Chapter 11: People

Table of ContenTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1 – MAKING THE BEST OF THE SYSTEM WE HAVE
CHAPTER 2 – THE CURRENT DYNAMIC IS ‘PROGRESSIVE VERSUS CONSERVATIVE’
CHAPTER 3 – OUR CURRENT PARTY STRUCTURES ARE INEFFECTIVE
CHAPTER 4 – INDEPENDENTS CAN’T FORM EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT
CHAPTER 5 – BREAKING INTO THE CARTEL
CHAPTER 6 – PATHWAYS TO SOMETHING NEW
CHAPTER 7 – A POTENT POLITICAL FORCE NEEDS PEOPLE
CHAPTER 8 – PRODUCING LEADERS
CHAPTER 9 – KEEPING IT SIMPLE
CHAPTER 10 – DRAFT ORGANISATIONAL MODEL
CHAPTER 11 – PEOPLE
APPENDIX 1 – HISTORICAL COMMENTARY ON THE TWO-PARTY SYSTEM
APPENDIX 2 – AUSTRALIAN COMMENTARY

These stories about fictional people demonstrate key aspects of the organisational model.

Betty – Star candidate

Betty has a first-class master’s degree in public administration. She has spent much of her working life in a variety of different organisational settings in both the public and private sectors. She has always given her time to the community. Betty is articulate and knows what she wants from good government. And she knows how to sell it.

All her prior learning and life experience meant that after coming to some events, becoming more involved with the organisation and joining the Development Academy, Betty has scored highly with the Assessors.

She has been picked by the Council to stand for preselection in a lower-house seat in the state where she lives, in a different electorate. There are no opportunities in the electorate where she currently lives.

If she is going to win preselection, then she has to build support from the local people in the electorate and maintain the support of the Council.

Bob – Local candidate

As a child, Bob was more of a practical mind. He was a smart, and quickly grasped new concepts, but didn’t like school much. He did, however, think a lot about how the world worked, and he was firmly guided by science and facts.

As a young man, he did an apprenticeship as a welder but spent most of his time surfing. As he got older, he became more interested in self-learning and his political thoughts developed. He was involved with a bunch of local community initiatives in his town and became active in local government.

Over the years Bob has also learned how to communicate effectively to large groups. He is a great storyteller and a charismatic speaker. People from up and down the coast come to events where he is speaking. He is good at connecting policy with people’s lives in a way that makes sense.

Bob enjoys participating in the organisation but feels he can do more. He’s put himself into the Development Academy, has completed several courses and been assessed a few times; his numbers are improving. He now knows a lot more about how the federal government works and is developing his own ideas about running it effectively.

Bob knows the competition to be selected as a Star candidate is fierce, but the preselection in his home electorate is up for grabs. It’s a genuine opportunity. In order to win preselection as a Local candidate, he needs to maintain the support of his community and be able to win votes from the Selection Council. He believes he has already secured the support of one Council member who is likely to promote him to the others.

Jill and Janet – Participants

Jill and Janet knew each other for years before they became a couple. Both were passionate about making their voices heard on the issues they cared about. They have related occupations. Jill is a nurse and Janet works in the state health department.

Life is busy—they have been through a lot of stress recently. They have been on the front line since the pandemic started. Janet has a child on the way.

They want to have a say in politics, but now is not the time to be active. A few years ago, they had more time—and in a few years, they will have more time again. But they still want to be involved in democracy and have their say. For them, the chance to vote in the primaries to select candidates for parliament and have a say in who sits on the Council is just the right level of involvement.

The process is easy to understand and participate in. They have seen the choices, read the Assessor Reports on the candidates and understand a little about the people standing. Jill likes the Star candidate the Council has put into the preselection; she thinks we need high-achieving people in government. Janet, on the other hand, prefers a Local in the race. She knows him; he is clever and comes up with interesting ideas. She knows he would be good in parliament.

Jill and Janet both enjoy being part of a major political party that is functional and open. Most of their friends participate and vote in the primaries and to elect the Council as well. They know that being part of this organisation is the best chance they have to contribute to a good life for themselves, their future family and the whole country. They both believe in it and feel a new sense of optimism. ‘We can do this!’

