The Australia Together Podcast

This week I was fortunate to be invited by Sustainable Living Tasmania to speak about National Integrated Planning & Reporting – National IP&R.The presentation shows how Australians are already pracitising Integrated Planning & Reporting in Tasmania and also in several other states in Australia. And it shows how they can now use it to solve national problems like climate change, unfairness in taxation, the growth of inequality and income insecurity, poverty, and inaccessibility of services essential for wellbeing. National IP&R offers Australians the processes they need to overcome these problems and escape the inequality that is driving a decline in social cohesion. They can band together to use these processes to defeat neoliberalism and restore their influence in their own democracy. ACFP is currently working on expanding opportunities for Australians to become involved in planning a better future for the whole nation by using National IP&R. Find out about how to become involved here and watch for progress updates.Read more about ACFP’s current program for expanding involvement in democracy in Australia here. Watch the full presentation to Sustainable Living Tasmania on YouTube. Many thanks to Sustainable Living Tasmania for the opportunity to talk about National IP&R. Want to know more about ACFP?Find out all about ACFP and how to become involved here. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

Episode 76: Bronwyn Kelly reads Part 8 of Chapter 6 and the Epilogue to her latest book, The Public Interest Economy: the path to wellbeing, security and sustainable consumption in a democratised Australian economy.Chapter 6 sets out a program of institutional reform that will enable Australians to maximise their chances of building an economy in the public interest. The program has six pillars of reform. This episode covers the final pillar - the Australian Public Interest Collaboration.Bronwyn also reads the Epilogue to the book which provides insights into the sort of lifestyle Australians can expect to enjoy if they transition to a public interest economy and what they will miss if they don't make the transition.She also lists what governments will need to do to release Australians from the yoke of neoliberalism before it becomes impossible to create a sustainable future on the Earth. In a nutshell, they need to abandon neoclassical economics because it is false and dangerous. It is propping up neoliberalism and that way disaster lies. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

Episode 75: Bronwyn Kelly reads Parts 5 to 7 of Chapter 6 of her latest book, The Public Interest Economy: the path to wellbeing, security and sustainable consumption in a democratised Australian economy.Chapter 6 sets out a program of institutional reform that will enable Australians to maximise their chances of building an economy in the public interest. The program has six pillars of reform.Last week, Bronwyn covered the first two pillars. In this episode she covers Pillars 3, 4 and 5. Pillars 3 and 4 are vital for ensuring that Australians will be able to trust in their governments in the future and participate as equals in their own democracy to maximise the capacity of their economy to deliver wellbeing fairly for all.Pillar 5 is essential for the safe transition of Australians to a sustainable economy in the face of coming global crises. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

Episode 74: Bronwyn Kelly reads Parts 1 to 4 of Chapter 6 of her latest book, The Public Interest Economy: the path to wellbeing, security and sustainable consumption in a democratised Australian economy.Chapter 6 sets out a program of institutional reform that will enable Australians to maximise their chances of building an economy in the public interest. The program has six pillars of reform.In this episode Bronwyn covers the first two pillars of the reform program and she places the program in the context of the challenges we are facing in a resource constrained world. This integrated program of reform is vital to the chance of survival in climate change and global economic disruption. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

Episode 73: Bronwyn Kelly reads Part 7of Chapter 5 of her latest book, The Public Interest Economy: the path to wellbeing, security and sustainable consumption in a democratised Australian economy.Chapter 5 is about how to rearrange Australia’s welfare systems to transform welfare from being the privilege of a few to the permanent entitlement of all. It is about shifting from a targeted welfare system to a system of universal income security. And it’s about how this shift is essential to a flourishing and sustainable economy where no-one need live in poverty as millions of Australians do now.in Part 7 of the chapter, Bronwyn sets out the steps by which Australians can transition from targeted welfare to universal income security. They can do it by collaborating to design a universal basic income matched with fair tax reform. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

Episode 72: Bronwyn Kelly reads Parts 4 to 6 of Chapter 5 of her latest book, The Public Interest Economy: the path to wellbeing, security and sustainable consumption in a democratised Australian economy.Chapter 5 is about how to rearrange Australia’s welfare systems to transform welfare from being the privilege of a few to the permanent entitlement of all. It is about shifting from a targeted welfare system to a system of universal income security. And it’s about how this shift is essential to a flourishing and sustainable economy where no-one need live in poverty as millions of Australians do now.In Parts 4 to 6, Bronwyn discusses how universal welfare is essential to our equality in democracy and to our entitlement as equals to fair shares of the burden and benefits of the economy. This leads into a discussion of how Australians can embark on an efficient and democratic process of collaboration to decide what sort of economy they want. Is it an economy that secures their wellbeing? Is it an economy that is fair? What does a democratic economy look like? How can we build a democratic economy that supports the public interest? In answer to these questions, Bronwyn suggests that Australians will need to assess their economy from the point of view of whether it fits with principles that they have decided will work best to foster the sort of economy they want. These principles are likely to be about fairness.Principles of fairness can be established in a National Accord on Wealth, Welfare and Wellbeing. Find out more at https://austcfp.com.au/supporting-activities#national-accord This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

