[Pil-pc-oceania] [Fwd: National Update]
mossmans
mossmans at internode.on.net
Tue Mar 4 07:16:07 EST 2008
I think a few people may have applied for 20 20 but perhaps another idea is
to call our own 20 20 summit within bioregions, ie, food fairness, slow
food, permaculture, community gardens, ACF etc - Russ you know them all,
Then we find a venue and sit and work out what we are going to do for our
bioregion, how we can cooperatively work together.
Future scenarios are abit scarey and I don't want to be a doomsdayer, so
always looking on the positive side, we all agree that something needs to be
done so even if high level things are done at 20 20, then our own can come
up with many objectives for us to work towards,
Regards, Sue Mossman
-----Original Message-----
From: pil-pc-oceania-bounces at lists.permacultureinternational.org
[mailto:pil-pc-oceania-bounces at lists.permacultureinternational.org] On
Behalf Of RussGrayson
Sent: Monday, 3 March 2008 9:51 AM
To: pil; Graeme George - Earthcare Permaculture; Carolyn Smith; christine
ross
Subject: Re: [Pil-pc-oceania] [Fwd: National Update]
At last week's meeting of the Sydney Food Fairness Alliance we discussed
following-up on attendance of the Australia 2020 Summit. Fortunately, Dr
Francis Parker, a member of the Alliance from UWS and a researcher and
expert on Syndye's urban fringe agriculture, is applying.
I understand that there is no mention of food suppply in the notes for the
Australia 2020 Summit.
Regards...
...Russ Grayson
On 29/2/08 10:00 AM, "Kerry Dawborn" <kj.dawborn at bigpond.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I just received this update/newsletter from the Center for Civil
> Society, and it contains some interesting thinking and possibly
> opportunities to get involved. Potentially for those involved
> permaculture and other good work, there could be opportunities to have
> our voices heard, and increase our positive impact. I leave you to have
> a look at it....
>
> cheers,
>
> Kerry Dawborn
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: National Update
> Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:23:41 +1100
> From: Centre for Civil Society <libbykrepp at optusnet.com.au>
> To: Colleagues <hotham at sub.net.au>
>
>
>
> If you are unable to read this National Update, click here
> <National_Update0208.htm> for the website version.
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> */Consumer Family and Citizen Empowerment/*
>
>
> *Centre for Civil Society** *
> *A public policy and social innovation think/ /tank for empowerment*
>
>
> * National Update:*
>
> / Editorial <#Editorial>/: The Rudd Summit ....Is there a Third Way?
> _Announcing <#Announcing:>: The Third Way Forum <#Announcing:> _
> A Union for Volunteers <#A_Union_for_Volunteer>
> _National Conference of Parents, Families and Carers
> <#National_Federation_of_Parents,_Families_and_Carers>_:
> <#National_Federation_of_Parents,_Families_and_Carers> Program now
available
> Social Entrepreneurs and the Sub-prime Crisi
> <#Social_Entrepreneurs_and_the_Sub-prime_Crisis>s
> _Call for Papers <#Call_for_Papers:>_: /Funding Communities: New
> Vision, New Agenda _
> _ /Consumer control through direct funding
> <#Consumer_control_through_direct_funding>
> Now available <#Now_available:>: /Building Stronger Communities/
> _Barry Pond <#Barry_Pond:>_: Reclaiming Control of our Credit Unions
> Local Initiatives: <#Local_Initiatives:> Organising by Federal
> Electorate
> Events <#Events>
>
>
> *Editorial: The Rudd Summit ... Is there a Third Way?*
>
> The 1,000 brains invited to the /Australia 2020 /Summit at
> Parliament House
> on 19 and 20 April by Kevin Rudd will achieve at least one positive
> thing.
> They will remind us that houses of parliament were once intended to be
> places of discussion amongst the people's representatives. Of
> course, the
> modern party system prevents parliamentarians from voicing ideas or
> debating them, but Kevin Rudd has been clever enough to by-pass this
> little
> structural hiccup and import some thinkers from outside. So far so
> good.
>
> Summit participants, we are assured, will be invited in their own
> right rather
> than as institutional representatives from particular organisations.
