Respected leaders – panel discussion
L–R: Adrian Dwyer, Alan Stockdale AO, Tony Shepherd AO, Sir Bill English and Dr Kerry Schott AO
Respected leaders Key points: • • •
national leadership and sound policy are essential to micro-economic reform politicians need to treat the public with respect and understand that trust is a finite commodity, and the asset recycling programme provides a benchmark for explaining reform.
Panellists: ►► Rt Hon Sir Bill English, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand ►► Dr Kerry Schott AO, Patron, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia ►► Tony Shepherd AO, Patron, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia ►► Hon Alan Stockdale AO, Former Victorian Treasurer, Non-Executive Director
Moderator ►► Adrian Dwyer, Chief Executive Officer, Infrastructure Partnerships Australia
Adrian Dwyer (AD): We see survey after survey in Australia saying that trust is declining in institutions and in government. Does it matter that trust is declining? Can we get reform done without trust?
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futurebuilding
Tony Shepherd AO (TS): There’s no doubt that the surveys are accurate. Trust is declining and there are many causes of that. Frequent political leadership changes do nothing for creating trust and a feeling of confidence in the political system. Social media has turbo-charged criticism and has tended to oversimplify the policy debate. But there’s been a lack of leadership, too. The courage of the 1980s, 90s and 2000s saw big things done, like serious economic reform and the introduction of a GST. That courage and capacity to get out there and bring the community with you by actively selling quite difficult policies that are not popular with the community seems to be missing. It is lacking in the current environment, and that is the challenge for our political leaders. By the way, that’s a bipartisan comment. Alan Stockdale AO (AS): Currently, I think Australia is virtually ungovernable. For a long time, the Senate has been destructive of good government and good policy, and that hasn’t improved. I think New Zealand, Germany and a whole lot of other places have rules that unless you get five per
