In search of slush funds and off-books moneys in the NSW Liberal Party

More on the murky world of New South Wales Liberal Party fundraising and donations:

In yesterday’s homework for Dare We Call it Whitehousegate, the challenge was to identify the 2009 managing director of Tenko Management Pty Ltd. He was mentioned at ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) on 2 May 2014.

It was in connection with fundraising in the evidence of Karen McNamara, the Liberal member for the Federal seat of Dobell. It concerned the question of “off-books moneys” in Central Coast 2011 State election campaigns, in particular Wyong, The Entrance and Terrigal. McNamara was the campaign manager for Darren Webber, Liberal candidate for Wyong. It was alleged that $300,000 for the three seats had been directed through the Terrigal campaign.

Our person of interest is Rodney Michael Bosman, son of former Member of the House of Representatives for St George, Leonard Bosman.

The page above is from Disclosure Details for Donor Tenko Management Pty Ltd for the Election Funding Authority. It details contributions of $2598 to Sam Danieli's 2008 Mayoral Campaign for Warringah.

According to a Newcastle Herald report  of ICAC hearings and four disgraced local Liberal MLAs:

The party… appointed a ‘‘battleground director’’, Rod Bosman, who oversaw the Hunter and Central Coast.

When asked at ICAC about suspicions she may have had, McNamara replied:

I spoke with Darren Webber [one of the 4 MLAs] who advised me it was coming through Terrigal. I also spoke with Rod Bosman who came in from Sydney to oversee the Hunter and Central Coast campaigns.

[And what did Mr Bosman tell you?] ---That it was going through the Terrigal SEC.

[So Mr Bosman was aware of this arrangement where this money was going through the Terrigal SEC?] ---Yes.

Until recently Bosman worked for the NSW Liberal Party in Western Sydney. He was also a key campaigner for John Howard and John Alexander in the federal seat of Bennelong.

On 23 November 2010 Tenko Management paid $1462 to the Wyong SEC campaign.

In 2004 Leighton Holdings listed among its donations/events the sum of $2500, for a ‘Meet the Shadow Cabinet Dinner’, paid to the Liberal Party of Australia – NSW Division c/- Rod Bosman. The PO Box was one that has been used by Tenko Management Pty Ltd in Drummoyne.

It would be interesting to see Tenko’s company accounts to determine what sort of company it is and what other political payments it has made to the Liberal Party over the years. An appearance by Mr. Bosman at ICAC would help to clarify the mucky money trail that is called political donations in NSW.

We look forward to ICAC's further investigations and findings in regard to 'allegations concerning soliciting, receiving and concealing payments'.

This post is part of a series about political donations in Australia:

Foundation 51's Cosy Links with the Country Liberal Party

Dare We Call it Whitehousegate

In search of slush funds and off-books moneys in the NSW Liberal Party

Townsville Money Trail: Political Donors in Queensland's Deep North

Nathan Tinkler & Co: Political Donors Anonymous

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Dare We Call it Whitehousegate

The strange case of Prime Minister Tony Abbott's daughter and her scholarship to the Whitehouse Institute has all sorts of connections. [Disclaimer: No inference of wrongdoing should be drawn from any of this information.]

Some background from the Guardian Australia:

Tony Abbott’s daughter Frances received a “chairman’s scholarship” for a degree costing more than $60,000 from the Whitehouse Institute of Design where an Abbott donor sits as chairman on the board of governors, Guardian Australia can reveal.

The revelation raises questions for the prime minister over whether the scholarship should have been declared on his interests register.
Tony Abbott's daughter was given scholarship for $60,000 design degree

Les Taylor, the chairman of the Whitehouse Institute of Design who recommended Frances Abbott to be only the second recipient of the 'chairman's scholarship', has made donations of more than $20,000 to the Liberal party
Liberal donor personally recommended Tony Abbott's daughter for scholarship

The new New Matilda has also been doing some digging:

Assurances by the Prime Minister that a $60,000 scholarship awarded to his daughter Frances on the basis of merit have been contradicted by testimony and documents obtained by New Matilda.

