​Catching a fish is a kind of rite of passage for Aussie kids and back in the day, it used to be relatively easy. Just find any old river, lake or bit of coastline, throw in a line and you’ve before you knew it, you had yourself a nice Yellow Belly or Whiting for dinner. Not any more. Catching a decent fish today has become really difficult. The reason of course is over-fishing. In fact, Vision for Australia makes a direct link between an increasing population and a decreasing chance of catching a fish. Why is that important? Well, there’s an argument to be made that the chance of catching a fish is proportional to our standard of living. The argument goes that that the harder it is for the average person to catch a fish; the greater compromise we’ve made to a key (albeit an unusual one) metric related to our standard of living.
 
As the population of Australia continues to grow, the case politicians make is that population growth is important for economic growth. We see it differently. We see that growth, which we believe to be important, can just as accurately mean getting better as it means getting bigger. At some point in our future the population of Australians needs to peak, it can’t keep getting bigger forever. We believe in a small Australia.  Not small in ambition, achievement or greatness, not small in vastness, toughness or determination but literally, small in population.  We dispute the notion that population growth is imperative for national prosperity.  Australia faces a choice, become boutique nation of excellence or a bloated nation of mediocrity.  Growths doesn’t to mean bigger, it can just as legitimately mean better.  

We propose that Australians decide now by way of national referendum, what we want the population of our country to be in the year 2060 year. The ABS projects that at current trends, the population of Australia by 2060 will be around 43 million (and 62.2 million by 2101). As Dick Smith said in a letter he recently published, “I have a feeling it’s all “down hill” from now for most Australians as the population increases. I can’t think of any of our present problems in this world which are alleviated by more people. In fact, quite the opposite. I think unrestrained population growth will make virtually every problem more difficult” and that includes catching a fish!

Australian school leavers today can expect to have 20+ jobs over their working life, many of which out of necessity or, what is the best opportunity at the time, will be contracting or freelancing.  This being the case, our education system needs a major reboot to teach students how to be more entrepreneurial.  In the context of Australia, we call this Auspreneurship.  Essentially it’s teaching teenagers the basics of being independent business people, entrepreneurs; Australian style.  Auspreneurship should be implemented into the secondary school syllabus and taught to students so that they are not totally dependant on the traditional system of ‘getting a job’.  Instead, they are instilled with the mindset of creating their own work.  This will involve teaching skills such as how to effectively marketing their services, setting customer expectations, understanding how to manage money and generally having the skills to run an enterprise which they have been instrumental in initiating.  

This requires a significant rethink of the education system in Australia.  A system which needs to understand that in our rapidly changing economic environment, teaching creativity is equally as important as teaching counting.  Students need to be able to think on their feet and to know how to act on an idea.  If we ignore this then it is nothing short of letting our kids down, sentencing them to a career where they are dependant on others for an income and where they may miss the opportunities a modern, growing and ever-changing Australian [and Global] economy has to offer.

*Auspreneur is used as a common law trade mark.

You can watch Andy McLeod's State of the Nation - A Citizens Address here.  In the 15 minute speech, Andy talks about how important it is for Australia to really be thinking and acting about long term. He continues on with his theme of re-creating the catch-cry of Australia as "The Can Do Country" and makes a particular point about the importance for everyday Australians to have more of a say on the issues of the day - not just the two or three narrow policies that the government of the day decides they want to focus on.  

Australians demand more action on more issues and the way to do this is with the implementation of a new system of engagement called Enterprising Democracy.  Essentially, it’s a way to widen the conversation, bring more issues to the table and ultimately allows the people to vote on how we want our nation to be.

Respect and acceptance is our message to Muslim Australians.  Hijabs are as welcome as Akubras.  Any vision for Australia should welcomes the Muslim community and encourages it to respect our heritage and enrich it with theirs.

No one word defines more what Australia stands for than Commonwealth – think about it, Common Wealth, shared prosperity, equal opportunity, a fair go. This has been our heritage and, god willing, it will be our future. 

As we stand now, we are part of a family of nations who value friendship and fairness and that's where we should stay.  Any move to go it alone as a republic would be a backwards step.  We have so many privileges as a Commonwealth country and so much that we can contribute back into this community.  

We propose nothing less than the roll out of a New National Identity.  We need to reinvent ourselves and as a nation of people known for getting the job done.  We propose that Australia become known as The Can-Do Country.  Forget being the lucky country or even thinking we're the clever country, if we want to be competitive on the world stage in any single field you care to name, then it's all about getting in and getting the job done. 


Candoness needs to become our new national ethos.

We believe in a small Australia.  Not small in ambition, achievement or greatness, not small in vastness, toughness or determination but literally, small in population.  We dispute the notion that population growth is imperative for national prosperity.  Australia faces a choice, become boutique nation of excellence or a bloated nation of mediocrity.  Growths doesn’t to mean bigger, it can just as legitimately mean better.  

We propose that Australians decide now by way of national referendum, what we want the population of our country to be in the year 2060 year. 

Mining has enriched our nation but, the days of digging everything up and selling it overseas are coming to an end.  What will our next new foundational industry be?  Why aren’t we thinking and exploring this as a national priority. 

One latent industry for Australia must surely be our unique ecology.  So much of the infrastructure is already in place, the landscaping complete.  It has been for about a million years and the world wants to see it.  Untouched, raw and the way it’s been for ever.  