> This too is
> a good thing, the goal being to get individual opinions rather than
> official
> stances from sectional interests. Of course one could ask why Mr
Rudd's
> party only permits citizens to become MPs if they are representatives
of
> particular unions and factions and agree to advance these sectional
> interests
> in parliament. But perhaps it would be churlish to dwell on that.
> For now let's
> rejoice in this temporary suspension of the closed shop model of
> parliamentary representation in the hope of witnessing a thousand
> flowers
> bloom, if only for two days, before Canberra's familiar grey
> routines re-assert
> themselves.
>
> Mark Latham left politics in 2005. He remains the only Canberra
> politician in
> the last two decades who managed to grasp the concept of civil
> society. He
> readily concedes that he couldn't get any of his colleagues to pick
> it up.
> Every politician can grasp the concepts of state and market, they
> just don't
> get the concept of social relationships and how they fit into the
> policy
> equation.
>
> "On my side of politics", wrote Latham in 1999, "we draw our talent
and
> thinking from the old institutions of the Left: trade unions,
> political families
> and machine politics. There is not a radical among them. The
innovative
> ideas of social democracy are emerging in other forums, in the
> networks of
> creative small business and social entrepreneurs."
>
> "This is why the arteries of policy entrepreneurialism in Australian
> politics
> have run dry. With its limited interests and intelligence networks,
> modern
> politics has become insoluble."
>
> Which is why his successor, Mr Rudd, is holding an /Australia 2020/
> Summit
> in April. Mark Latham eventually caved in to his party bosses, but he
> understood the structure of our political culture all too well:
>
> /The Left and Right have been as bad as each other. The Left has
> allowed
> its distrust of markets and endless faith in government to obscure
the
> importance of civil society. The Right has been so focused on
replacing
> the state with markets that it has forgotten how to cultivate a
> trusting
> society. //Each side blames the other for destroying community
> bonds when
> in truth, both are culpable. This narrow debate points to the need
> for a
> Third Way - one which produces a stronger economy and stronger
> government through the creation of a stronger, more trusting society.
/
>
> States and markets, of course, are here to stay. It is just that
their
> effectiveness is interdependent with social capital. The Third Way is
> neither anti-state nor anti-market... It simply seeks to balance
> them against
> the virtues of mutual trust and shared obligation. It is, uniquely
> in the
> politics of our time, pro-market, pro-state and pro-civil society.
>
> The Third Way is not, as its critics sometimes say, a neat compromise
> between Left and Right. It is committed to issues beyond markets and
> states. It introduces a third sector, the social sector, into
> public policy. It
> addresses the universal concern in society about the loss of social
> capital
> and social cohesion. Mutualism - A Third Way for Australia, 1999
> <http://www.partnerships.org.au/Library/mutualism.htm>.
>
> Amongst the 1,000 invitees to the Rudd Summit, will there be any who
> grasp these insights? Will there be any who articulate them?
>
> Will there be any voices who say in the Great Hall "What we are
> missing in
> Canberra is not expertise in specialist fields, nor even
> longer-term time
> frames for thinking about policy. What we are missing is a
> recognition of
> civil society, an understanding of social capital, and a means for
> thinking
> about the interaction between state, market and civil society".
>
> The concept of a Third Way remains indispensable in getting this
debate
> going in Australia. Without it, we become tethered to state and
> market as
> two goals at opposite ends of a netball court. In truth, the field
> we are
> playing on is a triangle: its three sides are state, market and
> civil society.
>
> The domination of our political culture by the bi-polar advocates
> of state and
> market is so strong, so nearly-all-pervasive, that every small
> voice for
> recognition of civil society in our country, against the odds, is a
> voice to be celebrated. Each voice is also, knowingly or not, a
> voice for a
> Third Way.
>
> * Contact us <mailto:info at civilsociety.org.au>* to give us your
> thoughts.
>
>
> * Announcing: The Third Way Forum*
>
> With this issue we announce the beginnings of our /Third Way Forum/.
> It will be an online forum linking and growing a Third Way community
of
> doers, thinkers, writers and policy makers. Sign up
> <ThirdWayRegistration.htm> to participate.
>
> The Forum will commence on 1 March with a discussion
> of Mark Latham's Mutualism - A Third Way for Australia.
