Shaping Our Collective Future: The NSW Fellowship So Far

In provid­ing the first blog entry for the 2012 NSW Policy Fellowship, it’s hard to know where to begin… I think I can speak for all the fellows when I say that we are some­what over­whelmed (although pos­it­ively so!), and yet whole­heartedly exhil­ar­ated by our exper­i­ence thus far. Before describ­ing the team’s pro­gress, and current pos­i­tion in our overall policy-trajectory, it’s first neces­sary to briefly explain what exactly it is we’re doing, and why we’re doing it.

So. The NSW team of policy fellows has recently embarked on the Policy Fellowship quest. An epic quest indeed; span­ning over eight months, involving policy writing, con­sulta­tion and advocacy, and even­tu­at­ing in the pro­duc­tion of a long-term-oriented, evidence-based piece of public policy. This year, the NSW team con­sists of ten Policy Fellows, as well as the Left Right staff.  On that note, it seems fitting to draw atten­tion to one aspect of the Fellowship that I’ve already found great appre­ci­ation for. And that, expli­citly, is the way in which such a diverse group of indi­vidu­als are drawn closely together by one common passion and object­ive. We all share the ideal that we (as young indi­vidu­als) hold a prom­in­ent stake in the future, and yet possess such little means by which we can shape it. We recog­nise that public policy will play a crucial role in shaping our col­lect­ive future, and thus we would like to learn about and under­stand the mech­an­isms used in its development.

The 2012 NSW Fellowship is focus­ing on Australia’s trans­port infra­struc­ture. More spe­cific­ally, we’re explor­ing poten­tial sus­tain­able funding models that could enable current and future gov­ern­ments to afford to con­tinue devel­op­ing infra­struc­ture. One month into our fel­low­ship, we’ve been busy research­ing the exist­ing lit­er­at­ure and lines of think­ing sur­round­ing the topic of trans­port infra­struc­ture, the funding it requires, and the Australian polit­ical approach to devel­op­ing it. The first fel­low­ship session was excit­ing and enga­ging, but also slightly daunt­ing. We real­ised that the scope of the policy pro­posal was abso­lutely huge, and that the policy area was incred­ibly topical; meaning the subject would already be under a sig­ni­fic­ant amount of scru­tiny from a wide range of indi­vidu­als and insti­tu­tions. Nonetheless, with some very ded­ic­ated ment­or­ing from the Left Right Staff, and thor­ough research from the fellows, we’re begin­ning to under­stand the fun­da­ment­als of the subject we’re dealing with. This is a neces­sary first step in order for us to begin think­ing about ways in which we can frame our policy ques­tions and decide on a policy focus.

In helping us along in this process, we’ve already met with some inter­est­ing and inspir­ing stake­hold­ers. This includes several work­shops with a rep­res­ent­at­ive from the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA), and another with a senior strategy manager from the National Australia Bank (NAB). For the dur­a­tion of the Fellowship we’ll con­tinue to meet with more inter­est­ing people from gov­ern­ment, journ­al­ism and industry. These work­shops with stake­hold­ers are such a bene­fi­cial, fas­cin­at­ing, and ulti­mately import­ant part of the policy-development process. In meeting with policy pro­fes­sion­als from dif­fer­ent areas of spe­cial­isa­tion, it becomes increas­ingly more evident that to produce an innov­at­ive and robust policy, con­sulta­tion with spokespeople of dif­fer­ent per­spect­ives, and an inter­dis­cip­lin­ary approach of ana­lysis will be critical.

We’ve made a lot of pro­gress so far, but still have a long way to go! And intend to keep you posted on our progress…

Until next time,

The NSW Fellowship Team.

Posted Monday, May 14th, 2012 06:40 pm Written by Sophie Ritchie

Innately Sustainable Diversity

Victorian Fellow, Guy Wallace gives a run-down of the Victorian Policy Fellowship so far.

