Weighing Up Australian Values

Over the past 30 years, Australia has experienced ongoing economic and social change. During this time, many Australians might have felt liberated by the freer economic and social environment. At the same time, though, many more Australians have felt their lives becoming more precarious and come to see themselves in danger of social exclusion. ""Weighing up Australian Values"" explains why so many Australians feel a greater sense of risk and suggests some positive new directions in social policy designed to anticipate and help people address risk. The book does not identify 'risk' as a negative; instead it argues that converting risk into opportunity requires a co-ordinated policy response. In his book, Howe rejects the emphasis being placed on personal responsibility and morality in much of contemporary social policy discourse. He argues that society needs to give more attention to anticipating risks as they emerge for people across the life course, and governments should be developing policy responses that will enable people to convert risk into opportunity. ""Weighing up Australian Values"" emphasises the importance of 'time sovereignty' - that is the capacity of people to bank time so that they can vary their work commitments in the light of caring responsibilities, their need for further education and training or because they may at certain periods be carrying more community leadership responsibility. It is a book of big ideas such as the need for 'learning accounts', as well as new institutional arrangements that help people to manage difficult transitions in life.

Brian Howe AM was Deputy Prime Minister of Australia (1991 - 1995) and was one of only four ministers who served continuously in the Hawke and Keating Ministries from 1983 to 1996. He is now a Professorial Associate in the Centre for Public Policy at the University of Melbourne.