For some time Local Government, through its peak body the Australian Local Government Association, has been arguing that it is best placed to bring hands on experience from the coal face to national forums on a range of social, economic, environmental and cultural issues. This is particularly the case where rapid changes brought about by global pressures are hurting certain individuals and communities.
Speakers at the recent The Age Vision 21 Seminar agreed that globalisation is producing winners and losers, both at home and abroad. In spite of the view that globalisation is to some extent reducing the influence of central governments, they asserted the Commonwealth Government has a vital role to play in finding a balance between making the most of opportunities globalisation presents and, at the same time, protecting those disadvantaged.
Some 1,200 people attended this Seminar, the third in a series that is bringing together panels of eminent speakers to discuss specific key issues confronting Australia as we move into the next millennium. On this occasion speakers included former Prime Minister Paul Keating, Deputy Leader of the Australian Democrats Senator Natasha Stott Despoja, Professor Geoffrey Blainey, then US Consul General Tex Harris and founder of Mushroom Records Michael Gudinski.
Now over three years since his retirement from Parliamentary life, there was no doubt a large number of participants at the Globalisation Seminar had come to hear Paul Keating’s view on this issue. Acclamation both before and after his address indicated he had not let them down.
Globalisation and openness, he said, is not something we need to be defensive about or fear. He believes it has given Australia far more than it has taken from us. More people will be better off than ever before but, he added, which people and how they will compare to others will be determined by governments and good public policy.
Paul Keating said that within Australia globalisation has clearly left some people worse off. Understandably, its victims resent what has happened, blaming globalisation for the loss of jobs or the loss of ways of life.
He said in resolving these conflicting pressures, the primary role of government in responding to the centralising and homogenising pressures of globalisation will be the preservation of diversity. Whether governments are dealing with environmental, economic, social or cultural issues, Paul Keating believes they will increasingly have to see themselves as custodians of the system’s diversity.
Senator Stott Despoja agreed. She said while globalisation promises greater communication, interaction and production, simultaneously it poses a threat to the planet’s most fundamental asset, its diversity.
On the issue of winners and losers, the Senator believes that Australia is in the middle of two extremes, likely to gain as it positions itself as the financial and service centre of the Asian region, while in other areas, and particularly so with trade, there is a growing sense among Australians that globalisation has moved too far and too fast leaving this nation vulnerable.
Most Australians, she asserted, still expect government to develop policies that deliver economic prosperity and provide for the vulnerable and disadvantaged. Joining the global race to the bottom, she rightly warns, will achieve neither.
Each day global markets are now moving the equivalent of the USA’s annual budget ($US1.3 trillion). Therefore, globalisation will continue to be a major part of our lives as we move into the 21st century.
The Commonwealth Government must ensure that the benefits to be gained are shared equitably across the nation, particularly from region to region. It must also be prepared to assist those adversely affected by the rapid changes inherent in increasing globalisation.
To ensure it is making the right policy decisions to minimise a winners and losers scenario, close liaison with and involvement of Local Government in peak decision making forums is vital. Being closest to the community, Local Government is best placed to identify areas affected adversely, while at the same time, through facilitating economic and community development initiatives, it is best situated to promote the benefits globalisation can deliver to communities, if managed proactively.
