All Episodes - Communities in Control

Senator the Honourable Penny Wong – Joan Kirner Social Justice Oration 2021

“It took a pandemic for our State and Federal governments to admit that the JobSeeker payments weren’t enough to live off, that homelessness needed to be (and could be) tackled, and that the level of insecure work in this country is hitting crisis point. Despite this, every solution has focused on the short-term, with an expectation that everything will just go back to normal once the pandemic ends. But we don’t want to return to normal, we want change. Now is the time to have our voices heard. Now is the time to force our governments to do what i...

Jess Scully – Glimpses of utopia

“You don’t wake up and find a Utopia fully realised and perfectly formed. It happens a little bit at a time, unevenly, erratically, but if we know how to look, we can see glimpses of it emerging all the time, everywhere. Utopia doesn’t happen by accident. It must be nudged into shape through the hard work of many people and the many institutions that make up our society. What can we do to help? In this keynote speech, Jess Scully will discuss how we can harness technology and imagination to reshape the world to build a fairer and more s...

Andrew Wear – Sometimes the solutions are closer than we think

“If you take a look around the globe, you will find some remarkable success stories. Denmark will reach 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2030. Iceland has topped gender equality rankings for a decade and counting. Singaporean students beat almost all others in maths and reading. South Koreans will soon live longer than anyone else on Earth. What can we learn from these successes? And how can we apply these lessons at home to help shape a better future in our communities?"

Daniel Teitelbaum – Stop playing around and start playing seriously

“Play is not just fun and games. Our deep drive to play has shaped our cultures and our philosophies, our working lives, and our civilizations since we first started playing. No part of human history is untouched by the way we play. In this session, Daniel Teitelbaum will convince you that our drive to play is at the heart of how we make meaning, is essential to our self-expression, can be a guide to our values, and creates our communities. "

Dr Tim Thornton – Better economics for a better world

“Whether by intention or accident, economic ideas and analysis often diminish society’s expectations of what can be achieved. Such failings are not inherent to economics per se, rather they are the result of outdated economics dominating analysis and public discussion. The problematic nature of economic analysis must stop and make way for better theory and concepts to help us re-imagine what our economy and society could look like."

Dr Ramona Vijeyarasa – Gender equality in a generation?

“How do we make taxation fair for single-parent households? How do we ensure that planning decisions consider the different ways in which women use our communities? How can we ensure that glass ceiling is not a barrier to the corner office? How can we ensure that we do not forgo the talents women have to offer as leaders in politics? Ramona Vijeyarasa will demonstrate that we can help correct gender inequality, through the law, by courageously stepping away from neutrality and using the law to help transform decades of discrimination"

Hugh Mackay – Restoring hope, rebuilding trust and inspiring optimism

“Revolutions never start at the top. If we dare to dream of a more loving country – a kinder, more compassionate, more cooperative, more respectful, more inclusive, more egalitarian, more harmonious, less cynical country – there’s only one way to start turning that dream into a reality: each of us must live as if this is already that country. And there is no better time to start the revolution than now, when so many are struggling from the effects of drought, floods, bushfires and the pandemic. "

Robert Fitzgerald – Reimagining the community sector

“Community sector workers usually start with the best of intentions but are too often met by outdated systems and poorly conceived rules and laws that prevent them from achieving the best results. There is no denying the sector is in need of a serious shake-up, but what does reform on this scale look like?"

Paul Bongiorno – The 2020 Joan Kirner Social Justice Oration

“After a surprise election victory in May 2019, Scott Morrison thanked the ‘quiet Australians’ for sticking by his side. Since then, it appears that our government is hell-bent on making the entire population quiet. Journalists are being pressured by the Australian Federal Police to cooperate or feel the force. There’s been talk of outlawing group boycotts. Children finding their political voice are being told to go back to school. When New South Wales and Queensland were on fire we were told that now is not the time to talk. But the community sector won’t be quiet Australians. We will continue t...

Lucinda Hartley – Using people-centred data to remake cities and towns

“Cities and towns should be built for the communities that will inhabit them. There is a trove of data on the demographics of any given town, but do we spend enough time consulting this data, and the people the data represents, to give us a better understanding of what the community needs? It’s time to put people back at the centre of our urban environments."

Nicholas Gruen – The iron law of business-as-usual

“In Australia, policy agendas come, tip everything upside down, and then they go, swept away by the next fad. New Zealand has garnered world attention for its ‘Wellbeing Budget’ but Australia had a wellbeing framework a decade ago. It was quietly scrapped a few years ago and no-one noticed the difference. It looks like New Zealand is heading down a similar path. What can we do to overcome this churn-and-burn cycle of policy building? How do we escape the path of business-as-usual?"

Danielle Wood – Inequality in Our Communities: Why are so many missing out?