I found these links with a web search or two:

On 7 September 2011 The Green’s Democracy4Sale project made a Supplementary submission to the inquiry into the funding of political parties and election campaigns claiming:

Tenko Management Pty Ltd made a $10,708 contribution to Tony Abbott’s Warringah FEC on 6 September 2004. This money included a total of $10,250 comprised of donations each over the NSW disclosure threshold current at the time from Gary Cohen using IBA Health’s Sydney address, John Roth using the address of Henroth Pty Ltd, Les Taylor of Manly, Mark Lochtenberg of Mosman and RC Corbett of Mosman.

In 2002 Tenko contributed $1,338 to the Liberal Party candidate for the Georges River State electorate, Joanne Maire McCafferty, in the 2003 New South Wales election.

In 2012 the Sydney Morning Herald had also come across the mysterious Tenko Management in a related context:

THE NSW Liberal Party has discovered more than $200,000 worth of donations received during the last financial year that it had not previously revealed to the Australian Electoral Commission.

…Also amending its records with the electoral commission is Servcorp, a strong supporter of the Liberal Party and the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott.

…In its original declaration, Servcorp listed donations to the Liberal Party itself in three states as well as to a company called Tenko Management Pty Ltd, based in Sydney, which was not listed as a donor or associated entity of the Liberal Party.

Incidentally, the Hon Mark Anthony James Vaile, former National Party leader and deputy prime minister is a non-executive director of Servcorp Limited.

Investigating the murky area of political donors and donations is difficult enough but is compounded when the paper trail involves handwritten documents. No wonder investigative journalism is a dying trade.

Update: It appears that the managing director of Tenko Management in 2009 worked for the NSW Liberal Party in Western Sydney. Finding out his name is your homework. He has a fine Tory pedigree.

This post is part of a series about political donations in Australia:

Foundation 51's Cosy Links with the Country Liberal Party

Dare We Call it Whitehousegate

In search of slush funds and off-books moneys in the NSW Liberal Party

Townsville Money Trail: Political Donors in Queensland's Deep North

Nathan Tinkler & Co: Political Donors Anonymous

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Foundation 51's Cosy Links with the Country Liberal Party

As a former Northern Territorian I had to track down these stories about Foundation 51:

From Crikey:

Has the NSW disease spread to the big end of town in the Top End? What are the links between the CLP and the secretive Foundation 51?

With the top end of town in the Top End – the CLP’s Foundation 51

From the NT News:

A SENIOR public servant and magistrate are directors of a Country Liberal Party-aligned research company that “contributed significantly towards the activities of the Blain by-election”, emails and text messages seen by theNT News reveal.

The company solicits corporate “memberships” worth more than $20,000.

NT Land Development Board chairman Graeme Lewis is a member of the CLP management committee and a director of a private entity named in NT Parliament yesterday as Foundation 51.

High-flyers embroiled in CLP-allied ‘research’ fund

It didn't take long to discover these connections with the CLP:

According to a 2010 Northern Territory Electoral Commission (NTEC) document, in 2009-10 Foundation 51 shared GPO Box 199 Darwin with the CLP Darwin Branch (which they still used in 2013) and CLP Gifts & Legacies Pty Ltd.

The CLP received $13,200 for "services rendered" from CLP Gifts & Legacies Pty Ltd.

Foundation 51 Application Form.  Source VEXNEWS 2009

In Return Receipt Details - 2012-13 - Country Liberals (Northern Territory), the AEC website records the GPO Box 199 for CLP Gifts & Legacies Pty Ltd. Graeme Lewis is listed as their accountant. It made donations of $68,000 and $9,000 to the CLP.

A 2006/7 CLP Return lists a donation of $5,164 from a G. Lewis of GPO Box 199 Darwin. CLP Gifts & Legacies Pty Ltd, then at GPO Box 4194, gave the CLP $18,681.74 for "property administration".

It would be interesting to know who has donated to CLP Gifts & Legacies and Foundation 51. Pity there isn't an ICAC in the NT. Perhaps the Office of the Commissioner for Public Interest Disclosures could start an inquiry.

Update 2 June 2014:

From The Australian:

The new [Northern Territory] PUP recruits used parliamentary question time to expose the CLP for allegedly concealing political donations made via a shadowy private company known as Foundation 51.

