Centre for Civil Society
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We bring people together in each federal electorate (150 electorates around Australia) to work locally in engaging our communities and our  representatives in an agenda of empowerment of ordinary people and strengthening of civil society.
 CLICK HERE to join us.
SELF-DIRECTED
SERVICES AND PERSONAL BUDGETS

You can take charge of your social support, education and health care through a personal budget.
CLICK HERE for further information.
AGM SEASON

Making a difference in our not-for-profits.
CLICK HERE for further information.
STREET BY STREET

Linking up people who live in the same street or nearby to build community through practical helping tasks - on a national scale.
 CLICK HERE for further information.
COMMUNITY BUILDING
NATIONAL NETWORK
CLICK HERE  to participate in the Network.

LEFT AND RIGHT?

"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.

This is the politics of the absurd. The Left identifies with the good society but rarely talks about the mutualism and trust between people. The Right recognises the importance of moral obligation but gives the impression of trusting market transactions more than civil society.

Few things seem to happen anymore without a government law or market transaction to guide them. This is how record levels of GDP in Australia now sit alongside record levels of crime, social stress and family  breakdown. The political balance needs to swing back towards civil society.

This task, in fact, requires a new type of politics."
Mark Latham, Mutualism: A Third Way for Australia," 1999.
 CLICK HERE to read more. 

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

If you are caring for an ill or disabled family member at home, please click here to participate in our

Family CarERS  SURVEY 

 
 
 

disability, Mental Health and Families - charter for national action

The Howard Government has declared a National Emergency amongst indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. It is intervening to reform failed service systems that have created despair in many communities.

It now needs to declare a National Emergency in disability and mental health.

The Centre for Civil Society will host a major campaign in support of a similar declaration of National Emergency for people with disabilities, mental illnesses and their families.

The campaign will be organised in each of the 150 federal electorates around Australia.

CLICK HERE for further information.
  
 Indigenous Communities and Passive Welfare 

The Centre for Civil Society backs the revolution in indigenous affairs led by Noel and Gerhardt Pearson and Richie Ahmat of Cape York. Its focus on relationships, community and personal responsibility within a framework of social and economic empowerment is applicable across the whole community.

Local economic development and social empowerment go hand in hand, for white and black Australians. For perhaps the best outline of this agenda, Noel Pearson's speech to the Social Entrepreneurs Network in 2002 in Melbourne is highly recommended.  
      
Health Reform

With health care at the top of the national priority list for many Australians, a carefully considered health reform agenda is more important than ever. However, short-term poll-driven approaches of the kind currently offered by the Federal Government and Labor alike will not deliver significant reform.

The Centre is interested in bringing together Australians with a serious commitment to health reform based on consumer empowerment, co-ordinated care and patient-centred pooling of funds with an illness-prevention philosophy.

A three year health reform process was launched in August 2004 in Sydney at a workshop on New Directions in Health Reform.

SMALL BUSINESS MANIFESTO

CLICK HERE to see our small business manifesto.

Family Carers: The Sleeping Giant of Australian Politics

What is the biggest common interest constituency in Australia? Trade unions? The green movement? Small business? Try family carers. CLICK HERE to read more.
  
National Consumer Alliance

This Alliance was formed in Melbourne at a National Consumer Summit convened to explore the development of a broad, independent consumer movement in Australia. It adopted a five-point campaign package of policy changes spanning federal and state jurisdictions. These are:

  • Stop the banking cartel's gouging of consumers
    Australian banks rip off their customers more comprehensively than anyone else in the country and now comprise 50 per cent of the stockmarket. We want a break up of the banking cartel, divestiture of assets where there is a debt/equity conflict of interest, downwards movement in fees and charges, and removal of barriers to more effective competition to the Big Four.
                    

  • Unbundle Telstra
    We have the most dominant telco in the western world that has stifled its competitors and continues to mercilessly gouge its customers. We want an unbundling of Telstra to separate its retail operations from its network and media operations.
               

  • Bring in 'lemon' laws
    Australia has no 'lemon' laws protecting consumers who purchase a dud product or service. We want tough 'lemon laws' introduced in all jurisdictions.
         

  • Remove the consumer levies to bail out producers
    We want the removal of consumer levies on milk, sugar and other products which have been introduced by governments to bail out inefficient producers.
          

  • Ease the restrictions on new entrants
    We want an easing of restrictions on new entrants in banking, insurance, airlines and the media to encourage more players, more competition, and more options for consumers.

Register your interest in the campaign at  http://www.partnerships.org.au/NationalConsumerAllianceForm.htm

For further information, contact Vern Hughes
  
Empowerment Initiatives in the Human Services

A National Reference Group on Empowerment in the Human Services was appointed at the inaugural Empowering Individuals and Families in the Human Services conference. Its Terms of Reference include:

To be a national reference point for the development, co-ordination and promotion of empowerment initiatives in the human services, including initiatives in:

  • consumer, family and community governance

  • cross-sector funds-pooling and budget-holding

  • direct payments, and

  • other person-centred arrangements

Further details are at http://www.partnerships.org.au/empowerment.htm   
       
Credit Union Renewal

 Australia's credit union movement was once a dynamic self-help movement amongst communities of families, workers and farmers. It reached its peak in members and market share in the 1970s, and since then has been in decline. Ironically, its market share has fallen at the very time the major banks have never been more unpopular.

We are interested in hearing from credit union members across the country who want to turn around this unhappy plight. The key problem is a crisis in leadership and identity. The technical sophistication of credit unions has grown but their identity has collapsed in the absence of a strategic leadership committed to entrepreneurial thinking based on self-help and mutuality principles.

Managerialism is the enemy of empowerment in credit unions as in every other institution in the country. To express your interest in this agenda, contact Vern Hughes on 0425 722 890.
            
RURAL SELF HELP

 Australia's rural communities have a long and proud history of people creatively banding together to help each other and to build strong communities. This tradition is still alive, but it is much weaker than in the past, and in some places is under threat of extinction.

Regenerating this tradition is a strong commitment of the Centre for Civil Society. Social and political leadership is critical to this task, and we are very keen to hear from people in the bush who want to work with others in articulating the self-help spirit in contemporary ways that respond to the present challenges.

For further information, contact Vern Hughes
  

© Centre for Civil Society 2007  
 

TRANSFORMING OUR SCHOOLS

CLICK HERE for details of our campaign for a Real Education Revolution.

PARENTS FAMILIES AND CARERS

CLICK HERE for info on the National Federation of Parents, Families and Carers.
MAKING IT PERSONAL

Charlie Leadbeater, Jamie Bartlett and Niamh Gallagher have authored this highly influential Demos Report on Self-Directed Services and Personal Budgets.
CLICK HERE to read Making It Personal.
THIRD WAY FORUM
Communitarianism,
Mutualism, Third Way Thinking
CLICK HERE to find out more.

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Family Carers
There are 2.7million family carers of people with a disability, a chronic or mental illness, or aged frailty in Australia. They are invisible to politicians and policy makers. Read more...
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