About Us
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- About Us
Our Platform
Those values comprise equal support for and commitment to the following:
First Nations People
Recognition and profound respect for First Nations people - arising from, but not limited to, their 65,000 year old continuous culture and their historic affinity with and care for Country - and to increasing their agency in Australian society;
Working with First Nations people towards the elimination of a deeply embedded colonialist/racist mentality that has grossly disadvantaged First Nations people since white settlement and cannot be allowed to continue if reconciliation is to occur;
Working towards reform of the trappings of colonialism through support for an Australian republic, with the abolition of the British monarch as the Australian head of state;
Continuing not to accept a national day that, by implication, at least in part celebrates the beginning of theft of land from First Nations people, the loss of their way of life and culture and the associated, murderous Frontier Wars that spanned more than a century;
Role of Government
Promoting the role governments can play in leading economic and social direction-setting and service provision via its participation in market activity and therefore repudiation of the “small” government ideology of neo-liberalism;
Advocating that all governments exercise their role in helping necessary re-distribution of wealth to build a more cohesive and fair society promoting greater socio-economic equality and inclusion and promoting employment for all, removing barriers to employment and recognising the dignity that fair, legally paid work can deliver;
Promoting positive discrimination favouring people who experience structural disadvantages to address and reconcile past and present inequality, promote fairness and inclusion and encourage equality of opportunity;
Promotion of community well-being as a societal end, rather than endless consumerism and unfettered growth founded on a neo-liberalist, acquisitive, individualistic, market ideology and practices;
Sound longer-term strategic planning as a means to counter short-term opportunism and build a stronger society and community, anticipating, instead of reacting to, global and national challenges and change.
Governance
Integrity and transparency in government and governance and the safeguarding against, and rooting out, of corruption, maladministration and flouting of the law, accepted processes and conventions;
Keeping local government free of undue party-political allegiances that have caused divisiveness and acrimony in the conduct of Council business in the recent past at Darebin.
Sustainability
Sustainability practices across governments, industry, households and by individuals to optimise the use of renewable resources, minimise our ecological footprint and preserve valuable, finite resources and prevent waste and pollution;
Diversity
Tolerance, compassion, recognition and support for diversity across society’s institutions and across social interactions generally;
Promoting more women and gender non-binary people in key decision-making positions to help increase equality of representation and levels of organisational and social compassion;
Climate and Energy
Urgent and far more ambitious mitigation/adaptation actions that will help prepare for almost inevitable summer temperatures of 50 degrees in Melbourne on some days by 2040 under a highly likely average global temperature rise of possibly three degrees compared with pre-Industrial times;
Strong opposition to the introduction of nuclear power generation when renewables offer so many clear comparative advantages and are key to an employment rich future;
Housing
Recognising that housing is a fundamental right in a modern, wealthy society; that no-one should be homeless; and that governments need to resume their key role in provision of public housing;
Recognising that the current housing crisis is not a simple supply issue and that the broader dimensions of placing people in well-serviced, liveable environments that can generate well-being, inclusion, contact with nature and life satisfaction are essential;
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Policy Preamble
The policies that follow help flesh out DPIN’s position on the political spectrum and offer a view about what the network believes are important issues in Darebin.
DPIN has a view that its policies must have contemporary relevance and take a modern view of the role of local government. We certainly do not subscribe to a view that Councils are merely about roads, rubbish and rates. That simplistic view belongs in the 1960s.
Local government is complex and delivers well over 100 services to its communities. Councils are regularly being asked or expected to partner with, or indeed deliver services that originate from other levels of government.
Social imperatives also change over time and Councils are often called upon to be responsive. Climate change is a stand-out example. In the 1970s climate change was scarcely heard of and there were no staff employed to implement climate related policies. While some Council activities have not changed significantly over the decades, some, such as climate change, has seen enormous change and growth. Hence Councils need to be continually aware of contemporary circumstances and be flexible and able to change and adapt.
Through the policies contained in this platform, DPIN hopes to express an agenda with modern, contemporary relevance picking up on the issues that will make Darebin more liveable and address current glaring deficiencies.
Moreover, DPIN wishes to tap into the progressive sentiments of Darebin voters and articulate the strong sense of social justice that we believe voters demand.
The policies are not intended to be excessively radical in ways that may have once characterised the politics of the old left, or indeed the new right. Instead, the policies are intended to be keenly focussed on what local government does and what it can do better.