ALP election time....

Its time for a good, old ALP election again - this time for state conference delegates and I am running.  These elections can be fairly tough and well contested, and involve an opportunity for party members to have their say about the direction of the party.

Here is my opening pitch to my comrades in Brunswick....

Dear Friend,

Last year I was elected as a Wills FEA delegate to ALP State Conference. I am seeking your assistance to serve another term.

No doubt about it, Labor is going through tough times. We can be a strong and effective movement if we have the courage to listen to progressive voices in party and the community. We did that in Brunswick with the fantastic campaign for Jane Garrett last year – a model which needs to be embraced and improved upon nationwide.

I have been endorsed by the Socialist Left, and if elected I will work towards change in our party based on a series of principles involving:

• A Labor Party of values and ideas
• A growing not declining Labor Party
• Returning real power to members
• Reaching out to our supporters in the community and
• A culture of inclusion and innovation, not exclusion

Currently I am President of the Brunswick branch and serve on the Economics Policy Committee.

I am committed to continuing to report back to the Brunswick branch following each State Conference and taking up your issues at that forum.

In the lead up to the ballot I look forward to talking to you and asking for your support. If you want to contact me you can call 0403 xxx xxx.

Up from the Underworld

I have just returned to Melbourne from the launch of a new book, Up from the Underworld by Andrew Reeves.

As a part of the launch we were offered, and I took, the opportunity of a quick tour of the coal mine.  Our guide, Jack Fleming, was a sprightly 81 years old and lead us deep into the underworld.  Just travelling down to the first coal seam and back was exhausting and a very small taster of the atrocious living conditions miners had to put up with in this place.

If you are ever in Wonthaggi, a tour of the state coal mine is an absolute must.

Budget 2011: A Labor budget?

As a Labor member, I was was pleasantly surprised to hear a major change of rhetoric from the federal government during the budget speech and in the days that have followed.

There was an embracing of the word, "Labor".  Talk of Labor values. And an attempt to create a values based narrative around jobs, training and participation.

And it seems to have been backed by some real, though minor and subtle shifts in economic and labour market development policies.  Ian McAuley from the University of Canberra writes about this in New Matilda.

The Treasurer did give some hints of a return to traditional Labor principles in Tuesday’s budget. In making some cuts to "middle class welfare", it is mildly redistributive, and it takes a few steps toward economic reform in terms of getting more people into the workforce. It breaks a little from economic policy of recent years.

And Possum Comitatus wrote about some of the real labour market development policy shifts in Crikey yesterday.  Also worth a look.

Is it revolutionary? No.  The optimal public policy moves? Probably not.  What I would regard as progressive? Certainly not with new participation test for disability support pensioners.

But it is interesting.

A common theme

The new conservative government is not governing for all Victorians - as seen in Brunswick.

Ms Garrett said the local community had been “abandoned” in the Budget.

“By failing to fund the expansion and upgrade of Brunswick Secondary College, this Government is ripping up the approved master plan for this school and betraying the many families in our area,” she said.

But James Martin, spokesman for Education Minister Martin Dixon, said the master plan would remain in place and put the school at an advantage for future funding.

“It will come into consideration for future budgets,” Mr Martin said.

 This is a common refrain this week all through the northern suburbs.  In the election last year the conservatives made one local education promise across the northern suburbs.

The broader point is that conservatives tend to govern only for those who vote for them.  labor on the other hand, somewhat naively, believes its rhetoric about governing for every suburb, every street, every neighborhood.

Reflections on Progressive Australia

Its been a while.

Last weekend I was dragged up to Sydney to go to the Progressive Australia conference, organised by the Chifley Research Centre. Its a sad reflection on Labor party culture over the past few years that I came away rather enthused and excited for I had been able to spend two days absorbed by debates about values, policies and campaigning.

It was something that we have not really had for a good decade.

