My New Post

The Every Child campaign is a national movement launching Tuesday August 27^th to ensure all children and young people can thrive because families are able to get the right support at the right time.

The launch of the Every Child Campaign is an ideal opportunity to reignite the conversation about the more than 45,000 children who live in care in Australia today. This number is unacceptably large and it’s well-documented that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are the most significantly affected.

In the COVID-19 pandemic, more than ever before, generations need to work together. This is a joint statement of solidarity between EveryChild and our sister campaign, EveryAGE Counts - a campaign aimed at tackling ageism against older Australians.   

If ‘we are in this together’, then it follows that close attention should be paid to the question of who is included in our understanding of ‘we’, because the assumptions embedded in that definition will inevitably dictate the subsequent choices about policy and resourcing.

Together - we can build back better.

One of the most remarkable features of 2020 has been the revelation that we have not lost that most fundamental of skills in liberal democracy: the ability to listen and to adapt to feedback. I watch in real time as changes are made to policies on advice from groups that would previously have been lined up on the other side of an ideological war. We will need this skill more than ever in the recovery phase.

When I left international development to work in the Australian community sector five years ago, I was struck by the differences. In rich economies there is data! There is money! And, while we love to whinge, there is a broadly competent government!