...According to [ALP] opposition government accountability spokesman Ken Vowles, Foundation 51 is “a front company set up and deliberately designed to avoid disclosure of donations”. Vowles says there are “very close parallels between Found­ation 51 and the murky entity Eightbyfive”, established by NSW Liberals.

...Foundation 51 is not declared as a politically associated entity and has not lodged donor returns.

...Documents accessible online appear to describe Foundation 51 as “an initiative of the CLP” that shared a post-office box with a party branch.
No more she'll be right

Good to see the Oz using Labor View's research.

This post is part of a series about political donations in Australia:

Foundation 51's Cosy Links with the Country Liberal Party

Dare We Call it Whitehousegate

In search of slush funds and off-books moneys in the NSW Liberal Party

Townsville Money Trail: Political Donors in Queensland's Deep North

Nathan Tinkler & Co: Political Donors Anonymous

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Good News about Oz Economy- Believe It or Not

Some tweets to brighten up your day if Joe Hockey's economic voodoo is worrying you:

Australia’s GDP per capita 2012 was US$67,442 per person, cf $51,749 for USA . In Howard's 2005 Aus GDP per capita =$32,526, US=$44,314.

— Rod_Hagen (@Rod_Hagen) May 4, 2014

Did you know the size of govt was 1.8% of GDP lower under Rudd/Gillard than under Howard? http://t.co/AINhzYUFDY #insiders
— Stephen Koukoulas (@TheKouk) May 3, 2014

Some crisis @johndory49 Oz 1 of only 6 countries with AAA credit rating from all 3 major agencies & lowest debt-to-GDP of 17 major economies
— Good Sir Knight (@BrigadierSlog) May 4, 2014

IMF says as things stand Australia is forecast to have second lowest debt in 2018 #debtmythbusting #auspol
— Brendan O'Connor (@BOConnorMP) May 4, 2014

OPINION: If Australia's economy is in crisis,the rest of the world is doomed http://t.co/8CquJniju5 #auspol #qldpol pic.twitter.com/63wqb2VcVU
— The Courier-Mail (@couriermail) May 3, 2014

Even the guy that wrote the #CommisionOfAudit ADMITS there IS NO BUDGET EMERGENCY! #AusPol pic.twitter.com/2s5dQnwU0X
— Kiera (@KieraGorden) May 2, 2014

The last time Aust had a real economic emergency Abbott got drunk and went and slept in his office #auspol http://t.co/bxyzoks6nF
— Quiet_Please (@Quiet__Please) May 4, 2014

'As if the authors watched The Wire and thought, if only': @GrogsGamut on the Commission of Audit: http://t.co/fZQ8isSS2e

— Katharine Viner (@KathViner) May 5, 2014

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Video: Bill Shorten on Board for Labor Party Reform

"It is clear to me that there is a widespread, genuine passion for rebuilding the Labor party.

...Today I announce the start of a major campaign to rebuild the Australian Labor Party and renew our sense of purpose.

...Making Labor more democratic and more representative is also about reaching out to union members – not just those in leadership positions – to join our party and participate in our decision-making.

Unions will always have a vital role to play in Australian society – and I want union members to continue to play a role in our party, as members."

For the full transcript of Bill Shorten's Per Capita speech 'Towards a modern Labor Party' please click the link.

There was a Q&A session. This video Bill Shorten on Board for Labor Party Reform Q&A has extensive excerpts:

Bill has made significant challenges to National Executive, National Conference and State Conferences to come to the reform table and take up the cause. The leaders of affiliated unions and their members have to make some brave decisions. There will be opposition from some with vested interests in maintaining the status quo. It's up to Labor party members and supporters to help in the transition to a truly modern Labor party in whatever forums they can, and as importantly at a personal level.

As Bill said,

"So today is a day for facing up to some hard truths. 

Friends, Tony Abbott did not put Labor in Opposition – the Australian people put us here.

And unless we change, it is where we will stay."

There is no turning back now. It's time for everyone to come on board or get out of the way.

I have been elected as a delegate from the Goldstein electorate to the Victorian State Conference on 17-18 May and look forward to engaging in constructive discussions about revitalising and democratising the party.

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Faces in the crowd: Melbourne #MarchinMarch

The Marches in March continue to glow with controversy. Never did so few gather so many, without engaging the usual suspects of the old media, the political parties, NGOs, the unions and the activist groups. There had to be a dark side to these events. The people can’t have minds of their own! Or if they do they must be warped!

