Centre for Policy Development's Blog, page 50

Australian Options | No. 77, Autumn 2014

Australian Options Magazine : articles exploring social and environmental ethics in contemporary politics by CPD fellows

 

Ben Spies-Butcher: ‘Debt and discipline from cradle to grave’

It is hard (sic) to underestimate the scale of the transformation being attempted by this budget. It is true that it continues trends begun earlier, and that many changes face substantial opposition in the Senate. It may be that this is an ambit claim. However, if it is to be implemented it will fundamentally reshape the social contract, and even if it fails, it will signal an ongoing struggle.

 

Sustainable Energy Solutions for Climate Change by Mark Diesendorf, reviewed by David McKnight

Diesendorf’s motive for writing the book is to respond to a concerted campaign run by oil and coal corporations that argues that fossil fuels are indispensable to world energy needs and that renewable energy is an impractical dream. But Diesendorf argues that what he calls the Great Transition to sustainable energy is affordable and technologically possible. The main barriers to this transition are not economic but rather political and cultural beliefs based on the ideology of endless growth and the consumer society.

 

http://www.australian-options.org.au/

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National Growth Areas Alliance Congress | 15-17 October, Playford, SA

Growth that works: : creating next generation industry and jobs in outer urban Australia
2014 Inaugural NGAA National Congress

The City of Playford in South Australia will be hosting the 2014 Inaugural National Growth Areas Alliance (NGAA) National Congress from 15-17 October 2014.

Centre for Policy Development CEO Travers McLeod joins the cross-sectoral panel, with  Andrew McDougall, Assoc Prof John Spoehr, Lance Worrall, and Dr Tim Williams, discussing the challenges and possibilities of creating next generation industry and jobs in outer suburban areas.

A summary of the program to date is as follows:

Wednesday 15, October 2014: Site Tours & Welcome Reception

Thursday 16, October 2014: Conference & Awards Night Dinner

Friday 17, October 2014: Conference

Registration (register before 20 June for early bird rates!):

Register via Eventbrite

Full program:

Download the program from NGAA website

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Centre for Multicultural Youth | 9 September 2014

25th Anniversary symposium: MY past, MY present, MY future
The changing nature of multicultural youth issues

Influenced by an increasingly globalised and interconnected world, Australia’s overseas-born population could rise from a quarter to as much as a half over the next 25 years.

How will these changes affect policy development and service delivery?

This event brings together some of Australia’s foremost academics alongside dynamic young leaders to present a view of young people’s lives now and in the future.

CPD CEO Travers McLeod joins two other eminent speakers, to discuss this important and emergent issue.

Where

The Performance Space, The Wheeler Centre

176 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne, VIC 3000

When

Tuesday, 9 September 2014 from 9:30 to 11:30 AM (AEST)

Who should attend?

Senior practitioners, managers, strategists, policymakers, bureaucrats, philanthropists, youth/settlement service providers and students.

Registration and more info

Eventbrite: Centre for Multicultural Youth 25th anniversary symposium

 

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Renew Economy | 1 August 2014

Queenslanders want renewables to become the ‘norm’
Renew Economy recommends Centre for Policy Development

Queenslanders are in support of renewable energy after consultations with 80,000 people found most had a goal of renewable and alternative energy becoming the norm. There are few large scale renewable energy projects Queensland despite the state boasting the most rooftop solar PV and now Queensland residents are telling government they want renewables to be a part of the 30-year “Queensland Plan”. The Newman Government up until now has shown little support of green energy catering to State owned fossil fuel generators Stanwell Corp and CS Energy who want an end of renewable support schemes.

“The Queensland Energy Minister, Mick McArdle, said in his submission to the RET Review panel, that efforts to reduce emissions should be delayed until the state is rich enough.

So, how will the Newman government respond to the desire of its constituents expressed in the Queensland Plan?

The document includes some suggestions about how Queenslanders can “turn their ideas into action” and “make our vision a reality”.