> <http://www.partnerships.org.au/Library/mutualism.htm>
> We will follow up with additional texts and papers, and
> then on 1 April we will consider the 10 themes up for
> discussion at the /Australia 2020 /Summit, which are:
>
> * Future directions for the Australian economy ? including
> education, skills, training, science and innovation as part of the
> nation's productivity agenda
> * Economic infrastructure, the digital economy and the future of our
> cities
> * Population, sustainability, climate change and water
> * Future directions for rural industries and rural communities
> * A long-term national health strategy ? including the challenges of
> preventative health, workforce planning and the ageing population
> * Strengthening communities, supporting families and social inclusion
> * Options for the future of Indigenous Australia
> * Towards a creative Australia ? the future of the arts, film and
> design
> * The future of Australian governance ? renewed democracy, a more
> open government (including the role of the media), the structure
> of the Federation and the rights and responsibilities of citizens
> * Australia's future security and prosperity in a rapidly changing
> region and world.
>
> On Friday 18 April, prior to the /Australia 2020/ bash on the
> following two
> days, we will release our Third Way perspectives on these 10
> themes. This
> will take the form of succinct directional statements about how we
> should
> proceed in these areas if we actually take civil society, social
> relationships and social capital formation seriously.
>
> These perspectives will be released in Canberra on 18 April at a
> special
> event preceding the Rudd Summit.
>
> There is no cost to participate in the Forum. It will be a moderated
> discussion forum and information sharing tool which we hope will
> have an
> ongoing life in shaping public debate.
>
> *Click here <ThirdWay.htm>* for further details. *Click here
> <ThirdWayRegistration.htm>* to sign up.
> * *
>
> * A Union for Volunteers *
>
> "I feel very passionate about the lack of unified support and
> disjointed
> representation and easily assessable info and support for
> volunteers in our
> City of Melbourne and State of Victoria.
>
> Specific specialty groups i.e. volunteers in palliative care and
> aged care
> within their own niche do have volunteers training, support
> seminars etc, but
> the need for *one* ?Volunteer Supporting? organization that can
> deal with the
> issues and needs that volunteers are confronted with as volunteers
> and as
> people volunteering their time and energy into very complex areas
> and with
> difficult clients ?does not exist.
>
> V.V. and V.A. have evolved into professional organizations as have
> Volunteer Resource Centres. But are they ?volunteer user friendly??
Are
> volunteer support organizations there for the benefit and support of
> organizations that utilize volunteers or are they there for the
> support of the
> volunteers themselves? ", /'Lucy', Manager Volunteer Services,
> Hospital and
> Aged Care provider, Melbourne./
>
> Volunteers are the glue that holds our community together - in
schools,
> sporting clubs, neighbourhood groups, service clubs, environmental
> and arts
> groups, and in a myriad of community organisations.
>
> Yet there is no national association or union of volunteers in
> Australia. There
> are plenty of funded councils on volunteering, but these represent
> organisations who use volunteers, not volunteers themselves.
>
> * Call for Expressions of Interest*
>
> Expressions of interest are invited from
> Australians from all walks of life who see the
> need for an association or union of
> volunteers. Its role would be to enable
> volunteers to speak for themselves about
> their contributions to society, their
> information and support needs, and their
> hopes for making as big an impact as
> possible with their available time.
>
> Membership would be free and open to
> voluntary contributors to society in all fields of
> activity.
>
> * Click here <VolunteersEOI.htm>* to express your interest. Tell us
> what you think. Offer your
> suggestions on priorities, activities and roles of a volunteers
> union in
> Australia.
>
>
> * National Conference of Parents, Families and Carers: *Program now
> available
>
> The program for the inaugural /National Conference of Parents,
> Families and
> Carers/ has been released. This is the first time parents, families
> and carers
> will gather together from a broad range of sectors to develop a
common
> agenda for being heard by policy makers.
>
> Registrations for this event are being now being taken.
>
> * Click here <PFCRegistration.htm>* to register.
>
> The gathering is the first event of the newly formed /National
> Federation of
> Parents, Families and Carers/.
>
> * Click here <NFPFC_membership.htm>* to join the Federation (there
> is no cost).
