We bring people
together in each federal electorate (150 electorates around
Australia) to work locally in engaging our communities and our
representatives in a non-party, neither-left-nor-right
agenda of empowerment of ordinary people.
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 HEREto 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
The Centre for Civil Society will host a major campaign in support of a paradigm
shift in public policy and community support for people with
disabilities, mental illnesses and their families. This campaign will be an
ongoing priority in the work of the Centre.
The campaign will be national in scope and organised in each
of the 150 federal
electorates around Australia. It will link together consumers and carers,
disability and illness types, families and advocates - groups which have for
too long been fragmented and ineffectual in influencing policy.
To co-ordinate our political
influence on governments and politicians, we will organise by federal
electorate across the country. In each of the 150 federal electorates, we
will invite convenors to come forward and convene lobbying, campaign and
media initiatives involving everyone who wants to be involved (consumers,
parents, friends, siblings, advocates, support workers, service providers).
We will work to a
CHARTER FOR NATIONAL ACTION(click to read the Charter). Most importantly, we will work across the
disability-type boundaries that have weakened our influence dramatically
(autism, psychiatric disability, ABI, physical disability, intellectual
disability TOGETHER not divided.)
To participate you just need to register
your interest (using the form below). We will organise online, with convenors in
each federal electorate. Participants in each electorate comprise a federal
electorate assembly (FEA).
Expressions
of interest are invited from people wishing to be appointed as a Convenor in
their electorate.
People who are not members of
any political party, as well as people from various parties, are welcome to
participate.
DISABILITY, MENTAL
HEALTH AND FAMILIES: CHARTER FOR NATIONAL ACTION
Simply
fill in the online form (below). There are 150 lower house federal electorates: select the name of your electorate from the drop-down menu.
In each electorate we will appoint a Convenor. When you fill in the form, consider offering to convene the campaign in your
electorate, bringing people together for local initiatives. This will involve working with others in your electorate to
communicate to your MPs and your community that disability, mental health and carer
issues should be at the top of their priority list.
Comments
on the Campaign are welcome and should be sent to Vern Hughes by
email
or on 0425 722 890.
TRANSFORMING OUR
SCHOOLS
CLICK HEREfor
details of our campaign for a Real Education Revolution.
CLICK HEREfor info on the National
Federation of Parents, Families and Carers.
STREET BY STREET SUBURB BY SUBURB
Community Building and Social Inclusion
National Development Conference
21/22 April 2010
CLICK HERE for details.
CORPORATE
WELFARE WATCH
Latest Handout Tally
$6.4b Car manufacturers subsidies
$2b Commercial property construction industry
$3.9b Free emission permits to coal-fired electricity generators
$2b Car dealer finance guarantee
$149m GMH 4 cylinder car
CLICK HEREfor further information.
THIRD WAY FORUM Communitarianism,
Mutualism, Third Way Thinking CLICK HERE
to find out more.
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 HEREto read
Making It Personal.
RESPECT
EMPOWER
INCLUDE
Participate in our five-point
non-party-political campaign to empower ordinary people.
CLICK HERE
to join us and to express an interest in Convening in your
electorate.
SUBSCRIBE
To SUBSCRIBE to our FREE
email news bulletin, enter your email address here.
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...
Standing Up to Telstra and
the Big Four Banks
Help us create a
voice for consumers. Read more...
How to Use this Website
If you are visiting
this website for the first time, please note that there are two
sets of links - one at the top of each page; and a second on the
left hand side.
Click on the links
on the top of the page for information on the Centre for Civil
Society - including an overview of our current
CAMPAIGNSand POLICIES
we would like you to comment on
.
Use the SEARCH
button to find items of interest; or the
WRITE
button to send us your comments and suggestions.
If you are having
problems navigating, there are additional links at the
bottom of each page. Or click here for our
PLAIN TEXT version (ideal for printing).
For those with
reading difficulties, this website has been designed so you can
click on 'Text Size' in your 'View' menu to enlarge the font.
If you need more
assistance, feel free to send a message to our
WEBMASTER.
And don't forget to
visit again soon to see our website - and our ideas, campaigns
and policies - evolve. We value your contribution.