Specifically, the document recommends:

“Subscribe to local and international think tanks and keep up to date about alternative energy solutions and environmental issues.””

Read the full article by Giles Parkinson at Renew Economy

Check out CPD’s work on the Energy Sector

 

Change can happen faster than you think – help us point to the alternatives. Add your voice to ours!

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Sustainable Economy PhD Studentships announced

Stellar PhD students join Sustainable Economy program

Generously provided by the Digger and Shirley Martin Fund and the Hamer Family Fund, the CPD Sustainable Economy Program PhD Studentships will enable two outstanding PhD students to work part-time within CPD’s Sustainable Economy Program as part of their doctoral research.

We welcome Sue Ogilvy and Peter Ferguson to the program, wish them every success in their studies, and look forward to the results.

 

Dr Peter Ferguson – security implications of climate change

Peter is a lecturer in environmental politics and policy at the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on the political barriers to moving toward a socially just and ecologically sustainable global economy, and how to overcome these.

Peter’s current research project examines the security implications of climate change for Australia and the lessons Australian policymakers could learn for managing these risks from key allies such as the United States and Britain.

 

Sue Ogilvy – including natural resources in agricultural accounting

To the program, Sue brings her undergraduate degree in Physics, Masters in Marketing, skills and experience from a successful career in strategic sales and marketing, knowledge from immersion in regenerative agricultural systems and experience as a social entrepreneur. Her PhD studies at ANU focus on conceptualising methods of including natural resources in the accounting of broadacre agricultural enterprises. She intends her work to assist farmers, investors, commercial lenders and companies that transform primary commodities, to successfully invest in ecological and human capital.

Under her studentship, Sue will contribute to a well-informed and collaborative search for agricultural policy measures that combine equity, efficiency and effectiveness to develop a productive and resilient natural resource base for Australians’ prosperity and well-being.

 

Change can happen faster than you think – help us point to the alternatives. Add your voice to ours!

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The Guardian | 31 July 2014

Grogonomics: Business leaders should stop whingeing about Australia’s competitiveness.

Greg Jericho, The Guardian‘s economics columnist, argues that instead of putting the onus on the government business should look at how it can improve capital productivity. The article cites ‘After the boom: where will growth come from?’, the chapter by Professor Roy Green (pictured) on innovation, skills and business leadership, from CPD’s 2013 book, Pushing our luck.

The RBA governor, Glenn Stevens, told a business luncheon last week in Sydney, “My sense is that in a lot of areas of business people are sitting around tables saying, ‘Yeah, somebody needs to do something and we’re waiting for someone else to do it.’ ”

Instead of putting the onus on the government, Stevens put it to on business: “But you know if we all wait for someone else to do it, no one does it. So I guess my message is: over to you, guys.”

His call echoes that of the Centre for Policy Development which noted last year that business needed to improve management practices, actively work to improve their workers’ skills and also become not just a first mover but also a “fast follower” of technology.

 

Read the full article on guardian.com.au

Read more about Pushing our luck: ideas for Australian progress

 

 

DONATE to help CPD insert real evidence & expertise into Australian policy debates!

 

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‘Valuing the future’ | Discount rates roundtable | video & event snapshot

Roundtable discussion on discount rates and investing for long term dividends.
Pascal Lamy, Rod Eddington, Ross Garnaut, Laura Eadie and John Langmore; Centre for Policy Development Seminar Series, 26 May 2014, Melbourne University. 



Four prominent panellists discussed the hidden choices we make when selecting discount rates for long-term investments.

The roundtable was filmed in front of an invited audience. The ‘event snapshot‘ document summarises the discussion.

Valuing the future is central to many contemporary debates. For example, how do we consider the welfare of future generations? Who decides what society values, now or in future? Where will future growth come from?

Discount rates allow us to compare the future valuation of something to its valuation in today’s currency.They are used to weigh up costs and benefits at different points in time.