High school geo­graphy taught me sus­tain­ab­il­ity is putting your eggs in dif­fer­ent baskets.

Even in these early stages the Victorian fel­low­ship is con­sult­ing with a wide range of experts, remind­ing us that to enact worth­while change we’ve got to under­stand all view­points. We’re learn­ing that our society, economy and envir­on­ment don’t need to divide Australians, but people, trade and trees can integ­rate us for each is depend­ent on the other.

This hol­istic approach is evident in our fellowship’s form­a­tion of a policy for eco­nom­ic­ally sus­tain­able food security.

When con­sult­ing with the fel­low­ship, Agribusiness Council of Australia chair Ian Joseph embod­ied a mul­ti­pli­city of angles when he drew a dis­tinc­tion between agri­cul­ture and everything asso­ci­ated with it, agribusi­ness. As fellows we learned the dif­fer­ence is between viewing Australia’s food pro­duc­tion in a vacuum, as opposed to in the context of the wider eco­nomic chain. It’s all too easy to get stuck in a one-track rut when approach­ing prob­lems through tunnel vision, but only when we look over our neighbour’s fence will we see what does and doesn’t work.

Grassroots learn­ing is why as fellows we are com­mit­ted to forming a policy for food secur­ity which addresses the pro­gress of the economy, eco­sys­tem of the envir­on­ment and diversity of society. The fel­low­ship is provid­ing us fellows with the oppor­tun­ity to read and consult widely, res­ult­ing in the invalu­able skill of cross-disciplinary research.

Left Right Think-Tank is defined by its non-partisan approach to public policy, meaning Victorian fellows are listen­ing to all sides of polit­ics and industry, not for their ideo­lo­gies – but for their know­ledge and exper­i­ence in secur­ing food into the future. Dr John White syn­thes­ised solu­tions for food secur­ity and climate change in a con­sulta­tion which asso­ci­ated rich fer­til­iser sourced from lignite with pho­to­syn­thesis and carbon farming. Such a lateral approach to current prob­lems need not over­whelm when the science motiv­at­ing change reminds us that there is ‘nothing new under the sun’.

In an ever-progressing world Australia needs to ensure we have the susten­ance to evolve into the 21^st century.

This is why in 2012 the Victorian fel­low­ship will heed the economy, envir­on­ment and society, because only when we’re listen­ing will we create a policy that sus­tains beyond the next election.

Posted Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 09:16 pm Written by Guy Wallace

NSW’s higher education policy

In July last year, the 2011 NSW Policy Fellows boldly set out to tackle the con­tro­ver­sial issue of higher edu­ca­tion reform. This topic has been mired in an ideo­lo­gical battle fought tooth and nail amongst various stake­hold­ers in the com­munity. The passion sur­round­ing this debate is born from the almost uni­ver­sally held belief that edu­ca­tion is fun­da­mental to a func­tion­ing and stable society. Some go so far as to call edu­ca­tion the silver bullet. A panacea to the world’s prob­lems. And it is because of such views that debate sur­round­ing any pro­posed reform to edu­ca­tion is so fierce. The debate is crowded with voices all com­pet­ing for atten­tion, all driven by the know­ledge that decisions made on edu­ca­tion reform today will shape the future of the nation.

It is within this rather tense context that the fellows under­took the task of ana­lys­ing Australia’s higher edu­ca­tion sector. Specifically, they focused on invest­ig­at­ing the con­sequences of the federal government’s brand spank­ing new demand-driven funding system. This legis­la­tion was intro­duced in reac­tion to the 2008 Bradley Review, which sent shock­waves through the com­munity by warning that Australia’s bach­elor degree-attainment rate of 29 per cent is eco­nom­ic­ally unsus­tain­able. This figure shows that Australia has one of the lowest levels of uni­ver­sity par­ti­cip­a­tion in the OECD. The fellows’ research revealed that most experts believe that Australia needs to sig­ni­fic­antly increase its uni­ver­sity par­ti­cip­a­tion rate if it is to foster a sus­tain­able labour market that can adapt to the rapid tech­no­lo­gical change being driven by glob­al­isa­tion. The demand-driven funding system attempts to achieve this by remov­ing the caps on the number of under­gradu­ate stu­dents uni­ver­sit­ies can enrol each year. In effect, the gov­ern­ment has stood aside and let the market take the helm.

