Our common wealth

Behind the day to day tussles over specific reform agendas, there is always a deeper and more fundamental struggle, where every debate about solutions to long-term unemployment is also a debate about human nature; every debate about poverty alleviation is also a debate about what constitutes an acceptable level of inequality; and every debate about the level of social spending is also a debate about whether there is such a thing as society, and, if so, what a good one would look like. The discussion paper, Reclaiming our Common Wealth makes a case for reconnecting public policies to shared values and openly stated principles. Future papers and articles will present brief, accessible summaries of the principles neglected in current government policies, and explain their implications for policy makers.

Editorial: ideas for a complex world

After years of privatising and commodifying public assets and services, many governments are starting to look like they've shrunk in the wash (and faded in the spin cycle). The Policy Portal is dedicated to exploring… more

Editorial: the TAAA principle

Policy Coordinator Miriam Lyons ties a ribbon around 2006 and rips open the wrapping on the Policy Portal’s plans for 2007.

Citizenship and the common wealth

Australian citizenship is a ‘work in progress’, says Ian McAuley, and there’s a lot more work to be done

Reclaiming the Australian Commons

James Arvanitakis

Australian state and federal governments may still be in love with privatisation, writes James Arvanitakis, but for Australian communities the relationship is getting cold. In ‘Reclaiming the Australian Commons’, Arvanitakis… more

Reclaiming Our Common Wealth | DISCUSSION PAPER

Calling on all Australian politicians to re-think the way they develop public policy, Reclaiming our Common Wealth argues that the short-term thinking of the election cycle is damaging Australia's long-term interests. We need a new… more

Eating the Seed Wheat

John Menadue launched Our Common Wealth with a call for 'hochmar' -– the science of the heart –- the capacity to see, to feel and then to act as if… more

Where is the leadership, where are the policies to sustain “Common Health” in Australia?

Providing equal opportunities for citizens to avoid illness and receive quality care is arguably the ultimate social justice issue. Health is inextricably linked to happiness and that fact alone should demand health policies focussed on… more

From the ground up: the movement for real community values

The Government’s slick marketing of WorkChoices failed, said Unions NSW secretary John Robertson, because it was a “misguided attempt to arrange community values from the top down”. The values that underpin government policy should come… more

The environment: a time to choose our future

To anyone with even a modest understanding of humanity's place in nature and our absolute dependence on the natural world, the response of governments and institutions to the massive environmental changes the world is now… more