Prosperity for this nation lies in protecting what we already have rather than digging it up and selling it.  I see great industry and untapped opportunity in sharing our red deserts, watching our great white sharks and setting the global standard that defines, clean, green and pristine.   

Australia (and the world) NEEDS a primary new source of energy and it needs to come online within our lifetime.  Several sources are tantalisingly close.  Australia has a right, and an obligation, to lead the world in this area.  

This is why Vision for Australia is a strong advocate for a world class research and development community.  We recognise that disruptive innovation and sometimes radical invention come not from governments, institutions or even the corporate sector but rather from diverse sources within our community.  We seek encourage game changing innovation at all levels.  This includes the retention of Australian inventions with new incentives for Australians who seek to patent their products and take on the world. It also includes a much more pro-active approach to technologies like Thorium Energy, which if you haven't heard of it before then you should be asking why - why isn't our government actively exploring this and other revolutionary energy technologies? 

As the hottest country on earth the question is, why aren’t we the world leaders in Solar Energy.  The reason is simply a lack of incentives and leadership.  This needs to change. 

We’ve proven ourselves to be the best in the business at Agriculture.  We’ve led the world in wool production, cropping and beef cattle and we need a national recommitment to this sector order to regain our position as an Agricultural Super-Power. 

What is our most inspiring example of world-class infrastructure built since the Sydney Opera House (finished over 40 years ago)?  One project this nation needs is a high-speed train network between Sydney & Melbourne, built using state of the art technology to be called the HyperTran (i.e. Hyper Fast Transportation Network) 

The government report commissioned into building a high speed rail network in Australia focused on why it wouldn't work rather than how to make it work.  Furthermore, it had as it's basis, the out-dated wheel-on-rail system (train tracks invented in the 18th Century) which even if it was built would see Australia ending up with the slowest high speed rail network in the world.  The HyperTran proposes a bold new method of building and when the naysayers tell us that it’s never been done on a scale this big before we say, bring it on.   

We favour a single, simple flat-rate tax system of 35% which we believe will minimise bureaucracy, encourage entrepreneurship and make it fairer for all.  No tax will be payable for those who earn under $35,000.

Tax Tagging

We propose the implementation of a new system called Tax Tagging whereby;

1. Income tax is tagged and tracked so the taxpayer has a greater understanding how and where their money is being spent.
   
2.  The tax payer gets to nominate where they want a portion of their tax money spent, i.e. a new hospital in their region or a new national high speed train network.
   

Technically this would not be difficult to implement.  Neither is it something which would be particularly expensive to set up.  The Taxation Office in Australia has grown arrogant.  If a business is a day late with their BAS payment they're hit with a fine.  If you need to call and ask them a question, you're put on hold for 40 minutes.  It's about time the ATO was as accountable to the people of Australia as they expect us to be to them. 

The state has no basis to control a persons right to a peaceful death.  Under a clearly defined and pre-established set of protocols and in conjunction compassionate counselling, persons suffering terminal and hopeless illnesses should have access to a professional assistance to end their suffering.  

We call for the establishment in this country of a new organisation called P.A.V.E Professionally Assisted Voluntary Euthanasia.  

It’s widely agreed that Australia must continue to build a world class education system and this is something which we most certainly support.  Part of what we stand for is the fact that know one really knows what the world will look like even a decade from now.  That’s why we need an education system which teaches kids to think laterally, not just literally. 

Education of course covers such a broad spectrum of learning.  Early childhood education is foundational and working parents need a system which is offers the highest standards of professionalism, care and safety.  The greatest change we see needing to take place in school education is the opportunity for greater diversity of interests and abilities.  Traditional school curriculums cater for a limited spectrum of learning and we see this as severely disadvantaging kids with diverse skill-sets outside the normal realm.  (Think of kids who had tech skills before computers – they never did well at school because their abilities weren’t respected or catered for).  The more diverse we can make our curriculums, the greater opportunities we will create for young Australians. 

Tertiary education is fundamental to a rich, vibrant and prosperous nation.  Obviously providing a world class system is expensive and if there is any one area that our government should be subsidising then it’s here.  Outside the University system we stand for a well funded and vibrant technical college system which teaches a diverse range of practical skills that young people  in order to to gain employment. 

The more diverse our teaching can be, the greater the opportunities for us as a nation to excel and extend into new areas of opportunity.

Skin cancer in this country is at epidemic levels and without a clear plan to protect ourselves it will worsen.  The last politician we heard say anything about the urgency of this situation about this was former NSW Premier Bob Carr.

“Living in an Over – Dire Alert for NSW

This is deadly serious and it’s upon us.  Global warming has got [us] in its grip.  We face terrible increases in average climate.  If we look at where they’re going…after 2030 is really going to be living in an oven.”

Australia needs to devote more energy and resources to not only seeking to prevent this problem worsening but to educating our citizen of the dangers of sunburn.

Vision for Australia recognises the real threat of climate change to the future health, wealth and prosperity of our nation.  The basic fact is that no-one has yet come up with a way to maintain our lifestyle while curtailing cutting carbon emissions.  It is a problem which is solvable and Australia should be a world leader in this area not a follower.  More resources, greater incentives and stronger leadership should be given to this most important and critical of issues.