Tim Dunlop has joined the fray with a post at The Drum: Rage against the mainstream

The fact is, the media's lame response to an estimated 100,000 citizens showing up on the streets around the country is indicative of a deeper malaise: the rules of news have changed, and increasingly legacy media companies have neither the capacity nor the wit to operate in the new environment.

His target was the Sydney Morning Herald’s Jacqueline Maley.

Tim’s piece follows Lyndon Morley spirited offence at Independent Australia in support of his sign RESIGN DICKHEAD! He was replying to Andrew Bolt’s slanted reporting at the Herald Sun. Bolt was comparing the remarks about Abbott with those of Alan Jones about Julia Gillard. As usual he saw red: "But who will apologise for the parade of hatred in today’s March in March?" He found what he was looking for, of course.

I’ll leave jousting with the black knight of bigotry to Lyndon.

Matthew Donovan tackled The Daily Telegraph’s Tim Blair over what he called “delusions and blind or wilful ignorance” on AIMN on Wednesday. His message: “I will not let you smear the good people who marched”.

I’ll just stick to what I saw and heard in my hometown. To flip the record, I’ve compiled some offcuts that didn’t make my original video piece on the Melbourne #MarchinMarch, not for the signs of the times but for the faces of the people:

One of the more appealing aspects of the Melbourne march was the signs. By and large, they were not offensive. Some seemed to have gone to extremes to be polite:

Kindness matters!

Not Happy Tony.

We Can Do Better!

Cowdy Songs Not Cowboy Govt.

Careful Now!

Wake Up Australia!

In fact most were homemade and some appeared to be the handy work of people more accustomed to writing letters-to-the-editor, pamphleteers rather than sloganeers:

Human Dignity Is Independent of National Borders. We must Always Defend the Interests of the Poor and the Persecuted.

Arbitrary Governments Use Arbitrary Detention.

The longest read:

MR ABBOTT AHD HIS GOVERNMENT HAVE SAID
NO TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND SCIENCE
NO TO MORE WOMEN IN CABINET
NO TO THEIR OWN EDUCATION PROMISES
NO TO THEIR OWN NBN PROMISES
NO TO THEIR OWN HEALTHCARE PROMISES
NO TO REFUGEES
NOW WE SAY NO TO YOU MR. ABBOTT!!!

Many were decidedly to the point:

Tony Abbott Worst PM in Australia’s History.

Wanted for Crimes Against Humanity and Our Planet.

No More Racism, No More Bull, Australia’s Nowhere Near Full!b>Welcome Asylum Seekers and Refugees.

No Justice, No Peace.

Some were a tad obscure:

Viva la Evolucion!

This one had two sides:

Dirty Coal. Clean Wind

Very few signs that I saw were truly offensive or in bad taste. This exception was timeless and certainly open to the charge of not being focussed:

Fuck the Police

It probably wouldn’t resonate with Bolt quite like ‘Fuck Tony Abbott’ T-shirts did.

Monday's Media Watch looked at a coverage paradox, namely how the old media both ignored and condemned the marches. Paul Barry picked up the threads:

A bevy of right-wing columnists have accused the ABC and Fairfax of failing to condemn some vicious anti-Abbott placards, carried by a handful of marchers.

But it was not just the Right that was unhappy with the way the March in March was covered.

Many protesters felt that 31 marches and tens of thousands of people deserved far more attention.

[This is a crosspost with the Australian Independent Media Network.]

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VIDEO: Melbourne's Massive March in March

Australians took to the streets on the weekend of 15 - 16 March 2014 to protest against the Tony Abbott's Federal government just six months after its election. Melbourne's crowd of approximately 50,000 was the largest.

One of the most remarkable aspects of this phenomenon is that it is a grassroots movement, not driven by the usual suspects in the progressive forces.

It showed the power of social media in spreading the word, as the old media gave the marches little or no coverage beforehand.

March in March's Facebook page banner proclaims: Decency, Transparency, Accountability. Its call:

March In March Australia 2014 will be three days of peaceful assemblies, non-partisan citizens’ marches and rallies at Federal Parliament and around Australia to protest against government decisions that are against the common good of our nation.