>
> * Click here <PFCNationalConference.htm>* for further information.
>
>
> * Social Entrepreneurs and the Sub-prime Crisis*
>
> ?Fixing the sub-prime crisis requires social enterprises,? says
> Carlos Gasca
> Yanez. Why a business model instead of community action in response
to
> the tragedy of home loss through bank foreclosures?
>
> "The solution I'm working on in Scotland and Norway - part funded
> by the
> Norwegian Government - involves a variation on the US Community Land
> Trust which we call a "Community Land Partnership", says Chris Cook.
>
> "The outcome is that property can be financed - or in the case of
> foreclosures, refinanced - at a fraction of the cost of conventional
> mechanisms.
>
> The deal is this. The Banks doing the foreclosing do not sell the
> properties
> but transfer them into the hands of a "Custodian" eg a "Not for
> Profit".
>
> The Custodian is a member of a limited liability company the other
> members of which are:
>
> (a) a "Club" of "Occupiers" (formerly owners);
>
> (b) a "Manager";
>
> (c) an "Investor" ie initially, the consortium or club of
> participating Banks.
>
> An affordable Rental is set in respect of each property and this is
> linked to
> an agreed measure of inflation. Part of this Rental goes to the
> Manager and
> a proportion is set to one side as a provision and held by the
> Custodian as a
> Maintenance Pool/ Sinking Fund.The balance goes to the Investor as a
> return on Capital."
>
> * Click here
>
<http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/responsibility/subprime-crisis-callin
g-
> for-social-entrepreneurs>*
> to read more and join the discussion on these possibilities.
>
> * Click here <mailto:info at civilsociety.org.au>* if you're interested
> in options such as these as a response to
> the crisis in housing affordability in Australia.
>
>
> * Call for Papers: Funding Communities: New Vision, New Agenda*
>
> Proposals for papers and presentations are invited for the /Community
> Building National Network/ conference on a new vision for funding
> communities. The conference will run over two days in Melbourne on
> 26/27
> March 2008 and will develop an agenda for reform of the way
governments
> allocate resources for building and strengthening communities.
>
> Proposals are invited on the following themes:
>
> - case studies of innovative new funding models for communities;
> - current or proposed forms of pooled funds from various programs and
> jurisdictions;
> - current or proposed forms of public, private, mutual and/or
> philanthropic
> funding mixes;
> - evaluation of current methods, practices and paradigms, and their
> social
> outcomes;
> - proposals for system re-design, and new funding models;
> - institutional impediments to reform, political processes and
> strategies for
> change;
> - comparative examination of indigenous and non-indigenous
> approaches in
> funding communities.
>
> Abstracts of papers and proposals should be forwarded by *Friday 14
> March 2008 *by email or hard copy (not exceeding 300 words) to:
>
> Vern Hughes
> Conference Convenor
> vern at civilsociety.org.au <mailto:vern at civilsociety.org.au>
> Tel: 0425 722 890
>
> *Click here <CommunityBuildingNationalConference.htm>*for further
> information.
>
> *Click here <CommunityBuilding.htm>* to participate in the
> /Community Building National Network/.
> There is no cost.
>
>
> *Consumer control through direct funding*
>
> New South Wales remains behind most other states in moving towards
> consumer empowerment through direct funding models. But even here,
the
> trend is unmistakeable. The /Attendant Care Direct Funding Pilot/,
> the only
> one undertaken by the NSW Government in the past two years, has now
> been evaluated, and as expected, the response from participants has
> been
> overwhelmingly positive.
>
> *Click here
> <http://www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/reports/Attendant_care_interim_report...pdf>*
> to see the Evaluation Report on the Project
>
>
> * Now available: /Building Stronger Communities/*
>
>
> Former Deputy Prime Minister Brian Howe
> launched /Building Stronger Communities/,
> published by the University of NSW Press,
> at the Community Building National
> Symposium on Tuesday 19 June. Philip
> Hughes and Alan Black authored this
> primer for communities on strategies for
> building stronger community relationships.
