NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Release Date: 30 July 2014

VISION FOR AUSTRALIA
“The Can-Do Country”

Australia is facing a crisis.  This issue is the absence of a shared vision for what our country will look like 50 years from now.  Without a clear vision our efforts lack focus, bold decisions are put off and we’re greatly weakened on the world stage.  Choose any number of examples,

• In what fields are we the undisputed world leaders?
• Who is our most senior representative at the UN?  (hint… it’s not the Secretary-General!)
• Why hasn’t an Australian ever won a Nobel Peace Prize?
• What is our most inspiring example of world-class infrastructure built since the Sydney Opera House? (finished over 40 years ago)

Australia today still sees itself as ‘the lucky country’ believing that the resources, wealth and lifestyle will last a life time.  They won’t.  The shine is off our apple and it falls to you and I to get it back. 

The first thing I propose is the roll-out of nothing less than a New National Identity. 

As of 1st  August 2014;

“I move that Australia become known as The Can-Do Country”.


Have your say here:  facebook.com/visionforaustralia

The Can Do Country stands for getting-in and getting the job done, no matter what.  We need to come together and Take a Stand on crucial topics not receiving adequate national attention.  Current stands include, The Future Population of Australia, Tax Tagging, Development of a High Speed Train Network (the HyperTran), New Energy and The Reconciliation Declaration. 

Australians are invited to Take a Stand on issues they feel are of national importance.  The fact is, Australia needs a new plan.  It needs to be bigger, better and bolder.  It needs to inspire and empower us, and our children, to create the greatest-ever Vision for Australia. 

Contact:  Andy McLeod, VisionforAustralia.com.au   contact@visionforaustralia.org.au facebook.com/visionforaustralia  #visionaust 

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Let’s talk more about this.  Have you ever heard of the idea of Ready-Fire-Aim (instead of Ready Aim Fire)?  What they’re really saying is just get the job started and not wait until everything is perfect.  You just need to start.

Australia has become mired in bureaucracy and red-tape.  To much energy given to talking about big issues without actually getting in and getting them sorted out.  Politics is a talkfest where issues are endlessly debated but rarely actioned.  As a nation we can’t rely on others to solve our problems or create the next great opportunity.  We need to take that responsibility for getting things done ourselves.  Can-do-ness needs to become as culturally engrained as mateship.  We need to be known as the nation who sets great goals and then gets started on achieving them. 

Can Do starts with you and me.  It starts with can do companies, families, clubs and community groups.  Ask yourself, what can I do today, right now, that will make Australia a better place to live?  What can I do to improve my company, myself?  What can I do to surprise my kids, my friends my boss, my customers?  Think of something and then do it!  Do it now is the by-line can-do ness.  No procrastination, no excuses just getting in and getting started. 

Australia has some great challenges ahead.  The world is becoming evermore competitive and for us to stay at the top we need to be striving to be the best.  The best at what?  How about engineering, medicine and curing so-called incurable diseases, social justice, entrepreneurship, swimming, football, statesmanship.  In fact, whatever we decide!  We need to become the nation known for aspiring to great visions then making them happen.  We need a plan for the future, a bold vision which inspires us, and our children, and we need it now.  The first step is for us to adopt a new national identity as the Can Do country.  We need to shake off the red tape and leave behind the excuses.  We need nothing less than to reinvent ourselves as the Can Do County and armed with this attitude we need to throw ourselves into creating the greatest-ever Vision for Australia

Australia, the Can Do Country.  What’s holding us back?  

If you question the need for such a plan, think of where Saudi Arabia was 50 years ago.  

Fifty years ago, Saudi Arabia realised they had a problem.  Well before it happened, Saudi leaders realised that their oil was eventually going to run out and they needed to re-think their future and create a new vision for their nation.  Look at Saudi Arabia now – Dubai is the most stunning example you could wish to see of what a nation can do when it unites behind a vision and puts its national energy toward building itself into something great.  Saudi Arabia is no longer synonymous with oil, today it’s famous for infrastructure and tourism is its greatest industry.  This didn’t happen by accident, it happened by forethought, planning and a united vision.  Australia has the opportunity to follow in these footsteps.  Just like Saudi oil, the wealth we've been digging up for generations is running out.  Now we have the choice.  If we don’t make decisions today fifty years from now there’ll be no choice just a legacy of unsolvable problems.