2005 Conference Statement

As adopted Sunday July 31, by the conference delegates

We, participants of the ‘Advance Australia Fair - Building sustainability, justice and peace’ conference, 2005, joined together to promote democratic alternatives to unfettered free trade and free market policies which increasingly limit the capacity of democratic governments and community organisations to achieve social justice, equity, peace, and ecological sustainability.

Prime Minister Howard and President Bush, and the global corporate interests they represent, are on the offensive in Australia and globally. Events since the Now We The People conferences in 2001 and 2003 continue to underline the importance of the democratic, inclusive values and the global focus promoted by these conferences. Now more than ever, Indigenous peoples, workers’ rights, women, students, the environment, and democratic institutions are coming under pressure from neo-liberal economic and conservative social policies. The very vulnerable – the people with disabilities, the single parents, the homeless and the marginalised – are now the specific targets of welfare cuts. We live in a time of widespread war, terror and conflict.

We need to urgently reinvigorate our democratic institutions and the community’s collective strength. Only by coming together can we strengthen our movements, and start to turn the tide. The very rich, with their concentrated power at the top of society, have a vested interest in the way things work now, even though the environment and most people already suffer.

Corporate power, driven by profit in a volatile global economy, is transforming Australia and the world. To reclaim our society and our humanity, we need to be a part of global as well as national struggles, movements, organisations and institutions that reassert community and collective rights over the corporations. A reformed United Nations is a key part of our vision.

To become a fairer, more environmentally aware and democratic society we need….

1. A comprehensive agreement with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Nations of Australia. Justice and self-determination for Indigenous peoples need to be put at the forefront of the national agenda.
2. Human rights protection enshrined in the Constitution, and the Australian Government to be held accountable to the international human rights treaties to which it is a party. Fair and compassionate treatment of asylum seekers and refugees and an end to mandatory detention. We support a national consultation leading to a Bill of Rights.
3. Sustained support for the rights of women to live full human lives, including reproductive choice, with equal pay for work of equal value, and full access to education and health, and equal participation in private and public life, and equal participation in private and public life.
4. Protection for the rights of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender and intersex people against homophobic attitudes, policies and laws.
5. Support for our multicultural Australian society, free of racism, respecting the rights of migrant and ethnic communities and a celebrating diversity.
6. An alternative economic vision which encourages fairness, equality, decent and accessible public services, jobs-growth in ecologically sustainable industries, wealth redistribution and quality welfare – including access to legal aid, public and low-cost housing, public transport, and a livable income support for the disadvantaged, disabled and students.
7. Increased funding for public education and public and preventative health; abolition of government financial support for private health insurance; restoration of bulk-billing for all; school funding based on need; free university and free vocational education.
8. An industrial relations system that upholds a century of hard-won labour rights that is based on ILO Conventions; that recognises, fosters and encourages the right to secure jobs, fair pay and conditions, and a proper balance between work, family, community time and personal leisure time; the right to collectively bargain through recognised unions and the right to strike; the right to a workplace free of discrimination and the right to a safe and healthy workplace.
9. Ecologically sustainable practices, including: ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, closure of the nuclear industry, increased support for energy and water efficiency, renewable energy, environmentally sustainable urban planning and organics. We need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, stop land degradation and loss of bio-diversity and over-consumption, and begin the bio-remediation of ecologically devastated areas. Accurate food labeling. Environmental considerations are central in the social justice work we undertake.
10. An increased aid budget aimed at support for local self-determination in the majority world. No welfare for Australian corporations through aid. Fair dealing with East Timor. Fair trade policies and initiatives that respect core environmental, human rights and labour standards, not the current World Trade Organisation and Free Trade Agreement negotiations. Withdrawal from the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement. No to the proposed Australia-China Free Trade Agreement. All treaties to be debated and voted on by the Parliament, and not just signed by the Cabinet.
11. Independent and democratic foreign policy. No preemptive strikes, no war, eg with Iran and North Korea, and no involvement with the Star Wars missile shield, no foreign military bases in Australia. The immediate return of all Australian troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and no more troops to be sent there. Australia must focus on addressing the root causes of conflict – poverty, exploitation, dispossession and imperialism - by being a fair and helpful player in our region and globally.
12. Independent media sources including the ABC and SBS, and community media.
13. Radical political restructuring. Within the neo-liberal framework of free markets, democracy is becoming a sham. We need a parliament that oversees the executive, proportional representation, participatory democracy, structures for federal state and local community democracy, and a ban on corporate donations to political parties.

We commit to

• Campaign for representative structures devised by and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
• Campaign for the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, recognising that it is only a starting point for the necessary large reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
• Work with the emerging global peace movement and anti-poverty movements to reclaim the United Nations as our own, representing both governments and civil society committed to the prevention of war and the elimination of poverty, and therefore work for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
• Work together against the Howard government attacks on the right of workers and students to organise in unions, and on the basic employment conditions of workers.
• Support a secular society, which upholds freedom of religious expression while maintaining a clear separation of church and state.
• Campaign for radical democratic change - proportional representation, participatory democracy and an Australian Bill of Rights.
• Promoting debate and democratic decision-making of these issues in all levels of Australian society and creating forums for the development of long term positive visions and goals.
• Working together globally, in the Asia-Pacific region, nationally and locally on campaigns which highlight these issues.
• Holding a 4th Now We The People conference in 2007 in Melbourne or Adelaide.
• Producing a plain language version of this statement