Michael – Council Member

Michael is an Australian ex-prime minister.

He never really got on with the party he was leading. He was never part of the tribe. He always had a strong belief in building a better Australia. He is a modern progressive. He knew the party wasn’t in the best shape when he first joined it. But the other side was even less attractive.

He understands that party politics is one of the compromises of living in a democracy. Now he is largely estranged from his former party. There is no love lost on either side.

But he still has significant support in the general population. His passion has never waned, and he still believes in putting all his energy into fighting the good fight for the interests of the country. The media landscape is horrible, by the way.

The new organisation is great for Michael. He’s on the Council and is helping make meaningful choices. He is not on the outside anymore, looking frustrated at all the dysfunctions. He is part of the solution. He could see that a modern, open organisation with functional systems was a better way.

He is helping to shape the party platform and has a vote on who the Council selects to stand in parliaments. He has been surprised at the quality of the talent that has stepped forward when there are clear and open processes. It also means that he’s dealing with people who may have been his political opponents in the past; they now find themselves together on the right side of history. Michael is enjoying politics again.

Flick – Party Spokesperson

Flick is the person who is just happy to help. She enjoys being involved in decision-making and communicating in big groups. She has volunteered for heaps of organisations and stood for election dozens of times. When she wins, she does a good job and puts in the work.

Back in the day, it had been fun to think up the ideas for her campaign for school captain for Year 10. At uni she had been in one of the political clubs, was a student rep and sat on the union board. Public speaking had come a bit more slowly. She had actually been born with a slight stutter. But by the time she was a young adult, no one could tell. She stuttered deliberately sometimes now just so people would see she had a flaw.

Flick could do a fantastic job as a Spokesperson. She knows all the things she wants to talk about. She also understands the formalities. It would mean traveling to most parts of the country and talking a lot. She understands that the purpose of the role is not to be just another politician, but to be an advocate for the future progress of Australia.

Craig – Participant

Craig doesn’t like politicians much, but he’s not an idiot. He knows that politics must exist for there to be a functioning society and democracy; he has a sense of what it means to be a citizen. He also knows people who have disappeared down conspiracy-theory rabbit holes.

Craig did an apprenticeship. He had the full advantages of the award wages system and support when he was coming up. He is not aware of the time before the industrial relations system existed. He has spent about half his career working for others in big companies and small business and about half working on his own.

He is doing okay; he knows he has a good life and is not in too much debt. He does think about the future and what it is going to be like for his children. He can see climate change is a big problem—he does respect the science—but he knows a lot of people who don’t give it much thought. He’s seen what bushfires can do; he’s a volunteer with his local brigade. He knows the fires aren’t going to get any better…

Craig has never belonged to a political party; he’s never really thought about joining one. But he’s starting to find the country’s lack of general direction alarming. He’s learned about how the organisation works and how to participate. It wasn’t hard. It didn’t cost anything. He hasn’t donated any money yet, but would if the right moment came.

Leroy – Participant and Donor

Leroy is a spectacularly successful and talented Australian tech entrepreneur. His company is a pioneer in its field, and knows a thing or two about working collaboratively. Its valuation on the US stock market has made Leroy rich by global standards, and especially for Australia.

The organisation gave Leroy a great opportunity to give back to his country and he knew it. He was passionate about renewable energy projects.

When it came to politics, the landscape had been looking bleak. Leroy had given money to candidates across the board from different parties and independents who had a strong climate-change agenda. He quickly grasped that a modern progressive organisation that made the best of the political system was the way to go. As Leroy often says, ‘Better teams mean better outcomes.’

Nigel – Participant

Nigel came to Australia with his family at age 10. There had been a few ugly incidents growing up as an ethnic child, but mostly he feels he’s had a great life here. He has received a great public education and was the first in his family to go to uni.

Nigel started a services business about 15 years ago. It is doing well, and now has about 20 employees. He remembers when he first started making money. He used to complain about how he was getting ‘robbed’ by all the taxes and government charges. All this money was coming into the bank account, but it always seemed to go back out again. He’d naturally supported reductions in company tax rates over the years. Now, he finds he makes at least three to five times more than any of his employees each year.

