Governments routinely ignore expert advice and community lobbying. Caroline Fitzwarryne argues that Australians must organise, draft reforms and lead practical projects themselves, rather than waiting for politicians to act.

The article in P&I on 10 December _Governments are hiding data and threatening democracy_ is a wake up call. When governments prevent the production or release of data, communities need to rise up and produce it themselves, so proper planning and implementation of services can occur.  Well done Brazil – you did it very successfully with COVID data!

There have been many attempts to lobby government to change or introduce policies. For example, the Australian War Powers Reform lobbied government for decisions on wars to be taken by Parliament.  Despite the Senate agreeing to it, Cabinet rejected the change. Similarly Gambling Reform was agreed in the Senate but rejected by Cabinet.

We have to accept that Australia has a neo-liberal Labor government whose priority is to win the next election, not to implement the priorities of the people.

The article by Allan Patience on constitutional reform is yet another about which academics, retired senior public servants, and eminent service delivery, independent media and community leaders have lobbied government to no avail. The good effects from lobbying are few and far between.  There is some small benefit from petitions, letters to MPs and physical demonstrations, but the opposition from mainstream media and wealthy fossil fuel and business lobbyists can undermine success.

More and more activists are realising they have to get out there and do things to help move things in the right direction. Ross Garnaut and Rod Sims have done this – they set up a company to directly move renewables in the right direction. Many people at the community level are growing their own food, getting involved in local community recycling, buying local sustainable goods, reducing material possessions and having input to local planning. But more is needed.

The Brazil project is one I believe Australia should emulate. Instead of all our clever people lobbying government we should set up groups of informed citizens to drive projects which will implement required changes. Many of us are retired or semi-retired and can do this work voluntarily. I suggest people with a passion for change in certain areas put out requests through P&I for others with the same burning concerns to join with them to implement changes.

For example, regarding constitutional change I have experience in health and community services in Australia, and also in development aid, which I could contribute to a group drafting a changed constitution. We could then share it widely in the community, discuss it with them and request their input. Hopefully this would enable citizens to rise up and demand the changes. Letting Government do it and then put it to a Referendum would not work. The people have to rise up and demand changes.

I have real concerns about community services (aged care, disability services, childcare) being provided by private companies, and also by some NGOs who charge the same as private services and then direct the profit to other activities within their organisation. Such services should be provided cheaply and government controlled (the NHS in the UK – which I worked in years ago – still runs such services effectively, although they have stuffed up in contracting out some hospitals to private companies).

There is much argument as to what services should be run by the federal government and what by the states. I was horrified in the early 80s when I moved from state health services to the commonwealth to see that there were very few health workers in the bureaucracy. This has improved over the years, but as most of the service delivery experience is at state level, I believe a co-run health service is the answer – the duplication between the three levels of government is very wasteful, and the segregation of responsibility results in huge cost-shifting.

What can be drafted in the constitution, and what is required to enable the statements to be workable are different. There must be statements on changes required to processes to give effect to what is drafted for the Constitution. We need to refer to the ideal, as Allan Patience stated, of moving to regional health authorities which amalgamate local and state functions (as in ACT) under the federal system, and provide a mechanism to move in that direction. Such complex issues will need to be workshopped extensively by experts and consumers for some time.

The constitution draft will also need to look extensively at the wording used in Scandinavian and European countries where wealth taxes are used to provide free services. Education from childcare to university is provided free in many countries which results in better equality than our private/public system. Also Portugal has effectively implemented a harm reduction approach to drugs. There are so many effective programs around the world which need to be examined by such a constitutional drafting group to ensure Australia moves in the right direction.