Jim Chalmers keeps telling us we need a national conversation. The doctor’s order is for it to be on tax – and he’s quite right.
But we also need to talk about a few other things.
Tax might be top of mind because, unless inflation erodes the meaning of $1 trillion in debt, or the new government breaks its promises and takes a razor to government spending, collecting more of it is the only antidote to more of our budget being consumed by interest payments.
But there are other things to talk about.
We need to talk about energy – both its use and cost.
We need to talk about mental health – the cause of its decline and our response.
We need to talk about reconciliation – for a better and broader understanding of what has happened and how to right past injustices.
Let’s keep going: We need to talk about regional Australia and how to reverse its decline.
We need to talk about education and why we keep slipping behind other national outcomes in all key indicators.
We need to talk about ageing and what sort of society we will be in 20 years when we have more people aged over 80 than under 16.
And we need to talk about our place in the world – how do we balance our historical relationships with the declining English-speaking powers of Britain and the US, the rapidly rising and bullying power of China and the emerging power of India.
Big problems need big solutions
Then there’s the rise of technology, its still-emerging impact on jobs, its mind-sapping impact on how we think, its risks to our privacy and the opportunities it offers but remain unrealised.
And you can be sure some other crisis will emerge along the way.
If not another pandemic, it will be more natural disasters or a financial shock. (And any financial market as volatile as the current equities market is primed for a setback, but the results of the US midterms next week will tell us more about that.)
Phew – as the ubiquitous word game Wordle tells us when we find the right word at the last attempt. Who would be in politics or government at the moment?
Well, to flip the question: Who wouldn’t be? Big problems need big solutions and they need big minds with big imaginations. And what politician doesn’t believe they fit that bill?
So let’s see how they measure up. And how we measure up in holding them to account.
It’s fitting that the Treasurer used the term ‘conversation’ – not a shouting match or a lecture but, hopefully a civilised conversation about some or all of these matters. And bear in mind that talk is cheap. Outcomes are what matter.
Where to start?
But the starting point is what to talk about. Because right now, our nation can’t seem to find any common starting points about our priorities.
For example, some of us look at corporations stepping up more to their social responsibilities and say thank goodness for that.
Others dismiss it as “wokeness” and an assault on retiree incomes.
Some of us are perplexed by the priority put on individual identity over social cohesion. Others applaud it as finally beginning to accept diversity.
And what’s lacking most in this is a common language.
In a country that can’t agree on rail gauges, standard regulations between states or even the time, we are also struggling to find a common means to thrash out these issues.
This doesn’t bode well for a conversation. But it’s worth a try.
Three years ago, I wrote a book called Has The Luck Run Out? And my conclusion was not yet but we’ve got to watch it. And we still have to.
A conversation will help – but that means listening as well as talking. And then acting, with little time to waste.
David Fagan is an author, media consultant, company director and former editor and editor-in-chief of The Courier-Mail.
The article first appeared in InQueensland. Read the original here.
