Media Centre

Thank you Professor Dean for that warm introduction and for inviting me to join you here today at these wonderful new facilities.

Before I go on, I would like to acknowledge the Dharug People, who are the traditional owners of the area we now call the City of Ryde. I pay my respects to their ancestors, elders and their laws.

I also want to acknowledge my Parliamentary colleague, the Hon Maxine McKew, and Member for Bennelong, as well as Professor Steven Schwartz, Professor Jim Piper and Associate Professor Marion Maddox – the new Director of the Centre for Research and Social Inclusion.

We are here today to celebrate a number of things:

• Marking the fifth anniversary of the Centre for Research on Social Inclusion’s fifth anniversary;
• Commemorate the creation of CRSI becoming a Centre of Research Excellence;
• Celebrating the fact CRSI has obtained an ARC Linkage funding grant of more than $573,000 – certainly the largest ever social sciences grant;
• Welcome the new Director – Associate Professor Maddox, and;
• Of course, open the new, dedicated, fantastic facilities here in C-5-C.

Macquarie University has been investing in critical resources to ensure your leading position in many research areas of benefit to Australia. This is also exposing your students to academics who are doing scholarly work at the cutting-edge of their disciplines – experience which is simply incalculable.

The achievements of the Centre for Research on Social Inclusion speak for themselves:

• This year, the CRSI has secured the largest ARC linkage grant in any discipline.
• The Centre has gathered five years of invaluable concentrated research, publication and collaboration with government and community sectors on Social Inclusion.
• And your critical mass of highly-qualified researchers – working across several disciplines – is able to take account of the complexities of inclusion and exclusion.

This is imperative for the future of the Federal Government’s Social Inclusion agenda, as we begin to formulate how, where and when our first Social Inclusion investments can begin.

I am proud and excited to be appointed Australia’s first Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion.

The Social Inclusion challenge before us matters to everyone – and it matters to every part of Australia. For too long, and even during unprecedented economic growth, there has been an unacceptable continued existence of poverty alongside plenty.

Reversing this is a primary objective for every person in the new Government, from the Prime Minister down.

In his 2007 Report, "Dropping off the Edge", Professor Tony Vinson highlighted that disadvantage is entrenched in particular postcodes.

From our perspective, this is not only morally unjustifiable, but the fact that individuals and entire communities are being left behind is simply bad economics. We are not getting a maximum return from our human capital.

Marginalisation also places Australia at risk of losing some of its cultural depth and richness.

So Social Inclusion will require a significant change in the way we deliver policy and services to our communities. Indeed, national economic and social policies will no longer be working at cross purposes.

The Government will need to coordinate policies across national, state and local governments – in partnership with business and the non-profit sector – to ensure no Australian is left out of the economic and social life of our nation.

Consider the link between Australia’s current economic circumstances, and the problem of social exclusion.

Economic growth remains strong, placing ongoing pressure on the already tight labour market. These are combining to increase pressure on inflation, and ultimately interest rates.

If growth is to be made more sustainable, we must increase the supply of available workers.

To do this, we need to bring into the fold individuals and communities excluded from the workforce due to barriers like poverty, low education, drug or alcohol abuse, disability or inadequate skills.

Australia’s long-term prosperity depends on securing the full social and economic participation of all Australians. If not, we will pay a high price for peoples’ ongoing marginalisation in the decades ahead.

What are the answers? How do we create better social equity?

The solutions lie in social innovation – we have to be innovators when it comes to social policy. And this is why your work here at the CRSI is an important consideration in the way the Government will prioritise and implement its Social Inclusion initiatives.

I note your research into the social, cultural, economic, and political determinations of social inclusion – particularly in the context of globalisation.

Your research also has five areas of particular focus and strength:

• Migration, Multiculturalism and Nation;
• Critical Theory and Social Hope;
• Welfare, Care and Social Policy;
• The Postcolonial World and Globalisation, and;
• Inclusion and Exclusion in Urban and Regional Spaces.

The causes of social exclusion are complex, and your work reflects this. Together, we must seek to understand the array of different barriers stopping a person from participating.

The barriers are different, and require holistic, evidence-based solutions, backed-up by sound, well-resourced social policy think tanks. Centres of research where the theory and practice of Social Inclusion are pulled together from many angles; to develop theoretical analysis and concrete, real-world solutions.

And when we talk about the real-world solutions you’re developing, we need only look at the CRSI’s recent launch of an online toolkit featuring local government community harmony initiatives from around Australia.

