A summary of the speech delivered by Larry Anthony, Federal Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, to the Communities in Control conference 2004.
In introducing the conference's workshops on Tuesday morning, Federal Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Larry Anthony, spoke of the government's role in community development, what beliefs it had and what principles guided its policy development in the area.
Mr Anthony spoke of what he described as two key concepts of the Government – the idea of "social coalition" and that of "local solutions for local problems".
The Minister said that in a social coalition; government, business and community sector needed to "share responsibility for Australia's social issues".
"There is an African proverb which says it takes a village to raise a child. The notion of a social coalition advocates that government and business comprise a central part of that village. Not on the fringes or on the outskirts of town – but at its core," he said.
"Implicit in this statement is the acknowledgment from Government that we do not have all the answers … unless Government forms a genuine partnership with the community and business sectors then these efforts (of government) are wasted. These partnerships are the foundations of real and lasting solutions."
Mr Anthony felt there was resistance in some sectors of the business community to these social coalitions, but believed many "forward thinking companies" were beginning to understand the benefits things like partnerships with government and community could create for them.
"Initiatives such as volunteering and mentoring in the workplace can build a better work environment. More importantly for the private sector, a healthy community breeds a healthier future workforce," he said.
"So for the hard-heads of the business world there is an economic argument for investing in the community sector. I also believe there is a genuine desire from the business sector to be more actively involved in community building - they do not want to be seen as the cash cow of the social coalition."
"There is a trend in corporate philanthropy away from 'chequebook' giving to supporting programs that work with the firm … there is also a trend to supporting programs that are aligned to a company's core business."
In speaking about local solutions for local problems, the Minister said the government realised "one size fits all" template solutions to local problems did not work:
"For example, cases of substance abuse in Toorak are very different from, say, an indigenous community outside Shepparton. The causes of youth unemployment are not the same in Tamworth as in Sydney," he said.
"If you merge the two concepts of local solutions and the social coalition you get to the root of the Coalition Government's social policy. This is a government that is big enough to know when they do not know best. It is a government that is too proud to look beyond our departments for answers. This is why we are engaging partners in decision making, and looking to fund programs that already work."
Mr Anthony said the government's social policy had seen funding for a number of strategies and initiatives under the new $365m Stronger Families and Communities Strategy, including $110m towards the Communities for Children initiative and $60m towards the Local Answers initiative.