Episode 71: Bronwyn Kelly reads Parts 1 to 3 of Chapter 5 of her latest book, The Public Interest Economy: the path to wellbeing, security and sustainable consumption in a democratised Australian economy.Chapter 5 is about how to rearrange Australia’s welfare system to transform welfare from being the privilege of a few to the permanent entitlement of all. It is about shifting from a targeted welfare system to a system of universal income security. It is also about how this shift is essential to a flourishing and sustainable economy where no-one need live in poverty as millions of Australians do now.In these first parts of the chapter, Bronwyn describes the history of our attitudes to welfare in Australia and how that has caused a growth in poverty. She also begins setting out how welfare can be rearranged to play a much more productive role in the economy, stimulating sustainable growth. In Australia, we have not structured our welfare system so that it can function as well as we need it to for the purpose of sustaining our wellbeing. We have relied instead on markets, which have totally failed us. So in Part 3, Bronwyn begins to describe the structural changes we need in the Australian economy to overcome the degradation of wellbeing and the growth in inequality caused by market dysfunction and the inherent and incessant tendencies of markets to fail. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

Episode 70: Bronwyn Kelly reads Parts 11 and 12 of Chapter 4 of her latest book, The Public Interest Economy: the path to wellbeing, security and sustainable consumption in a democratised Australian economy.Chapter 4 is about how to arrange Australia’s economy in the public interest. More specifically, it’s about how Australians can take an influential role in this by using National Integrated Planning & Reporting – National IP&R – to build a long term plan for economic and resource sustainability.In Parts 1 to 5 of the chapter, Bronwyn spoke about how Australians can enter into orderly conversations in the National IP&R process that will allow them to help governments get public spending right.In Parts 6 to 8, she showed how they can do the same to get tax right.In Parts 9 and 10, she showed how we can use these conversations to establish full employment in a non-inflationary environment. This will involve building a national wellbeing industries full employment plan.In these final sections she shows how Australians can integrate long term national financial planning with the federal annual budget setting process so that we can escape economic recessions, including both those brought on by domestic and global market failures. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

Episode 69: Bronwyn Kelly reads Parts 9 and 10 of Chapter 4 of her latest book, The Public Interest Economy: the path to wellbeing, security and sustainable consumption in a democratised Australian economy.Chapter 4 is about how to arrange Australia’s economy in the public interest. More specifically, it's about how Australians can take an influential role in this by using National Integrated Planning & Reporting – National IP&R – to build a long term plan for economic and resource sustainability.In Parts 1 to 5 of the chapter, Bronwyn spoke about how Australians can enter into orderly conversations in the National IP&R process that will allow them to help governments get public spending right.In Parts 6 to 8, she showed how they can do the same to get tax right.In Parts 9 and 10, she shows how we can use these conversations to establish full employment in a non-inflationary environment. This will involve building a national wellbeing industries full employment plan.A central theme in Parts 9 and 10 is that Australians need to establish full employment in the foundational wellbeing industries of our economy before they can expect to have a thriving and profitable private sector. Prosperity for all is not possible in any economy that has not already fully secured the wellbeing and safety of its human resources. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

Episode 68: Bronwyn Kelly reads Parts 6 to 8 of Chapter 4 of her latest book, The Public Interest Economy: the path to wellbeing, security and sustainable consumption in a democratised Australian economy.Chapter 4 is about how to arrange Australia’s economy in the public interest. In parts 1 to 5, Bronwyn spoke about how Australians can take an influential role in this by using National Integrated Planning & Reporting – National IP&R – to build a long term plan for economic and resource sustainability. She showed how Australians can enter into orderly conversations in the National IP&R framework that will allow them to help governments get public spending right. In Parts 6 to 8, Bronwyn shows how they can do the same to get tax right. Australians can use conversations in National Integrated Planning & Reporting to compose the tax base so that it is fair and efficient, and so that it is likely to stabilise inflation without creating unemployment. These conversations will be essential to reduce poverty and inequality in Australia. Unless poverty and inequality are reduced, we will not be able to build an economy in which all Australians can participate and from which everyone can benefit. We will not be able to build an economy in the public interest. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com