"Stepone.org.au" provides guidance and practical resources to councils and local groups interested in implementing community harmony initiatives in their area. There are downloads of "best practice" case studies to help deal with many of the big issues, like:

• Reducing racism, intolerance and negative stereotypes;
• Building better relationships between communities, and;
• How to make the most of our racial, cultural, social and religious differences.

I also want to speak about the value of your other research initiatives, including the Tibetan Mentoring Project. This sees 12 Tibetan refugee families matched with mentors living in their local area – mentors who are long-term permanent residents or citizens. This program was born out of comments from some Tibetan families that the most important factor in helping them settle in, would be "getting to know the locals."

The CRSI has been commissioned to create a social data map for the City of Ryde, with a particular focus on improving council’s social planning processes.

You’ve also been invited by the Community Relations Commission for a Multicultural NSW to compile a database of all research undertaken on the 2005 Cronulla race riots – a weighty task I’m sure you’ve been entrusted with due to your respected reputation as social policy thinkers.

These outcomes of these projects, and the many others being undertaken such as your work with the Australian Red Cross, will be invaluable as we forge ahead with Social Inclusion. Government does not have all the answers, so it’s crucial for us to capitalise on the creativity, innovation and enthusiasm out there in the community.

Since the world changed on 24 November last year, the new Government has taken its first steps and made its initial down-payments on tacking the issues before us. We know we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a real difference in people’s lives – with Commonwealth and State Governments all being of the same persuasion.

The National Reform Agenda has highlighted new approaches to dealing with entrenched disadvantage, and reforming COAG for better outcomes.

We have new levels of cooperation on water reform, health, education, environment and children’s services. We also have commitments to reducing regulation for businesses and a renewed focus on harmonising state-based regulation.

Social Inclusion indicators are also being incorporated into the measurement of outcomes of COAG working groups including Health & Ageing and Productivity and Housing, to drive further reform.

As part of building our "whole of Government" capacity, a new Social Inclusion Committee of Cabinet has been created, chaired by the Prime Minister and co-chaired by his deputy.

To maximise the involvement of those outside government, we are establishing the Social Inclusion Board to directly advise the Government. The membership of this board will be announced shortly, and can I tell you, interest in involvement has been high!

Much of the board’s brief will come from the ideas and submissions at the recent 2020 Summit, where Social Inclusion was an important theme.

The four specific ideas to come out of the "Strengthening communities, supporting working families and Social Inclusion" discussion theme were:

• Making Social Inclusion a national priority;
• Building and strengthening local communities;
• Supporting and empowering families, and;
• Reducing disadvantage and poverty.

Pre-summit submissions were mostly concerned with the issue of work/family balance, the capacity of the non-profit sector to strengthen communities, and housing affordability and homelessness.

Many people also made a link between work/life balance and volunteering – the challenge of finding the time to get out there and give something back to the community.

Prime Minister Rudd has committed to responding to the ideas, discussions and submissions raised during the 2020 Summit by the end of this year. But can I say what a thrill it was to see Social Inclusion at the top of the agenda of a major national ideas summit – I believe it really is a measure of how much our national dialogue is changing.

And a reminder also – the 2020 website is still open, and you have until the end of the year to make your submission if you haven’t already!

As I said earlier, partnership and cooperation between all levels of government, business and the non-profit sector will be fundamental to putting an end to social exclusion.

We are beginning to use our different approaches to collaboration and the funding of services to set our sights on new national targets. These include:

• Lifting overall Year 12 and equivalent completion rates from 74 to 90 per cent;
• Closing the gap in life expectancy, and halving the current gaps in literacy, numeracy and employment for Indigenous Australians, and;
• Halving the number of homeless people turned away from shelters within five years.

The areas in which these targets will be set are most likely to be Education, Health and Housing.

But as we go forward, and the Government further develops its Social Inclusion policies, there will be more targets set. And I expect plenty of input, if not scrutiny, from the people here in front of me today.

We all know how difficult the task ahead of reducing social exclusion will be.

Personally, though, I prefer not to think of this task as a destination, but more a journey, where innovative policy and ideas continually meet the challenges of the future.

This is why I see your work here as so important – the critical mass of expertise and knowledge here today – and within this centre of research – is extraordinary.

You can be certain I will be watching closely to see what initiatives and critiques emerge from the CRSI, as they have been and remain a big part of our thinking on Social Inclusion.