Clive Hamilton
A summary of the speech delivered by
Clive Hamilton, executive director of the Australia Institute, to the
Communities in Control conference 2004.
Clive Hamilton, executive director of the Australia Institute, in his
address to delegates at the Communities in Control Conference, focussed
on Australia's non-Government and community organisations (NGOs), their
role in democratic society and the threats they face from government to
their independence.
Dr Hamilton said that NGOs played a vital role in society and "are
admired and respected not just for the services they deliver to
marginalised and disadvantaged groups but for their contribution to
public debate and the democratic process".
He also asserted that, given growing public disillusionment with
political processes both in Australia and overseas, community
organisations had given many people who are "frustrated with the
political process have turned their energies to community organisations,
and hope to help create a better society through them" – making them
even more vital to sustaining democracy.
However, Dr Hamilton said that recently the legitimacy of NGOs and
their contribution to democratic processes had come under threat. He
cited recent criticism of NGOs by "right-wing Melbourne think-tank" the
Institute for Public Affairs – who described them as "'selfish and
self-serving' interest groups with little representative legitimacy".
He then said NGOs were also under threat from the Federal Government
itself with the Government asking the IPA to carry out an audit of how
NGOs relate to Government departments.
Dr Hamilton said many NGOs also felt threatened by the (now defunct) Charities
Bill which had looked at restricting the advocacy pursued by community
groups.
He said a study of NGOs' perceptions found that many found themselves
increasingly excluded from the policy-making process. Mr Hamilton said a
study of NGOs perceptions and attitudes by the Institute last year had
charted these fears. Its results included:
- That 61% of NGOs surveyed said the Federal Government was their
main barrier in getting their message heard. 34% said the State
Government was their main barrier;
- That among NGOs with Federal Government funding, 70% reported
that funding sometimes restricted their ability to comment on Government
policy – with some expressing that there was an "implicit pressure"
from the Government that it did fund organisations that criticised it;
- That NGOs overwhelmingly see the Federal Government, and to a
lesser extent State Government, more keen to silence debate than
tolerate or encourage it;
- That NGOs overwhelmingly feel that the current Australian
political culture did not encourage public debate, and that those who
dissented from current government policy were not valued by the
government "as part of a robust democracy", and
- That almost 90% of NGOs surveyed felt that dissenting
organisations were at risk of having their government funding cut.
"On coming to power in 1996, Prime Minister Howard expressed his
pleasure at the fact that more people 'feel able to speak a little more
freely and a little more openly' because the 'pall of censorship on
certain issues has been lifted'," Dr Hamilton said.
"It would appear from the survey results presented here that, contrary
to the Prime Minister's view, many NGOs are reluctant, if not afraid, to
speak out. It means that the knowledge and breadth of experience
collected together in this room are having much less influence on how we
develop as a society than they should."
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