“We hear a lot about the rising divides in economic opportunities and wealth in Australia: between country and city, young and old and the top 1% and ‘everyone else’. What do we know about rising inequality in our communities and what can we do about it?"

Professor Kristy Muir – Understanding the Social Progress Index

“The Social Progress Index is used to measure how well the environmental and social needs of citizens are being met. Currently, Australia ranks 12th in the world. That’s great, but what exactly does it mean? How do you measure social progress? What are we learning from the results?"

Peter Colacino – Building a Community: Bringing social infrastructure into the conversation

“When we hear the word ‘infrastructure’ most of us automatically think of roads, railways and bridges. But we all know that it takes much more than that to build a community. As a society, we need to shift the conversation to ensure that social infrastructure is brought into the mix. If we fail, what chance do we have at building stronger communities within Australia?"

Georgina Dent – Breaking Badly: How I worried myself sick

“Working in the community sector can often be emotionally draining. How do community workers balance their life with the long hours and stresses of the job without breaking down? How do you keep it together when tackling some of society’s darkest issues? What is required to remain in control? Hear one woman’s story of rising and falling and rising again."

Professor Hilary Bambrick – Climate and Communities: Adapting to the new normal

“We all know that climate change is damaging our natural environment, but what impact is it having on our communities? A future defined by climate change will bring new issues and obstacles that the community sector will need to face and overcome. We have to. There is no Planet B."

Dr Fiona Kerr – Replacing alert and alarmed with informed and engaged

SPECIAL EDITION: 2019 Conference Highlights Part 3

SPECIAL EDITION: 2019 Conference Highlights Part 2

SPECIAL EDITION: 2019 Conference Highlights Part 1

Here's a special compilation of highlights from the 2019 Communities in Control conference, recorded by conference convenors Our Community and produced for radio, and reproduced here with permission, by Community Radio Network. In this package, we'll hear from Tracey Spicer, Helen Milroy and Shane Howard.

Professor Lea Waters - Strengths at Work: Unlocking energy and engagement

"Strengths are more than just something that you are good at. Strengths have three elements: high performance, high energy and high use. Strengths are something you do well, do often and do with energy. Professor Lea Waters' presentation will help you identify and amplify your true strengths so that you can use them to maximise your abilities and improve your community."

Father Rod Bower - All Justice is Social

"What does a just society look like? Many of us could probably give our own answer to that question. But how do we go about creating one? Here is where things get a bit more difficult. Father Rod Bower discusses the barriers preventing us from achieving an inclusive and respectful community, and offers insight on how these can be overcome."

Dr Jason Fox - Change the Game: Craft a culture fit for the future

"Sometimes it's a question of momentum: how can an organisation hold onto all the best elements of its culture in the midst of rapid growth? Other times, it's a question of direction: how can we pivot our enterprise culture so that it's more aligned with our strategy? If you want your people to be on board as the champions of your organisational culture, then they need to understand the science behind what drives collective behaviour."

Mariam Veiszadeh - Identifying Privilege

"People with the most privilege often don't admit or aren't even aware they have it. But the inability to recognise personal privilege has serious consequences, acting as a roadblock to diversity. Is there a solution that will make people recognise their privilege and level the playing field?"

Professor Helen Milroy - The 2019 Joan Kirner Social Justice Oration

"How can we improve as a society if we avoid taboo topics of discussion? How can we improve as a society if our default is denial and disbelief? The wicked issues of our time will never go away until we as a society face them head on and pledge to address them. It's time to make some noise."

Community Innovations Panel

"Who builds stronger communities? The community! Sometimes the best advice you can get is from your peers: someone who's been there, done that, and knows what works. In this session you'll hear from a hand-picked selection of innovative community leaders who will showcase their lessons in building stronger communities."

Dr Phoebe Wynn-Pope - The Apology: A Response

"Phoebe Wynn-Pope, the daughter of Australia's 22nd Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, responds to David Manne's apology to refugees."

David Manne - The Apology: To the refugees, we say sorry

"The year is 2030. On behalf of the Australian people the Prime Minister apologises to refugees, now resettled in Australia and elsewhere, for the conditions they were forced to endure in offshore detention camps. As Australians, we reflect. How could we allow this to happen? What could we have done to stop it?"

Dr Mary C. Gentile - Ethical Leadership: Giving Voice to Values

“Most of us want to act ethically, but it's not always that simple, amiright? We start with the best of intentions but then we bang up against the realities of what the boss wants, the clients are shouting at us, the kids need us to get home ("stat!"), we have to sort out an issue with the plumbing, and we haven't had a proper holiday in a thousand years. American leadership guru Mary Gentile knows all about it. She's pioneered a leadership development approach, Giving Voice to Values, that starts from the assumption that most can take to lea over, ar...