After a gruelling few months of research, the fellows iden­ti­fied the key stake­hold­ers and experts they needed to consult in order to work out what spe­cific issues their policy would address. This list included journ­al­ists, edu­ca­tion experts, uni­ver­sit­ies, student unions, youth organ­isa­tions, and – of course – young people.

A key ques­tion quickly arose from the fellows’ research and con­sulta­tion: how can we ensure the quality of uni­ver­sity edu­ca­tion and exper­i­ence does not suffer as a result of the increase in enrol­ments the demand-driven model will bring? This ques­tion was accom­pan­ied by a rather depress­ing real­isa­tion that despite the pro­trac­ted and often bitter nature of the debate sur­round­ing edu­ca­tion reform, lost in all this chaos has been the voice of the youth. The fellows were con­cerned by this paradox and deman­ded an answer; as primary stake­hold­ers, surely young people have a right to be heard on issues relat­ing to education?

The fol­low­ing ses­sions with the fellows were char­ac­ter­ised by intense and sometimes-heated dis­cus­sion on what meas­ures would bolster the quality of edu­ca­tion and exper­i­ence at Australian uni­ver­sit­ies. The level of cre­ativ­ity and intel­li­gence in the room cata­lysed a col­lab­or­at­ive and pro­duct­ive atmo­sphere. Two recom­mend­a­tions were born. In the end, it was decided that the absence of the youth’s voice on issues of quality and exper­i­ence at uni­ver­sity is a real concern that needs to be addressed. The fellows believe it goes further than the argu­ment that stu­dents have a right to be heard. They also have a unique per­spect­ive they can bring to the table; a per­spect­ive that has value, one that should be ser­i­ously con­sidered by gov­ern­ment and uni­ver­sit­ies alike.

Unlike so many others involved in the edu­ca­tion debate, the fellows con­sciously avoided becom­ing embroiled in the polit­ics of the ideo­lo­gical battle­ground. Rational ana­lysis and cre­at­ive think­ing were at the fore­front of dis­cus­sion. In the place of default ideo­lo­gical pos­i­tions, in-depth research and wide-level con­sulta­tion informed their policy.

The outcome was two well thought-out policy recom­mend­a­tions which could achieve real, pos­it­ive change.

Left Right Think-Tank con­grat­u­lates the NSW 2011 Policy Fellowship for pro­du­cing an out­stand­ing policy on higher education.

Posted Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 10:41 pm Written by Max Dalton

The best solutions are often those from outside the system

Often through the blur of party polit­ics, it’s dif­fi­cult if not impossible to see the process of public policy making. The devel­op­ment process can seem foreign and complex and inac­cess­ible to every­day Australians. Least of all, some may say, to young people, who can be branded as inex­per­i­enced and unsuit­able to advise on such import­ant matters.

Left Right Think-Tank’s 2011 Victorian Policy Fellowship not only dis­proved that notion, they (in true rock-star fashion) threw it out the window and into a pool of rip­pling success.

But how, you may ques­tion, furi­ously shaking your com­puter monitor with an urgent fervour (stop that because it will break), does a group of seven young Victorians produce a twenty-five page doc­u­ment that is reques­ted by Government offices and recom­men­ded by Senators?

It all begins with Left Right Think-Tank and ends with the determ­in­a­tion and hard-work of our Victorian Fellows.