>
> To purchase a copy of the book contact
> Audra Kunciunas tel 03 9878 3477, fax 03
> 9878 2677, email admin at cra.org.au <mailto:admin at cra.org.au>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> * *
>
> * Barry Pond: Reclaiming Control of our Credit Unions*
>
> Barry Pond is a Telstra systems planner In the 1970s many workplaces
> with strong worker organisation established credit unions to pool
> the savings
> of members and provide cheap loans to each other. Barry's was called
the
> /Telecom Credit Union.
> /
> That spirit of self-help and mutual endeavour has almost been
> extinguished
> in Australia's credit unions, once a strong social movement across the
> country. Almost extinguished, but not quite.
>
> Barry is leading a fight back in the credit unions, the last
> significant group of
> mutual institutions in Australia. He wants to hear from credit union
> members
> around the country willing to contest the next round of credit union
> board
> elections in a concerted way. Managements usually prevail in board
> elections, having the benefits of incumbency, access to member
> databases,
> and insider networks. Outsiders have a tough job getting up, but it
> can be
> done. Barry was successfully elected to the board of /Telecom Credit
> Union/'s
> successor /Australian National Credit Union/.
>
> The /Centre for Civil Society/ will conduct a forum on reclaiming
> control
> of our credit unions on Saturday 12 April at 2pm in Melbourne. It
> will be for
> those who want to draw a line in the sand and put themselves forward
> to turn
> the tide.
>
> Express your interest by *contacting Barry
> <mailto:info at civilsociety.org.au>*.
>
>
>
> *Local Initiatives: Organising by Federal Electorate*
>
> The core unit of our work in advancing a wide-ranging empowerment
> agenda
> is the *Federal Electorate Assembly (FEA)*. In each federal
> electorate (150
> around Australia) we will appoint a Convenor to bring together
> people to take
> local initiatives to influence policy and opinion.
>
> This may take the form of local forums on important issues ignored
> by the
> Establishment parties and commentators, or campaigns on particular
> themes, or promotions to assert the voices of hidden, invisible
> groups of
> Australians.
>
> *Click here* <Membership.htm>to register in your electorate (there
> is no cost).
>
>
> * Events *
>
> March 17/18 2008: National Conference/: Parents, Families and Carers
> - Our
> Place in the Human Services, Our Agenda for Change./
>
> *Click here* <PFCNationalConference.htm>for further details on this
> event.
>
> May 26/27: National Conference: /Funding Communities - New Vision, New
> Agenda./
>
> *Click here <CommunityBuildingNationalConference.htm>* for further
> details on this event.
>
>
>
> This message notifies you of news, events, publications and opinions
> from the Centre for Civil Society, a not-for-profit non-party political
> think tank leading an empowerment agenda for the invisible little people
> in Australia.
>
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>
> Centre for Civil Society
> http:www.civilsociety.org.au <http://www.civilsociety.org.au>
>
> PO Box 159 Yarraville Vic 3013
>
>
>
> *THE CENTRE for CIVIL SOCIETY
> *
> We are committed to strengthening civil society and empowering people in
> families, communities, associations and small enterprises. We are the
> only think tank in Australia committed to a wide-ranging agenda of
> empowerment of ordinary people.
>
>
>
> Visit our Website <http://www.civilsociety.org.au>
>
>
>
>
>
> *REGISTER NOW*
> T*he First Ever National Gathering of Parents, Families and Carers, and
> their supporters, across the Human Services, to Make Change Happen*
>
>
>
>
> *MARCH 17/18 2008
> Register Here <PFCRegistration.htm>*
>
>
>
>
>
> *FEDERAL ELECTORATE ASSEMBLY*
>
> The Centre for Civil Society brings together people in each federal
> electorate (150 electorates around Australia) to work locally in
> influencing policy and opinion, with a special focus on disability,
> mental health and family carer issues.
>
>
> CLICK HERE <Membership.htm> to participate and to express an interest in
> Convening an FEA in your electorate.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *SURVEYS*
>
> If you are the proprietor of a small business, please send us your
> thoughts on how we can support small businesses through our *SMALL
> BUSINESS SURVEY <SmallBusinessSurvey.htm>
> *
> If you are caring for an ill or disabled family member at home, please
> click here to participate in our *Family CarERS SURVEY
> <FamilyCarerSurvey.htm>. *
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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