Social policy issues and the Federal election

image courtesy of Pro Bono News

With the exception of immigration, asylum seekers and population, social policy issues have not figured as election issues in the first week of the Federal election campaign.

Other than the Greens, the major parties have largely ignored systematic social policy development, preferring populist policies to win over certain constituencies, and/or engaging in a type of opportunistic bidding war, with the purpose of being seen to be doing something.

In the case of Labor they have continued with social policies originated by the Howard government that have strong ideological and conservative roots, such as the Northern Territory Intervention and compulsory income management for all Australians in receipt of welfare payments. Labor has expanded these paternalistic policies despite growing opposition and a lack of evidence to support their supposed benefits.

There is no better example of social policy opportunism than Tony Abbott's announcements on mental health and education. Despite being in power for 10 years, during which time the mental health crises worsened, the Liberal Nationals are now trying to convince the electorate that they will do something about mental health. Why did they not do it when they were in government? Given their record on mental health when in government this cynical opportunism is breathtaking.

Despite record growth in public funding of private schools under both the Howard Liberal National Government and the Rudd-Gillard government, Tony Abbott will give even more taxpayer funds to those wealthy families who send their children to private schools.

The online resource clearinghouse Pro Bono News is keen for social policy issues to have a higher profile during the election and is currently developing a Social Sector Manifesto to present to the three main political parties.

The Manifesto will identify the types of social policies and social action that require a higher priority from the political parties. An online survey is being used to gather views on social policy issues.

The wisdom of Mahmoud Darwish

(image from the Nation)

"Is this why the more I know the louder I lament?"
Mahmoud Darwish

Every day without fail I read some of Mahmoud Darwish's poetry. It's hard to describe its effect on me. The wonderful website The Distance Between Doors is a treasure trove of poems, writings and speeches by Darwish. I came across this wonderful speech by Darwish in a recent post on the site which features his writings and poems:

extract from a Speech that Mahmoud Darwish held at the occasion of the presentation of the 2004 Prince Claus Awards on 1 December 2004 in the royal Palace in Amsterdam.

"A person can only be born in one place; however, he may die several times elsewhere: in the exiles and prisons, and in a homeland transformed by the occupation and oppression into a nightmare.

Poetry is perhaps what teaches us to nurture the charming illusion: how to be re-born out of ourselves over and over again, and use words to construct a better world, a fictitious world that enables us to sign a pact for a permanent and comprehensive peace... with life.

You know, of course, that I am from Palestine. What an exciting name; ambiguous, open to every possible interpretation, it evokes a certain longing and counter-longing, and triggers emotions of pityor anger. But the imaginary ancient Palestine, called "the land of love and peace", mother of the prophets, and the meeting point of earth and sky, does not resemble the real Palestine flooding with blood and tears.

It is denied peace because its people are deprived of freedom; denied love because its people aredeprived of justice; denied a better tomorrow close at hand because its occupied present is surrounded by walls of hatred that deprive its people of hope.

It is so difficult to be a Palestinian! And even more difficult for a Palestinian to be a poet! How can hesing without disturbing the harmony between words and things? How can he achieve beauty and utility at the same time? How can he pin down the place in language without transforming the language into topography? How can he protect reality from the pressure of the legend, and how can he protect his legend from the pressures of reality, to be part of history and witness to history's actions towards him, all at the same time? Time teaches us wisdom, but history teaches us irony.

How can the poet fight a war using a counter-language? How can he convert exile into a latent memory?How can he, as René Char says, transform the enemy into a rival? And how can he then convince him to memorize two lines of poetry by Yeats:

Those that I fight I do not hate

Those that I guard I do not love

Such difficult questions... maybe literature has the answers ... I don't know... and what a thrill it is not to know, for poetry is the endless journey towards the unknown".