This signifies a 'people’s vote of no confidence' in government policies and decisions that go against common principles of humanity, decency, fairness, social justice and equity, democratic governance, responsible global citizenship and conserving our natural heritage.

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ALP Party Reform: a long time waiting

ALP members have waited a long time for party reform. We have watched the Federal party waste the promise of the 2007 elections, tearing itself apart with personality politics, factional feuds, and backroom deals and bullying.

The party administration and campaigning, at both Federal and State levels, have been woeful to say the least. We must breakdown the wall between the insiders and the membership if this is to improve.

Clearly we face a crisis within the ALP that requires some major changes. The dead hand of the factions requires members to take a strong stand to ensure democratic decision-making throughout the organisation, not just at local level. As I wrote in an earlier post, "It is a joke to be promoting community campaigning with local candidates and at the same time reverting to the worst of factional politics that goes in the opposite direction."

I have nominated for election as a delegate from Goldstein electorate for the Victorian State Conference and will be supporting others who are prepared to work for rules changes and a changed culture. The time has come for those who have been tied up at conference and the Public Office Selection Committee by faction loyalty or favours to move aside or embrace a new path. We must not have any more preselection debacles. We must have real policy debates where we can be proud of the outcomes whichever point of view prevails.

We need to thrash out the kinds of changes that Local Labor and Open Labor have been proposing. Many of Labor's warlords are more interested in dividing the spoils of opposition than winning office with progressive policies.

We will not get a broad base unless we are prepared to stop whispering in the corridors and walking past the totally unacceptable.

I hope other members will join in nominating as candidates to help revitalise our party. [As an ALP life member of 42 years standing, I won't be tempted to sell out for career ambitions.]

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Griffith Big Bash By-election is Just Not Cricket

There is a cricket team of candidates for the Griffith By-election on 8 February 2014. Nine of the eleven candidates represent registered political parties, but will electors really have any idea about who or what they are voting for in Kevin Rudd’s old House of Representatives seat?

The 2013 Senate results exposed some of the bizarre idiosyncrasies resulting from our compulsory electoral system: we have to vote and we have to allocate preferences to all candidates. 

The party names will be written on the Griffith ballot paper so that should help, shouldn’t it?

Policy Bazaar

If you choose the Bullet Train Party, you'll know what comedian Anthony Ackroyd will be fighting for if he wins. He may have to give up his impersonations of Kevin Rudd. However, it won’t be hard to take the mickey out of himself since he will be required to abstain from voting on any matters except the train. Now that’s taking a lot of taxpayers’ money for very little jam.

At least Family First’s candidate Christopher Williams could follow the example of former senator Steve Fielding who often made up policy on the run. In the absence of a hung parliament, he’ll have to rely on FF’s South Australian senator-elect Bob Day who doubtless will continue the traditional of backroom deals.

The Secular Party has lots of the policies you might expect: no religion in schools, support for an Aussie Republic. It stands for a carbon tax but against emissions trading schemes. Some voters may be surprised to know that they are pro-abortion and strongly favour Australia participating “in all stages of the nuclear fuel cycle, including power generation and waste disposal”. Presumably, these will not be located in Griffith’s backyard.

In order for ‘…new Australian citizens understand that their primary loyalty must be to Australia and its values, not their religion…’ the SPA’s citizenship pledge will be:

I pledge my loyalty to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose rights, liberties and values I respect, and whose laws I will uphold and obey.

The list of shared values will be found in an expanded Australian Values Statement. The secularists want “Evidence of compliance with the Australian Values Statement, such as witness statements, …before permanent residence visas and citizenship are granted.’ If you’ve forgotten or never heard about the Statement, you’d better rush to read it before you vote next. It involves ‘a shared identity, a common bond’ that all Aussies accept implicitly, don’t we.

Timothy Lawrence may be regretting the shaky status of his party’s name, which will soon change from the one on the ballot paper to the Sustainable Population Party. The thesaurus doesn’t have them as synonyms. The current name could easily be associated with right-wing anti-immigration parties while ‘sustainable’ has definite green connotations.