They can also reflect how much a society is willing to invest for the future, and how much to consume today.

Governments make implicit judgements about the value of current relative to future benefits when they select discount rates for evaluating investments.

This event aimed to make explicit the choices that are made when we select a discount rate for evaluating long term investments.

 

View the full video recording on centre4publicpolicy YouTube channel

Download the ‘event snapshot, including summaries of speakers’ main points

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Hospital & Aged Care | 28 July 2014

Age Australia fair?
CPD Chief Executive addresses COTA Australia National Congress on opportunities from our ageing population

 

Australia is underestimating its productive capacity and undervaluing its total Gross Domestic Product, because it ignores the unpaid workforce and a huge chunk of health and aged care sector output, a policy expert said… Travers McLeod has joined the chorus of many aged care advocates and other economists in calling for the unpaid workforce responsible for the bulk of caring activities across the health and aged care space to be included in official Treasury domestic output calculations.

Speaking at the COTA Australia National Congress at the National Press Club, Travers said that the nation’s negative attitude towards ageing demographics stands in the way of recalculating our true productive capacity. Travers commented that the current perception of Australia’s ageing demographics as evident from recent discussions about health sustainability and Budget 2014/15, is that it is a “problem to be managed rather than an opportunity to be embraced”.

Travers said that economists expect the services sector to treble in volume in the coming decades. He told H&A, however, that “a lot of the work in services sector is not measured and that means the output produced is not measured… There is a need for economists to change the way they measure employment and capture the unpaid work that takes place”.

 

Read the full article at Hospital & Aged Care

Event listing: COTA Australia National Congress 2014

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North Queensland Register | 25 July 2014

Country Caucus chooses leaders.
Shadow Agriculture Minister cites CPD report as key source of ideas on climate change and sustainability.

 

Shadow Minister for Agriculture Joel Fitzgibbon referred to CPD’s Farming smarter, not harder: securing our agricultural economy as key to thinking on climate change. Mr Fitzgibbon made the comment as he launched a new forum, the Country Caucus.

Mr Fitzgibbon acknowledged it would now be a challenge to convince rural and regional Australia it was in their best interests to put a price on carbon, given farm groups welcomed last week’s carbon tax repeal.

He said it was “interesting” that rural and regional Australia held some scepticism on the carbon front, given the land sector was most affected by climate change.

“That’s why we need to be acting on climate change,” he said pointing to just two of probably 50 reports he has in his office on climate change.

“One is the Productivity Commission report on drought – the other is one from the Centre for Policy Development entitled Farming Smarter Not Harder,” he said.

“Both of those reports, and many others, make it clear that climate change is going to be an ongoing issue for the farm sector.

The Country Caucus is intended to reengage rural grass roots ALP supporters. Northern NSW MP Justine Elliot was appointed the inaugural chair, while Bendigo MP Lisa Chesters was named as secretary.

Read the full article on North Qld Register website

Read more about Farming smarter, not harder

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The Canberra Times | 22 July 2014

Time to change our perception of asylum seekers
Opinion editorial by Travers McLeod, Bob Douglas & Jane McAdam, following the joint  High level asylum policy roundtable

 

This important event was held at Parliament House, Canberra on 11 July. It was aimed at forging a long-term framework for asylum seeker policy through expert open dialogue.

The roundtable brought together 35 politicians, policy makers and commentators. It was a joint initiative of the Centre for Policy Development, Australia21 and the Andrew & Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, University of New South Wales.

The asylum seeker debate has become stuck and it seems you are either ”for refugees” or ”against them” and that the space for a rational, respectful debate has contracted.

Participants included a former Indonesian Ambassador to Australia, a strategist from Malaysia, and parliamentarians from three major parties. The roundtable provided an opportunity for this diverse, expert group to consider the options in open dialogue, and to explore the feasibility and practicability of a new approach to asylum seeker policy.

 

Read the full article online at The Canberra Times

Read more about the asylum policy roundtable

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