The Council for the Human Future and the Club of Rome have stated clearly that solutions to the inter-related world problems mainly exist. The problem is the political will and business leadership is not there to implement them. This will not eventuate without strong demand from the general population.
I like the idea of Nicholas Gruen from Lateral Economics, which is to set up a People’s Assembly to decide on policies, independent of government. The people then need to influence the general population who in turn can demand change of government and business. Once there is a groundswell of a demanding public, change will happen.
But influencing the general public is not easy. There is a big difference between awareness raising of the general population and behaviour change strategies among target populations using local networks (as shown in AIDS programs where the approach was to work collaboratively with gay and drug user groups). Awareness raising requires getting their attention, often through scare tactics, so they will demand change.
Specialist Advertising agencies can develop promotional messages. Some possible examples of messages we could put out there with their help and the support of millionaires, philanthropists and crowd funding are:
- Education: A dramatic message showing two scenarios – one a child in a wealthy private school, and another in a government school, with a voice over showing the government subsidies for the former and how outraged parents should be that the government does not give that money to their kids’ schools, and how they should demand change.
- Medicare: A pic of a patient in a ward in a private hospital and another showing a bursting-at-the seams waiting room of a bulk-billing GP, with a voice over saying how the Government is keeping private health insurance alive through tax-time subsidies and low payments to GPs, much lower than tradies call-out rates, and how they should demand no subsidies for private health and that the money be used in the public system.
- Aged Care: A pic of an elderly person in a room in a private aged care home, another showing one in a government-run home, and another showing a nurse visiting an elderly person in their home. The voice over would say, why should aged care providers make a profit from government subsidies – all the money for aged care provided by government should go to direct care and government and NGO facilities are the best. It is even better to be able to stay at home with support – get rid of the costly management level for home packages and let the community nurse assess the need directly.
- Defence and Security: A pic of a North Australian US-run defence facility, and another of a humanitarian program run by the Australian Aid Program to protect against climate devastation in a nearby country. Voice over would say, with action on climate change and reduction of fossil fuels on go slow in Australia we must expect a dramatic increase of refugees from climate devastated countries to head for wealthy countries like Australia. What good are expensive submarines and facilities in North Australia when the real need is to provide more humanitarian aid to protect neighbouring countries from climate devastation so they can stay at home, and to stop sending fossil fuels overseas which makes the problem worse.
- Housing: A pic of McMansions owned by politicians and another of poorly-maintained government social housing. Voice over would say, interest rate rises make houses more expensive to buy, and government subsidies through negative gearing and imputation credits mean new houses will be bought by investors not young families. We need to demand cessation of subsidies, the building of a huge number of government owned social houses built for rental, and capital gains doubled so houses are not passed on to descendants. We need houses for people to live in.
- Unemployment Benefits: Pic of parents doing two or three low paid jobs each to support their family, and another of a young person loving his apprenticeship. Voice over would say that most people love to work in a job they like as it enhances self-esteem. Having no job can lead to despair and suicide. Means testing for benefits costs a lot of time, money and stress. Government should put support for people before screwing them with schemes like Robodebt. Providing a basic universal wage to all whether they work or not reduces costs and misery, and it is what a caring community should do.
There are many alternative messages people can demand. This is just a flavour. But we need to get a move on in trying to raise the awareness of the general public as to how they can save their families, their communities and their world. Self-interest is important but at the level of people not money and power.
Caroline Fitzwarryne
Caroline Fitzwarryne has a background in public health and community development. She has worked at all three levels of government (from fieldworker to senior executive), as CEO of a national NGO, as Adjunct Associate Professor, and as development aid worker in 13 countries.
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