Ray Sawyer is wearing the hat for Bob Katter’s Australian Party, having gained only 1.92% as candidate for the seat of Fairfax in 2013. They directed their second preferences to Clive Palmer and his eponymous party, who won that by a nose, but PUP has squibbed this contest.

According to independent Karel Boele, “He supports needs-based education funding and an effective solution to climate instability, for example an ETS. He supports improved discussions and trade with neighbouring countries, and a no offshore processing by Australia policy for refugees.” He is independent. Or is he?  He runs the People Decide platform and will vote on Bills in Parliament directly through the Internet. Now that’s a real pig in a poke. He will vote on each Bill in accordance with the majority of votes. It’s a bit murky as to how he will vote on amendments.

Dealing preferences

The Pirate Party proudly claims to be “the first and only political party in Australia to decide all its candidates and Senate preferences by a party-wide vote”. However, the process in 2013 involved making deals with other parties for preference swaps that were then put to the members for ratification. How many of the party officialdom or membership were aware of the possible ramifications in the Senate is unclear. They responded to a tweet about whether they helped to elect the motoring or sports mob or Palmer's miners to the Senate in 2013:

@Kevin_Rennie if we did, it was unintentional. Motoring at 29, Sports at 25, Palmer at 43. Not exactly high up. :)
— Pirate Party AU (@piratepartyau) January 15, 2014

The Liberal National Party has put its faith in the reverse donkey vote in its preference allocation. Their preferences go from Bill Glasson, bottom to top.

At least one well-known Queensland Lib thinks independent Travis Windsor is worth a look. Could we stand another independent T. Windsor? Could make for some messy googling. He’s splitting his preferences but in each case The Greens are ahead of Labor or the Coalition.

The Greens have Labor ahead of the Coalition but behind five small parties. Anthony Ackroyd is their first choice. That was an easy call, as his party has no other policies to sift through. The Stable Population Party is second. Its policies line up with many of The Greens’ own goals but some commentators have argued that its motives are suspect. Malcolm King is one of them. Last August he argued:

The Stable Population Party (SPP) is using environmental and community groups to 'green wash' its anti-immigration message and split the Greens vote at the Federal election.

Next comes the Pirate Party of Australia, which shares lots of policies with The Greens and their other fancied micro-parties. Nothing illegal of course, PPA’s core business is not piracy, but freeing up copyright. However, they could be labeled copycats on many other issues, as could many of the others. It’s good to see so much agreement with marriage equality, climate change trading schemes, and humane treatment of asylum seekers.

Their other two Greens’ preference choices fit that bill. However, The Greens can’t be jumping for joy over the Secular Party’s nuclear stance. Karel Boele is a policy loose cannon for a different reason, as he’s going to follow direction from voters online. Nevertheless, they’re happy to put him ahead of Labor.

The ALP’s Terri Butler has The Greens second on her how-to-vote card, and then just numbers down the ballot paper. Less informal votes that way. There is no potential controversy as could arise if we had One Nation progeny in this field.

Now if you fancy any of the other candidates, please see what you can discover online. If you don’t know to whom Katter’s mob or any of the others are giving the nod, good luck finding out. Their preferences may well decide the result!  

The policies of the two main contenders are not canvassed here, as the residents of Griffith are no doubt sick of leaflets, phone calls, SMS, and knocks on their doors. There have been suggestions of unethical and perhaps illegal push-polling and anonymous automated calls.

Train travellers are also well serviced by political candidates, if not necessarily by governments. The Bullet Train Party, which is not directing preferences presumably because Thomas the Tank Engine isn’t running, at least has a trainspotting video.

Given the disillusionment with the major parties (including The Greens) and the complexity of the voting system, it’s no wonder that nearly 6% of ballots cast for the House of Representatives in 2013 were informal. In addition, nearly 7% of enrolled voters did not turnout. The Australian Electoral Commission also estimated that more than one million eligible Australians are 'missing' from the electoral roll, approximately 7%. So nearly two in ten did not exercise their right to vote.

So much for compulsion! People are dying around the world for democracy. Some Australians are just lying low.

Presumably, aspiring Members of the House have been visible at the Gabba lately supporting the Brisbane Heat. However, many electors doubtless believe that compulsory, preferential voting is just not cricket.