The Black Summer bushfires were a wake-up call and COVID-19 was Nigel’s turning point. The fires made him reconsider what is important, and living in the post-pandemic world gave him time to pause and reflect. His business had received hundreds of thousands of dollars in government support during the pandemic.

He now understands that the challenges Australia is facing can only be dealt with together and not as individuals, which is why he signed up to participate in the organisation.

Rachel – Parliamentarian

a razor-sharp mind. She had been a senior member of the Labor shadow ministry for some time and a minister before that.

Rachel came to the organisation with an intensely personal perspective on federal politics, having ridden the waves of the previous decade’s election campaigns. She was often seen travelling with the leader throughout the campaign and appearing on the election panel of the state broadcaster on the night itself, maintaining perfect composure as the results came in. She had inherited the informal role of ‘Inquisitor General’, which had evolved over the last 25 years of mostly conservative rule, using the Senate and its committees to ‘keep the bastards honest’.

Rachel had never had much in common with traditional Labor history and mythology. She had no illusions when she started in the ALP with the help of close friends. She had read the party history and experienced the same double take as many contemporary Australians when she read its first platform from 1901. She understood that political parties had to evolve and reflect the times and was aware that in the ALP, this evolution had stalled.

Vicky & Lynn – Participants

Vicky and Lynn don’t know each other, but are both from political families. They were born into it and are proud to continue the tradition. Vicky is from a rural family with socialist roots, and she remembers going along to ALP meetings as a small child. Lynn was from a middle-class family and grew up in the city. Her father introduced her to the Liberal Party when she was in high school.

Both women are dutiful, model citizens who have belonged to their respective parties for about 50 years. They have served their local branches in a variety of different positions and held offices such as president. secretary, and treasurer at different times. For them, being involved has been a normal part of democracy. They both generally believe you have to work for a good society and put your own time and money into it.

When the children moved out, back in the 90s, they had found space to set up a new computer and a filing cabinet. They both had the names and numbers of all the main people in the local party tacked to their walls for decades. Vicky had 30 years of dusty old campaign posters in a corner of the garage; Lynn had a draw full of campaign mementos of similar vintage. Both have a collection of classic political badges from the 70s and 80s. Recently, they have been astounded at the state of their respective parties.

Vicky and Lynn find themselves on the same side of most arguments these days, since getting involved with the new organisation. One thing they definitely agree on is that neither the children nor the grandchildren are interested in the ways of the old parties.

Vincent – Council Member

party. Along with all his colleagues and friends, he had been turned off by the state of the two main parties. Their views could be summed up as ‘a pox on both of their houses’.

Vincent felt the Liberals had turned into a version of warped conservatism that was reactionary and evidence denying, destroying the nation rather than building it. Labor was closed, inaccessible and going nowhere—a 130-year-old movement and its decaying organisation that had lost any relevance to their lives.

Vincent knew what he was up against when he started. He’d read all the histories of the different minor parties. It was hard to go against the system. But what choice was there? The system was not working. Those old parties didn’t reflect reality.

When Vincent became involved with the new organisation, its structure was a blessing. He was basically able to transfer most of his people and their energy into the new open and modern organisational structure. Vincent’s attraction to the new organisational model was based on rational thinking and logic.

Bill Blue – Council member

When the global Green movement took off around the world in the 80s, Bill became the Australian face of it. Half the criticism he copped in those days had nothing to do with his politics, but not even the most bigoted forestry worker in Tasmania had called him a coward.

He remembered the early talks with the European Greens politicians—those brief awkward silences when the subject of the Australian political system came up. Needless to say, he was an advocate of proportional representation.

Fast forward to the 2020s and it was good to see the Greens do so well in the proportional state government systems, especially in Tasmania and the ACT. The party had done well in the Senate, basically replacing the Democrats, but the lower house was a tough nut to crack.

Initially Bill didn’t know what to really think about a new organisational model. How could people be expected to give up all the years of work they had put into building the Greens?

But the idea of a modern organisation intrigued him. The two-party system wasn’t going anywhere. The new organisation allowed for smaller factions to grow and develop. Maybe by 2060, environmentalists would be the most influential progressive faction!

