What would your 75 ideas to “reshape the political culture” be?

“Inspired” by the Institute of Public Affairs’ 75 Radical Ideas to Transform Australia, Ben Eltham has made his own list of ideas that would make Australia a more progressive and fairer place.

It is actually a really good exercise to try. Quite often those on the progressive side of politics know what they oppose but find it much harder to articulate what they want. By jotting down your ideas, you get a sense of what your own policy programme would look like and what you would prioritise.

I started writing my own quick list of “radical ideas” in response when the IPA first released their piece. My 75 ideas were: 

1. Abolish stamp duty and have a state-based land value tax to help fund public infrastructure and services
2. Introduce a Progressive Estate Tax
3. Abolish negative gearing
4. Eliminate the childcare rebate and introduce universal early childhood education
5. Increase the Medicare levy to fund universal dental care
6. Eliminate the private health insurance rebate
7. Make all income tax returns public
8. Abolish the Senate & Upper Houses and introduce Hare-Clarke into Lower Houses in all Parliaments (where it does not already exist)
9. Give employees co-determination over their workplace
10. Introduce employee and consumer elected representatives onto Boards of State Owned Enterprises
11. Make study leave a legislated right
12. End mandatory detention and offshore processing
13. End superannuation tax concessions for the wealthy
14. End the funding of private schools and reinvest funds into public education
15. Roll back copyright and intellectual property and only allow it in limited circumstances
16. Legislate for at least six weeks annual leave
17. Remove restrictions on secondary boycotts
18. Legalise industrial action outside of bargaining periods and on non-industrial issues
19. Make May Day, Eureka Day and Federation Day public holidays
20. Allow optional voting from age 16
21. Mandate the use of participatory and deliberative mechanisms in policy making
22. Make TAFE and university education free
23. Abolish the states & local councils and introduce regional and city government in its place
24. Introduce a Robin Hood tax
25. Introduce super profits tax on all mining companies and banks
26. Introduce a Constitutional Bill of Rights
27. Become a Republic with the Irish Presidential model
28. Rewrite the Constitution to clearly delineate the division of powers between the Commonwealth and lower tier governments
29. End the Northern Territory Intervention
30. End compulsory welfare quarantining
31. Sign a Treaty with the first Australians
32. Introduce laws that stop media concentration and ensure media pluralism
33. Introduce portable bank accounts
34. Establish a new government-owned bank
35. Introduce an Equality Act that incorporates all anti-discrimination legislation with a new strategic duty to reduce socioeconomic inequality, provision for equal pay audits and protection against dual discrimination
36. Introduce congestion charges in CBDs with all revenue reinvested in public transport
37. Restore indexation of fuel excise
38. Getting utilities to embrace decoupling and incentivise retrofitting to improve energy and water efficiency
39. Close the gap between corporate tax and top marginal income tax
40. Reform capital gains tax by eliminating the 50% discount
41. Abolish the baby bonus
42. Create a single welfare payment with increased top-up payments based on individual circumstances
43. Return employment services to the Commonwealth Government
44. Strengthen privacy laws to ensure individuals control their own information & it cannot be a condition of use by corporations for products
45. Expand the number of Commonwealth supported postgraduate places to make it more accessible
46. Subsidise the part-time learning of foreign languages for adults
47. Make it a right to request family friendly flexible work hours
48. Remove restrictions on union bargaining fees and union shops
49. Legislated rights for union delegates
50. Make public transport free
51. Campaign finance reform that allows participation of non-individual entities but does not allow the dominance of money
52. Create a National Investment Bank
53. Introduce a portable leave bank for all workers (personal, long service and holiday)
54. Automatic and election day enrolment
55. Elimination of fees to run for elections and lowering the number of party members required for political party registration
56. Increase International aid to 0.7% GNI
57. End the mining and export of uranium
58. Legislate to clearly define casual employment and ensure there is a pathway to permanent employment for those in casual and part-time positions
59. Extend the paid maternity leave scheme to cover give both parents equal paid leave for 52 weeks
60. Return all monopoly infrastructure (e.g. poles and wires, water) to public ownership
61. Link public funding of political parties to public transparency and enforceable internal democratic procedures
62. Abolition of the efficiency dividend
63. Make flextime the norm for all employees
64. Remove the exemptions for religious organisations from anti-discrimination legislation
65. Immediately legislate for marriage equality 
66. Allow non-binding intiative and referendum
67. Remove the requirement of where the national capital must be from the Constitution
68. Supporting the creation of an international public ratings agency
69. Creating a Chief Social Scientist position
70. Give the Commonwealth Government sole power over water
71. End the commercialisation of SBS
72. Legislating for living wages
73. Strengthening the rights of tenants
74. Introduce pre-committment restrictions on gambling
75. Give the Fair Work Commission the power to compulsorily arbitrate, not just concilliate, where agreements cannot be reached during enterprise bargaining negotiations

Thoughts and comments are more than welcome. 

You should try writing your own list too.

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