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
Family carers of people with a disability, mental illness, chronic condition or who are frail and aged are the most hidden and unrepresented community in Australia. Their unpaid
care saves the Australian taxpayer over $19 billion annually, by keeping people in need of care in their homes and out of high cost residential care and health care facilities.
The neglect of family carers by successive governments is a national scandal and a deep injustice. People Power aims to rectify this injustice by increasing supports for Australia’s
2.7 million carers, and introducing genuine choice and options for carers in undertaking their caring roles.
People Power stands for
ü
Person-centred arrangements (services and institutions should be tailored to meet the personalized needs of family carers and the people they care for)
ü
Empowerment of carers and families (supports for carers should transfer resources and capacity to individual carers, families and their agents, enabling them to grow in
community, rather than isolation and powerlessness)
ü
Choice (individualised funding arrangements should become the norm in funding services to carers so they can choose the lives they want to build)
People Power will
Increase by threefold the Carer Allowance to $135 per week for the 322,000 carers currently in receipt of the Allowance.
Extend eligibility for the Carer Allowance to an additional cohort of 322,000 carers as a first step towards addressing the unmet need of many carers for income
support.
Broaden the narrow definition of profound disability used for Carer Payment eligibility for children under 16.
Remove the 25 hour per week limit on work or study without losing eligibility for the Carer Payment.
Introduce a Respite Entitlement assigned directly to family carers or their agents as a respite service voucher, adjusted with a severity-of-disability and
difficulty-in-caring rating. The Respite Entitlement may be used to purchase in-home respite or center-based respite according to the preference of the carer.
Broaden eligibility for assistance with the cost of continence products under the Continence Aids Assistance Scheme to people of all ages and permanent incontinence.
Increase the current $470 per year maximum rate of assistance with continence aids to $700.
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
Information Workshops
Brisbane 1 September Sydney 3 September
Melbourne 10 September
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
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WRITE
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and policies - evolve. We value your contribution.