The 2011 policy recom­mend­a­tion paper began with a topic. Innovation. Hand chosen by the dir­ect­ors of Left Right, innov­a­tion was seen as crucial to the pro­gres­sion of society. Australia must be able to foster an envir­on­ment that encour­ages and pro­motes innov­a­tion, in order to be at the fore­front of the world’s economies.

Faced with such a broad topic, the fellows knew that extens­ive research was ahead and were pre­pared and com­mit­ted to dive head first and grasp the issue. Looking at current Labor gov­ern­ment and oppos­i­tion policies on innov­a­tion, a wide array of aca­demic work, reports from other think tanks, con­sultancy groups and com­ment­ar­ies on the subject, the fellows estab­lished a base know­ledge regard­ing the pro­gress of innov­a­tion in Australia. Rather than allow­ing them­selves to be sub­merged in a flurry of art­icles, journ­als and lit­er­ary reviews, the sources that were sig­ni­fic­ant were divided up between the fellows. They, in their own time, read the pieces in detail, which were reviewed then presen­ted at their next meeting.

Key stake­hold­ers emerged from the research. These figures were con­sul­ted with in order to get a more com­pre­hens­ive scope of the issue. The more the fellows researched innov­a­tion by reading and dis­cuss­ing ideas with stake­hold­ers, the clearer the major bar­ri­ers pre­vent­ing innov­a­tion in Australia became. Problems were echoed in con­sulta­tions ses­sions and the overall theme of col­lab­or­a­tion began to emerge.

While prob­lems were not hard to find, a solu­tion was a major chal­lenge. Here the determ­in­a­tion, hard work and strong will of the fellows was demon­strated, as they spent hours of meeting with Left Right Victorian policy staff, trying to devise some hard-hitting recom­mend­a­tions for the paper to encom­pass. This process demon­strated the import­ance of working with a strong team of determ­ined young people, as com­prom­ises were required to isolate solu­tions. Indeed, it was dif­fi­cult to find unan­im­ous agree­ment on spe­cific recom­mend­a­tions, but after com­pre­hens­ive dis­cus­sion and coöper­a­tion, the recom­mend­a­tions were decided upon. A hard-copy began to be drafted and the result was a com­pre­hens­ive, in-depth policy recom­mend­a­tion paper on innov­a­tion in Australia.

The process of public policy writing is not as elusive as it seems. It is a process access­ible to all young people who want to impact the decisions that are made in our country today. It requires a great team who are com­mit­ted, determ­ined and ready to com­prom­ise. It requires a level head and to not be shaken by any subject that seems too broad, too complex or challenging.

The forward to Left Right Think-Tank’s 2011 innov­a­tion policy notes that “some­times new dir­ec­tions are not appar­ent until pointed to from someone ‘outside’ the system.” With the launch of the policy on innov­a­tion, Left Right Think-Tank con­grat­u­lates the 2011 fellows and look forward to seeing great things from them all in the future.

Posted Saturday, April 14th, 2012 01:36 pm Written by Bianca Kerr

New South Wales September Update

On the back of some invig­or­at­ing (but ulti­mately blood­less) debates on the future of Australia’s ter­tiary sector, the Left Right team in NSW has been busy working with our Fellows to settle on a focus point for the Fellowship program.

Recognising the long term bene­fits of the devel­op­ment of a know­ledge economy in Australia, the Left Right team in NSW will be asking the central ques­tion of how Australia is devel­op­ing as a know­ledge economy, by invest­ig­at­ing and fur­ther­ing the devel­op­ment of the ter­tiary edu­ca­tion sector.

With this in mind, and under the tutel­age of our dynamic policy duo, Sanija Hrncic & Abhishek Bhovar, the NSW Fellows will take an in depth look at the ter­tiary sector from where it stands today, to pivotal reforms already under­way; as well as the dir­ec­tion that needs to be taken in order to meet the chal­lenges of tomor­row. Debates around access to equity, pre­par­a­tion for entry to University, and the quality and infla­tion of edu­ca­tion are just the top soil of a program aimed at devel­op­ing a crit­ical frame­work for max­im­ising the poten­tial of the Australian ter­tiary sector.