Prof. Gillian Triggs - Joan Kirner Social Justice Oration

“Sometimes, those who try to change the world for the better are forced to deal with criticism from those who would much rather things stayed the same. Professor Gillian Triggs' five-year stint at the helm of Australia's human rights watchdog exemplifies this: her relentless pursuit of justice, particularly in relation to children in detention, was met with political pressure to fall back. We all need to ignore the critics if we are to lead change."

Hugh Mackay - The state of the nation starts in your street

“Weighing the strengths and weaknesses of contemporary Australian society, Hugh Mackay calls for a renewed commitment to equality in all its forms. He believes the health of the nation depends on the health of our local neighbourhoods and communities, and he suggests we need to add a missing ingredient - compassion - to the national conversation about Australia's future."

Jax Jacki Brown - Why society needs to change: a creative performance

“Jax's work explores the intersection between LGBTIQ issues and disability rights, and highlights the inequalities that hold people back from reaching their full and effective participation on an equal basis with others."

Stan Grant - Another Sorry Day: and no closer to equality

“It's been ten years since Kevin Rudd apologised in Parliament for the profound grief, suffering and loss inflicted on this country's Aboriginal and Islander people by laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments. Ten years on, we are still waiting for the healing and change Rudd envisioned."

Kathy Kelly - How to change your community, your society, and your thinking

“Kathy Kelly lost two sons to tragedy, then strove to change a broken system. Her story reveals how bad things can happen to the best of us. If your life was changed by tragic yet entirely preventable events, what would it take for you to focus on finding solutions so nobody else need suffer the same grief?"

Paul Higgins - The future is now for our communities

“What kind of future do we want to live in? What kind of world do we want to leave for our children, our grandchildren, and all of those who come after? The time has come to stop asking questions, and get on with ending the inequalities that are holding our communities back. Paul Higgins explains why the future won't change itself and it's time to act now."

Nicholas Gruen - Rebuilding our political system to nurture equality

“As we're increasingly realising, social connectedness and a shared political discourse which honours the common good are all fundamental to a functioning society and economy. Yet there's pervasive foreboding that these things are falling away in our society. Faith in our major institutions, including our democracy continues its steady decline both here and in other Western Democracies. This talk will explore the ways in which inequality is more than a simple material phenomenon. It will argue that politics as currently practices is losing its capacity to address these concerns, and explore an alternative from which our political system could borrow...

Prof. Martin Krygier: From Hanson to Hanson - What a difference 20 years makes

In 1997, law professor Martin Krygier delivered his Boyer lectures, Between Fear and Hope: Hybrid Thoughts on Public Values. Then Professor of Law at UNSW, he finished his sixth lecture with a call for his listeners to enroll in the Conservative-Liberal-Republican-Communitarian-SocialDemocratic International Party (Sydney branch) – a tolerant multi-ideological party that he believed could cope with a turbulent multicultural Australia. Twenty years later membership of that party still hovers around one, but the problems Professor Krygier foresaw then – national narcissism, doctrinal rigidity, populist despotism, ethnic exclusiveness, willed blindness to injustice and humiliation – have indeed come to pass. Chancers and confidence tricksters still hawk s...

Andrew Denton in conversation with Viginia Tioli: The 2017 Joan Kirner Social Justice Oration

“Everyone is entitled to a healthy death!" However good our public health care, however careful we are of our diet, however low the road toll falls, the all-causes death rate is, eventually, 100%. However far off the horizon looks for you now, we’ll all have to go through that vanishing point, and we should all take an interest in the boundary conditions. Andrew Denton wants Australians to be informed consumers at the end of life – empowered participants in a national conversation. We die as we live: in society, bound by rules, enmeshed in politics. Let’s talk it all through. It’s the...

Prof. Cordelia Fine: Testosterone Rex - Unshackling communities from a gendered mindset

Testosterone Rex is that familiar story that tells us that risk-taking, competitive, promiscuous masculinity evolved in males to increase their reproductive success, and is therefore built into the male brain and fuelled by testosterone. This belief that "boys will be boys" can (subtly or otherwise) encourage, excuse or exculpate behaviour and patterns that impede progress to healthier communities. But Testosterone Rex is based on outdated science, Cordelia Fine argues. As The Guardian put it, this "is a debunking rumble that ought to inspire a roar.

Richard Denniss: The Truth is Out There - Decoding econobabble to make room for good ideas

"When nonsense is repeated often enough – especially by well-paid lobbyists, commentators and businesspeople – it can start to seem as though everyone believes that black is white, or up is down," Richard Denniss writes. "After enough exposure to econobabble, you might even come to think that the best way to help poor people is to give tax cuts to the rich." Richard's having none of it. His mission in life is to bust the myths peddled by people using mangled economic language to conceal the truth. There's never been a better time to learn how to speak econobabble. Richard Denniss has the...