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Ita Buttrose's Australia: Telling It the Way It Should Be

Ita Buttrose delivers the 2014 Australia Day Address
Photo: Australia Day Facebook page

If Ita Buttrose had been a candidate for the leadership of the Australian Labor Party against Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese, her 2014 Australia Day Address would have been a winner. The 2013 Australian of the Year wasn't afraid to argue for progressive directions nor to use a range of words that we won't hear from the Coalition or some Laborites in the near future.

The Australian spirit is also about lending a hand, helping those who need it the most and ensuring that we all get a fair go.

As you'd expect from the President of Alzheimer's Australia, Ita began by focusing on issues related to ageing:

...to believe that in time all Australians will adopt more positive attitudes to ageing, be more inclusive of people with dementia and disabilities and adopt social policies that ensure our country targets the precious resources we have to those who most need them.

But it was not long before she engaged in the cultures wars:

We find time to celebrate nation building through our military exploits – younger generations learning about the past through Gallipoli and the western front (all of which is a good thing) – but let’s not forget or whitewash the frontier wars with Australia’s first people in the process.

In fact, she quotes historian Manning Clark twice. As she mentions later, Ita's not into political correctness, whether it's from the left or right.

Nor does she shy away from social justice issues:

We need to keep reminding ourselves that social reform and economic responsibility can go hand in hand. It’s not a matter of either/or.

I warm to the thought that in the past – in the 1890s and the first part of the last century, and again in the post world war two years – Australia was able to achieve nation building with social reform, and we did it in our distinctly pragmatic way.

There is no place for discrimination against people with dementia – indeed against age – in the Australian psyche.

Ita sees science and education as key priorities:

I’d like to see the setting up of a national register of scientific achievements so that we could consistently celebrate the phenomenal brainpower that exists in our country.

...achieving greater equality within education and creating a system where education provides opportunities for disadvantaged students must be a fundamental focus if we are to aspire to the Australian dream of a fair go.

Ita favours a quota system for women on company boards similar to the one in Norway.

One area of inequality, close to my own heart, is opportunities for women. I am struck both by how much we’ve achieved in the last 50 years and how far we still need to go.

...Political correctness is stifling debate in Australia….Captains of industry, people in leadership roles; politicians are hesitant to say what they think about issues because of a possible media frenzy…

Her speech came before the announcement that indigenous footballer Adam Goodes is 2014 Australian of the Year but it's a choice that she is bound to strongly support.

In no two areas of policy has this been more challenging in our history than indigenous affairs and immigration.
We have made progress since federation but we all know that there is more to do.

...we have the capacity to share our country with many more refugees than we currently welcome and I believe we have a moral imperative to do so.

The e-word 'egalitarian' received much attention as did the f-word 'freedom':

For a long time we’ve defined ourselves as an egalitarian society where everyone has a “fair go” in life, regardless of whether they were born rich or poor.

Our aim should be to create a society in which we would want to live if we didn’t know in advance whether we would be rich or poor; healthy or ill; whether we might have a disability or not…a society that marries compassion with a can-do attitude.

I think that perhaps for this reason, there is a groundswell of grassroots support for major social reform such as the national disability insurance scheme, aged care and education, all of which strive to bring Australia closer to this ideal.

For a long time we’ve defined ourselves as an egalitarian society where everyone has a “fair go” in life, regardless of whether they were born rich or poor.
Our aim should be to create a society in which we would want to live if we didn’t know in advance whether we would be rich or poor; healthy or ill; whether we might have a disability or not…a society that marries compassion with a can-do attitude.

I think that perhaps for this reason, there is a groundswell of grassroots support for major social reform such as the national disability insurance scheme, aged care and education, all of which strive to bring Australia closer to this ideal.

The freedom that Australia offers is precious and must be preserved.

We have the freedom to make our own choices; to exercise our right to speak out, to hold a point of view about anything and everything; to disagree; to be an individual; to travel wherever we want in our own land; to aim for the top

Her optimism shines throughout:

I finish my 12 months as Australian of the year feeling optimistic about the future and confident that in spite of the challenging times which confront us, we possess the impetus and inherited seed of hope, which I maintain we inherit not just in our genes but from the soul of this great land of ours, to stay true to the egalitarian spirit of our nation.

The full transcript is available here or better still listen to the audio.

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