My main takeaways from the conference are:

• Values matter & forcing our leaders to talk about values in progressive frames is vital
• That politics is changing - the GFC has destroyed the pale centrist politics of the 1990s
• This means that the campaigning model championed by the NSW Right has to be jettisoned in favour of a grassroots campaigning model
• Change that we need is cultural - rule changes may be needed, but we should not wait, or depend on the benevolence of national conference.  Change can start in your neighbourhood and your local community.

If Labor has the courage to embrace with the community organising model it means taking a chance.  A chance that the powers that be won't have the complete control they are used to.  A chance that we may be leaders who will be advocates and fearless progressive champions.

Voters, I think, are looking for some guts from progressive leaders.  Not crazy brave guts, but smart guts.  Leaders who are prepared to show they have values, and will fight for those values. 

Videos from the Progressive Labor conference will be up in the coming weeks.  Keep an eye open on www.progressiveaustralia.org.au.

Welfare Regimes in the Commonwealth

A survey of the development of social policy regimes in Australia, India and South Africa

1. Welfare Regimes of Australia, India and South Africa

Australia, India, and South Africa are three nation states with a common historic connections and common links to the present day.  Yet as welfare regimes they developed very different trajectories despite their similarities in terms of a shared adherence to liberal-democratic political institutions.  

This paper will seek to canvas the historical development of the welfare regimes of these three countries through the typology of various scholars.  The key contending typologies are that of Gough and Wood (2004) and Seekings (2008) in relation to the global south.  This paper will canvass the historic and current status of the welfare regimes and seek to analyse them with reference to the typologies.

In Section 2 this paper will provide a brief overview of some differing theories of welfare regimes.  Section 3 will provide a historical and current survey of welfare regimes in Australia, India and South Africa.  And section 4 will discuss the applicability of typologies to the individual regimes.

Social Inclusion and Transport Policy in Melbourne, Curitiba and the United Kingdom

Traditionally transport disadvantage, when it has been considered, has been approached as urban studies, economic or environmental studies phenomenon. Transport policies have been advanced as ways of improving citizens lives through increased amenity, reducing the cost of congestion and reducing carbon footprints. Although the social policy effects of transport were always present, they have been less explicit.

With more recent attempts to impose a social exclusion narrative on the problems of transportation there is hope that a more holistic understanding of transport policy can emerge.

Moreland Intergrated Transport Strategy

A while ago I made a submission to the public consultation on the Moreland Integrated Transport Strategy.

Submission on Moreland Integrated Transport Strategy

Thankyou for the opportunity to comment on the draft Moreland Integrated Transport Strategy (MITS). Transport planning is a neglected part of our local planning policy regime and the gap between the old MITS (1998) and this new strategy of over ten years is one that should never be repeated.

All too often transport planning is ignored or neglected when we make decisions about our local neighbourhoods. Decision makers and planners are seduced by land use, height and other planning issues and come to transport near the end of planning processes. This is not a criticism solely aimed at local processes. It can be said with some authority that the neglect of transport planning lies at the heart of most metropolitan wide planning schemes in Melbourne from the 1954 Planning Scheme right through to Melbourne 2030.

Shoppers and how they travel

Every example you look at from around the world where clearways have been created 24 hours a day, retail trade goes up. That is the reality of it.
- Peter Moore, Executive Director, UITP (International Association of Public Transport)

The build up in the popularity of trains has now been matched by increases in patronage for trams . This is creating an increased demand from the travelling public for more services, bigger and modern trams, and more reliable services.

Melbourne is unusual in two regards. We have the largest tram system in the world. And we have a system that largely runs on inner suburban streets unseparated in large parts from other forms of traffic.

This creates conflicts for road space – particularly in Melbourne’s case given the split in responsibilities and a desire to protect suburban strip shopping by providing parking access on main streets.

Melbourne: A Pedestrian Paradise

From StreetFilms.Org, a film on Melbourne praising the transformation of the inner city since the 1980s.

Naysayers who do not believe a city can be radically transformed say that the already narrow streets of many European cities make it easier to have good pedestrian environments there. Melbourne proves that isn't necessarily so.