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Change politics

By Natasha Stott Despoja - posted Wednesday, 15 August 2001


As well as the Democrats’ traditional role of keeping them honest, the Democrats also provide a few good ideas: World Heritage Legislation; tax breaks to conserve land; Health Care cards for foster children; and Private Member’s bills to address emerging issues in Science and Technology. Most of the measures this Government has instigated to combat climate change through reducing Greenhouse emissions are Democrat initiatives.

We are a Party that has shown initiative, coming up with practical positive solutions and negotiating to bring them about. This is what the Change Politics campaign is about: good ideas and positive outcomes, not just insults and underbidding the opposition.

The Democrats have led the field in terms of accountability and honesty in Government. It was ten years ago the Democrats forced a public register of political donations to be kept. The Democrats stand for a new type of politics where backroom deals and powerful vested interests do not dominate. We listen to business and we listen to unions but we are not bound by either. Our first commitment is to the Australian people.

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Change Politics is about creating the Australia we want over the next 30 years at least, not just trying to buoy the polls over the next 4 months. Health, education, environment, and job creation, are all areas in which you invest now, and the long-term returns are priceless.

Environmental protection, is essential to our long-term future. The Democrats’ Environment policy will be the first major policy launch. It is an area in which the Democrats have a long and proud record of achievement and we will be proposing some new initiatives.

The other vital investment a country can make in its future is education. Yet, education barely rated a mention in the Prime Minister’s address last week, and it is hardly surprising since his Government's performance has been disgraceful. He has presided over the systematic degradation of public education in schools, TAFEs and universities.

Australia is one of the few OECD countries with declining school retention rates. This is a very poor base to grapple with the massive future challenges and opportunities of the knowledge economy.

Similarly, as a result of the Government’s cut to the Research and Development tax concession, business investment in R&D has declined each year since 1996, in real terms and as a percentage of GDP. To encourage internationally competitive levels of private investment in R&D, at a minimum we must restore the R&D tax concession to 150% and prevent this Government's attempts to constrain R&D definitions.

The Democrats’ triple bottom line is the environment, the economy and the community. All the Prime Minister’s talk about ‘choice’ does not acknowledge that the marketplace can only ever provide market values, not community values. Beneath the economic bottom line there is a treasure chest of community values that cannot be costed, but must be counted.

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Mr Howard emphasised the choices his Government was offering people but neglected the greatest choice Australians want at the forthcoming election – to change politics.

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This is an edited extract of an address to the National Press Club, Canberra, on 8 August 2001. Click here for the full transcript.



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About the Author

Senator Natasha Stott Despoja was the Australian Democrats spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Attorney-Generals, Science & Biotechnology, Higher Education and the Status of Women (including Work & Family). She is a former Senator for South Australia.

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