Heather – Parliamentarian

Heather was a Senator from a relatively large minor party. She had spent much of her time on the political frontline, standing up against the crazies and bigots. As a woman in the political arena for over a decade, the attacks were often personal. But she was tough; as Katy Perry sings, ‘A tiger don’t lose no sleep, don’t need opinions from a shellfish or a sheep’.

In the time Heather had belonged to it, the party had divided into two factions. Both had strong environmental values. One group, sometimes called the ‘Watermelons’, had an old-fashioned socialist outlook. The other group had a collection of modern, mainstream progressive views. The second group was better suited to working within a party of government than the first. With the appearance of a new organisational model this was apparent. It became a critical issue.

Heather had observed that in contemporary politics, progressives across the parties often agreed on what they were against—like Australia’s lack of action of climate change or the manipulation of democracy by malignant media companies. It was clear that the existing parties, both major and minor, were from yesterday’s world.

Jess – Participant

Jess recently turned 18 and registered to be a participant in the organisation around the same time that she registered to vote.

Like many of her friends, Jess experienced anxiety about climate change growing up. She had started to understand and think about the science pretty early on. She was a Greta Thunberg fan and went to all the School Strike for Climate rallies. She’s also been to a few Extinction Rebellion protests.

Jess knows there are a broad range of people and views in the organisation. Everyone is keen for action on climate change—and we need to move forward together. She gets how the political system works and how the organisation was set up to make the best of it. It’s easy for lots of people to join and participate in, with a system to produce leaders from a big talent pool.

Jess knows people don’t all want to move forward at the same pace, and she feels this is the best way to achieve positive change and consistently have progressive governments in her lifetime.

Wally – Future Candidate

Wally had just completed an international relations degree and was about to start another one in engineering. He liked doing physical work and using his brain. Where would Wally be in 10 years? He had lots of options. Wally’s world was full of opportunities.

All the renewable energy and hydrogen production projects in inland Australia were intriguing. There is a lot of infrastructure that will have to be built. Everywhere he turned there were sliding doors that Wally could walk through.

Wally had grown up in a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation. He had also thought about politics. He liked the idea of working for himself, but he also liked the idea of working for the country. And he had been gifted with a sprinkle of charisma. Wally was a natural leader.

The new organisation, with its clear and open process, meant this would continue to be an option throughout his career. He would not have to make a choice now. It wasn’t about doing your time in the party, demonstrating your loyalty to a faction, or navigating mysterious networks of power and privilege. There was nothing tribal about it.

It also made sense from the point of view of society, as a vehicle for change. A clear and open process to get the country’s top performers across many fields into parliaments was a logical and rational approach. In the 21st century, this is the only way to go. If you don’t have the tools, you can’t do the job.

Jenny – Former CEO of Stand Up!!

Stand Up!! was a grass-roots campaigning organisation that had burst onto the scene with a breath of fresh air and a bright flash of colour-coordinated humanity. It spoke to the bulk of progressive Australians about shared beliefs for the future and important issues. It was about these shared beliefs and not about if people identified with a particular political party, group, or tribe.

Part of the reason Stand Up!! worked so well was that it filled a need. People wanted to be involved in the progressive side of politics, but they did not want to be involved with the existing political parties. It had been filling a space that the political parties couldn’t. Stand Up!! was able to reach a broader cross-section of the community than the Greens, and Labor wasn’t a bright beacon to anyone anymore.

Stand Up!! reflected the new forms of political participation. It was easy to join and be part of. It was arguably the largest force by the numbers on the progressive side of politics. It also wasn’t messy like actually being a member of one of the parties. But its role had become more muddled over time. If you are campaigning in an election campaign, but you’re not actually a political party, then what are you there for?

Jenny remembers the staff laughing at the office about one election-day story. Three generations of one family working at the same election booth: the grandma for Labor, the mother for the Greens and the grandson for Stand Up!! The mother had given up on Labor and joined the Greens years ago. The grandson felt more comfortable campaigning for Stand Up!! It was sort of funny, Jenny thought, but also sort of not.

Jenny and some of her staff realised that with the new organisation, the era of Stand Up!! would be over. But that was a good thing. They had helped provide a pathway forward. They and their supporters can now use their skills and energy to help progressive people find common ground within the new organisation.