“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:
- Abolish stamp duty and have a state-based land value tax to help fund public infrastructure and services
- Introduce a Progressive Estate Tax
- Abolish negative gearing
- Eliminate the childcare rebate and introduce universal early childhood education
- Increase the Medicare levy to fund universal dental care
- Eliminate the private health insurance rebate
- Make all income tax returns public
- Abolish the Senate & Upper Houses and introduce Hare-Clarke into Lower Houses in all Parliaments (where it does not already exist)
- Give employees co-determination over their workplace
- Introduce employee and consumer elected representatives onto Boards of State Owned Enterprises
- Make study leave a legislated right
- End mandatory detention and offshore processing
- End superannuation tax concessions for the wealthy
- End the funding of private schools and reinvest funds into public education
- Roll back copyright and intellectual property and only allow it in limited circumstances
- Legislate for at least six weeks annual leave
- Remove restrictions on secondary boycotts
- Legalise industrial action outside of bargaining periods and on non-industrial issues
- Make May Day, Eureka Day and Federation Day public holidays
- Allow optional voting from age 16
- Mandate the use of participatory and deliberative mechanisms in policy making
- Make TAFE and university education free
- Abolish the states & local councils and introduce regional and city government in its place
- Introduce a Robin Hood tax
- Introduce super profits tax on all mining companies and banks
- Introduce a Constitutional Bill of Rights
- Become a Republic with the Irish Presidential model
- Rewrite the Constitution to clearly delineate the division of powers between the Commonwealth and lower tier governments
- End the Northern Territory Intervention
- End compulsory welfare quarantining
- Sign a Treaty with the first Australians
- Introduce laws that stop media concentration and ensure media pluralism
- Introduce portable bank accounts
- Establish a new government-owned bank
- 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
- Introduce congestion charges in CBDs with all revenue reinvested in public transport
- Restore indexation of fuel excise
- Getting utilities to embrace decoupling and incentivise retrofitting to improve energy and water efficiency
- Close the gap between corporate tax and top marginal income tax
- Reform capital gains tax by eliminating the 50% discount
- Abolish the baby bonus
- Create a single welfare payment with increased top-up payments based on individual circumstances
- Return employment services to the Commonwealth Government
- Strengthen privacy laws to ensure individuals control their own information & it cannot be a condition of use by corporations for products
- Expand the number of Commonwealth supported postgraduate places to make it more accessible
- Subsidise the part-time learning of foreign languages for adults
- Make it a right to request family friendly flexible work hours
- Remove restrictions on union bargaining fees and union shops
- Legislated rights for union delegates
- Make public transport free
- Campaign finance reform that allows participation of non-individual entities but does not allow the dominance of money
- Create a National Investment Bank
- Introduce a portable leave bank for all workers (personal, long service and holiday)
- Automatic and election day enrolment
- Elimination of fees to run for elections and lowering the number of party members required for political party registration
- Increase International aid to 0.7% GNI
- End the mining and export of uranium
- Legislate to clearly define casual employment and ensure there is a pathway to permanent employment for those in casual and part-time positions
- Extend the paid maternity leave scheme to cover give both parents equal paid leave for 52 weeks
- Return all monopoly infrastructure (e.g. poles and wires, water) to public ownership
- Link public funding of political parties to public transparency and enforceable internal democratic procedures
- Abolition of the efficiency dividend
- Make flextime the norm for all employees
- Remove the exemptions for religious organisations from anti-discrimination legislation
- Immediately legislate for marriage equality
- Allow non-binding intiative and referendum
- Remove the requirement of where the national capital must be from the Constitution
- Supporting the creation of an international public ratings agency
- Creating a Chief Social Scientist position
- Give the Commonwealth Government sole power over water
- End the commercialisation of SBS
- Legislating for living wages
- Strengthening the rights of tenants
- Introduce pre-committment restrictions on gambling
- 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.
Number 15 would ruin many graphic designers and web firms in this country