On a slightly dif­fer­ent note, the skies above Sydney were tem­por­ar­ily darkened last month as our State Director, Giancarlo de Vera, was rendered mute and sar­tor­ic­ally deprived (in a literal and semi­otic sense) — all to raise money for World Vision’s 40 Hour Famine. We were shocked when we heard that Giancarlo, always impec­cably (read: flam­boy­antly) dressed and a well known motor mouth had put himself through two days of such abject torture. However, luckily, with the offi­cial support of the NSW/ACT VGen (World Vision’s Youth Movement), he made it through to the other side and in the process has so far raised an extremely impress­ive $895 dollars! He’s taking dona­tions until the end of the month so jump onto the Facebook event below, or his 40 Hour Famine profile page, and help him reach his $1000 target!

Posted Thursday, October 6th, 2011 10:09 pm Written by Left Right Think-Tank

To Canberra and Beyond!

Left Right Think-Tank rep­res­ent­at­ives recently traveled to Canberra, our nation’s capital, to present some of our most recent work to MPs and big wigs who matter. Some of yours truly hadn’t been to our illus­tri­ous seat of power before. Enamoured? Hardly. Surprised? Undoubtedly!

For all the cri­ti­cism we launch at Canberra, one couldn’t expect much — drab build­ings and a sulky atmo­sphere is the image por­trayed. We found Canberra to be a refresh­ing exper­i­ence, immers­ing ourselves in the city in the little time we had. From the National Capital Exhibition to the High Court, the National Museum, Old Parliament House and of course Parliament House proper. It was odd, but a strange feeling of pat­ri­ot­ism emerged, some­thing it seems isn’t felt as much in our other major cities. Kindly referred to as the “dumping ground for the Federal Government”, Canberra has much more to offer than meets the eye.

The trip involved so many meet­ings we hardly had time to eat. Of course, the nature of a sitting week means some people have more time than others. Further, meet­ings are often cut short or can­celled due to the con­stantly dis­tract­ing “ringing of the bells” (watch­ing our leaders scram­bling through the Parliamentary cor­ridors is an amusing exper­i­ence). Having said this, here is a select list of those we met with:

• Tanya Plibersek (Minister for Human Services and Social Inclusion)
• Rebecca Barton, adviser to Kevin Rudd (Minister for Foreign Affairs)
• Jessica Loefstedt, adviser to Anthony Albanese (Minister for Infrastructure and Transport; Leader of the House)
• Warren Truss (Leader of the Nationals; Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport)
• 
Luke Hartsuyker (Shadow Minister for Regional Communications, Youth and Sport; Deputy Leader of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives)
• Wyatt Roy (young­est MP)
• Sam Riordon, adviser to Julie Bishop (Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade)

Through our meet­ings though we were enlightened to a number of insights from the inside. We heard numer­ous times that most of what happens at par­lia­ment house is not con­ten­tious and wholly agreed upon by both parties. Ministers and Shadow Ministers explained that unfor­tu­nately the media only por­trayed the adversarial side of polit­ics, but that they feel most of their work is con­struct­ive and making a dif­fer­ence for good.

We were well received by all the MPs we met with, and heard how both sides of gov­ern­ment are keen to use Left Right as a bridge through which they can reach young Australians from all walks of life. We would agree and would welcome your thoughts, opin­ions and ideas — we want to act as a voice for young Australians, and we want you to join us in par­ti­cip­at­ing in cre­at­ing a future we can all be proud of.

We’re making a serious impact on our politi­cians regard­ing what they think about young people and our views, and this was rein­forced by all the well wishes we received on our most recent escapade to Canberra!

Posted Wednesday, July 13th, 2011 05:26 am Written by Mia Kennett (Communications Director)