Phillip Adams, renowned journalist and Chair of the Australia Day Council, said that every international and global problem comes home to roost exactly where you live.
“This is why Local Government is so important,” he said. “Globalism generates localism.”
He believes that referring to Local Government as the ‘third’ tier of government is simply wrong. The map should be turned up the other way, with Local Government at the top. Phillip Adams added that a major challenge facing Councils is to persuade the community to take the same view, that Local Government is most important.
“Whatever the issue, global, national or regional, it needs to be dealt with at the local level,” he said.
Wherever people live, even in his own small town 300 kilometres north of Sydney, there is no escape from the problems of drug abuse, environmental degradation, selfish use of dwindling resources, unemployment and the like.
In moving towards the celebration of our centenary, Phillip Adams said that most people when asked the question, ‘what makes them proud to be Australian?’ first point to our magnificent landscape and then to our support of fair play and tolerance.
Pointing to the irony that this nation was originally built on exclusion, today with over 120 different spoken languages, Australia is a remarkable experiment in democracy.
“People know what has to be done, that, as a mosaic of small tiles, reconciliation can work” he said. “However, the only way to make it work is from the ground up not top down. Top down government does not work.”
Phillip Adams told delegates that their job is not simply to be efficient.
“Your job as leaders in the community is to encourage people to participate,” he said. “The future of Australia depends on this.”
