Latest Updates
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Re-engaging
Well, I’m back! As you may recall, I stepped down as Executive Director of the Green Institute back in March in order to focus fully on my election campaign for the seat of Canberra. The board kindly kept my position vacant for the duration, while the wonderful Elissa Jenkins very ably held the fort, and…
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Talking Cooperatives For A Democratic Covid Recovery
The economic recovery that governments across Australia and the world are mostly planning is all about snapping back to an economy controlled by the few, extracting wealth and value from the many. But that’s not the only way of doing this. We could use this moment to make our economy more democratic, and cooperatives are…
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Sow The Seeds Of Ecological Democracy
As we hit the halfway mark of this most extraordinary, challenging, terrifying and occasionally actually inspiring year, I need to ask for your support. Like everybody else, The Green Institute had to drastically change plans for the last few months, and I’m proud of what we’ve managed to do. Instead of the in-person participatory democracy…
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Cooperative COVID Economic Recovery
As we begin the vital work of economic reconstruction, do we have to leave our democracy at the workplace door? As we seek to create job opportunities for people, does it have to be done by handing wads of cash to big, often heavily polluting, corporations to employ grateful workers? There are, of course, alternatives.…
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Facing Up To Catastrophic Risks
Just as Australia started to lock down, I was privileged to be invited to take part in a full day roundtable conversation on Zoom hosted by the Commission for the Human Future, to discuss the array of immense, in some cases existential risks humanity is bringing upon ourselves, and call for the development of a…
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Agency In A Time Of Ecological Crisis
In this time of intersecting crises, of fire and smoke, pandemic and spiralling economic inequity, with a spotlight being shone on racial injustice and the blatant abuse of power, it’s hard to know what to do that can possibly have a real impact. With Greta Thunberg telling world leaders “you are stealing our future”, with George Floyd…
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Catastrophe, Cooperatives, And Community-building
As we start to emerge from lock-down, thankfully with remarkably low health impacts compared to much of the rest of the world, the economic, social and political impacts of the Covid pandemic will only get more stark. As we’ve already been seeing, the divergent possibilities opened up by this moment, for good and for ill,…
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Democracy At A Moment Of Rupture
What do we do at moments of rupture in our politics? How can we work at this moment to build better democracy at the local level and the global, for all of us? That was the starting point for this stimulating and inspiring conversation, the third in our Covid Democracy webinar series – From the…
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World Environment Day, Black Lives Matter, And Confronting Extractivism
Today is World Environment Day. How does one mark World Environment Day in the world we’re living in right now? In a world where centuries of colonialism and racist oppression are spilling into open insurrection again, while we’re still in the midst of a global pandemic, what should we say about World Environment Day? While…
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Let’s Talk About Power (And Have Some Fun!)
We need to talk about power. We need to talk about how change happens – at “normal” times, and at extraordinary times like these. But first, can we have some fun? This Saturday evening, we’ve got a fabulous night of fun planned for you! Featuring musical performances from Tuxedo Kitten, Rob Law and Grandparents for…
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Is Democracy Possible Without UBI?
This was just one of the huge questions we grappled with in a wonderful 80 minute conversation with Guy Standing, Jane Goodall, Abigail Boyd, and participants across Australia and beyond. You can now watch the full video below. With tremendous clarity, Guy took us through the challenges of the present moment and how UBI can…
