Op/Ed: Turning dollars into change

Turning dollars into change 29 May 2017

By Kym Goodes, CEO, TasCOSS Money on its own doesn’t change everything. Long-term vision, new ideas and people change things.

So while the largesse of this past week’s State Budget, especially in the areas of Out of Home Care and connecting Tasmanians with jobs is welcomed, it’s really what comes next that matters most.

And what comes next isn’t just the State Election—that is a mechanism of democracy that supports new thinking and offers opportunities for voices to be heard. But in amongst the announcements from the State Budget and the noise of a pending election comes the hard work.

Turning dollars into change. Real and meaningful change in the daily lives of those who need it most.

Turning the quantity of the investment into quality outcomes for the people that matter – Tasmanians.

The intent of this budget is right. It provides an opportunity, through investment, to shift our State’s approach to children, families and communities that have been doing it tough for years: battling entrenched issues that have disconnected so many of our friends, family and neighbours from taking part in Tasmania’s current economic upswing.

But to be successful in this, we must raise our expectations. We have let our expectations be eroded over many years and we have become used to accepting that these Tasmanian problems of inequality and disadvantage are intractable. So much so, that when there are budget initiatives and investment towards addressing them, they can be met more with cynicism than optimism.

We must raise our expectations, and the first and most obvious is our expectations on government to go beyond the announcements and ensure the implementation is given the same level of attention as the announcement.

We must raise our expectation to be able to move beyond treating the symptoms of these long term issues and being brave enough to name up and tackle the cause. That is hard, there is no quick win announcement or short term political gain. And beyond the expectations on government, we need to raise our expectations on the role we all play, in the community sector, business and industry and government in ensuring wise investment of the public monies allocated through the budget process.

What we need to do is stay accountable and keep our expectations high for the people who are intended to benefit from State Budget investments. For example, the general public has an expectation that when a child is placed into the care of the State, that child will have the same opportunities, the same life chances as all children, as our own children. We need to ask ‘has this money changed the life of Tasmanian children for the better?’ And our expectation that they have should not be held captive by a low expectation for the outcomes of children who are in care. Our expectations and our aspirations should be high as for these children as they are for our own.

We should be open to embracing new ideas and positive opportunities as they arise. We encourage governments to listen and reflect our aspirations. For example, it is a reasonable aspiration to be able to work and earn an income. We shouldn’t see the target of creating jobs as a political target to be attacked, but rather a target we should all expect our government to aspire to reach. This is one step on the way to reaching the longer term target, the only target we should aim for and measure, the high expectation that every single Tasmanian is doing well.

Old habits are hard to break. We have been conditioned to respond driven by what we hear through political rhetoric and media cycles. We should be critical of short term populist politics, but we must also not lose sight when genuine reform opportunities present themselves. What we do know in Tasmania is if we keep responding the same way we will not get change, we will just keep spending more money. We must all break the habits of old and be prepared to try things differently, in our approaches to public policy reforms and also in the way we work together, our attitudes and aspirations. We mustn’t fear being held accountable, questioned and scrutinised.

We need governments that will stand firm for the values that holds us together. We need decisionmakers that have an eye to the future, who make decisions now that will help the next generation thrive.

So what comes today and tomorrow and next week is the substance that puts the courage to the money that has flowed this week.

We have to keep striving for a more equal society where everyone has the opportunity to participate in life.

We have to keep demanding that our governments address the things that hold people back and clear the path so we can all thrive. And when they respond, when they listen, we have to acknowledge that so they keep listening.

Tasmanians are courageous, we need courageous leaders who will do things differently, take risks and understand that communities will hold them to account. We need open, generous leaders who will listen to the people who are struggling and respond.

Because when we are still and we listen we can hear the true potential of our whole community.