, Family & Community: A Modern Australian Agenda
Speech by Mark Latham
February 18, 2004
Two weeks ago, as part of my bus trip through northern New South Wales, I held a community forum at Gosford. It was a tremendous gathering – more than 500 people came along to put their concerns to me face-to-face.
Of the 31 questions, only two were about economics and one was on foreign policy. The rest were about people:
The quality of our society.
The breakdown in community relationships.
Loneliness, isolation and stress.
Youth homelessness and the drug problem.
Disabilities and the aged-care crisis.
Male suicide, mental health and the need for mentoring programs.
These are the concerns of mainstream Australia. After 30 years of globalisation and economic change, people are asking: what has happened to our society?
How do we relate to each other now? How do we help each other and create stronger communities? How do we rebuild the identities and relationships of a good society?
This is the pressing issue of our time, but unfortunately, it has gone missing in the public debate.
While the political system tends to argue for either more market forces or more government, the people themselves have a different priority. They want more society, more community – a new sense of belonging, a new set of social relationships.
Among the people that I talk to, there is a real interest in localism. During a time of constant change and uncertainty, many people glaze over at the thought of complex macro-politics.
Their primary interests are at a family and neighbourhood level. The things they can touch and influence: reading to their children, improving the local school, fixing up the local park and making the neighbourhood safer.
People haven't lost all interest in politics. They haven't totally disengaged. They just want politics to be relevant to their needs and interests at a local level.
This is a real passion among women in particular. Traditionally they have done much of the community work in society. Now they want more recognition and back-up from government.
This is where we need to rethink the role of public policy. Ultimately, the choice between market forces and state bureaucracy is flawed. It ignores the space in the middle where people come together with a sense of common purpose and community. It ignores the voluntary associations and interests that make up civil society.
A good society requires more than high incomes and government services. It needs strong, healthy relationships within active communities. For too long, government policy has ignored this vital part of our national life.
Labor recognises that there is more to life than money. We understand that our community is awash with social problems that will not be solved by government spending alone. We intend to tackle the challenges presented to our society by loneliness, family breakdown and youth alienation.
But to do so, we need to change our approach. Much of the modern state is based on a top-down system of control. The parliament passes laws and funds programs. And it is assumed that civil society will respond to these laws in a manner consistent with the government mould.
This is the traditional way of encouraging responsibility and creating services. But it doesn't necessarily create stronger communities. Civil society has its own agenda, determined in the complex relationships between people.
Top-down processes have little impact on community life. It's not possible, for instance, to introduce a Social Capital Bill into Parliament and think that this will automatically increase the level of trust and cooperation in society.
The new role for government is to act as a facilitator or enabler: creating the social environment in which people are more likely to have contact with each other, working together in trusting relationships.
Social capital is not like a financial asset or stock of goods that can be banked away. It lies in the relationships between people – if they don't use it, they lose it ...
Each year, governments in Australia invest just a couple of million dollars on mentoring programs – less than the travel bill for most Commonwealth agencies. Surely, we can make better use of our prosperity as a nation.
This is where a Labor Government will assist: linking generations of Australians through the power of mentoring, providing relationship support for our youth.
Mentoring will be our first investment in social capital, mobilising the leadership role of government to create stronger relationships. This is the best way of solving social problems: putting relationships at the centre of government decision-making and working with people locally to rebuild communities ...
More (has audio)
Pip Wilson posted item above at 2:40 PM | Permalink
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