Phillip Blond: the man behind the UK's massive 'Big Society' job cuts
Britain may be able to teach us about winning gold medals, but Australia shouldn't be taking lessons on how to run our government, writes CPSU National Secretary Nadine Flood
Watch Nadine Flood and a panel of experts discuss the Coalition’s plans to use Big Society to cut jobs and services.
Britain may be able to teach us about winning gold medals, but Australia shouldn't be taking lessons on how to run our government.
Professional pontificator Phillip Blond, the intellectual force behind the Cameron government's social policies, is currently touring Australia trying to sell his vision of a "Big Society" where government gets out of the way and communities take care of themselves.
The question of what happens to communities that can't help themselves might best be answered by a trip to the declining former industrial towns in the north of England, or the housing estates of London.
The "Big Society" has been seized on by the Cameron government as its feel-good justification for massive public sector job cuts in the United Kingdom, as it tries to implement an austerity program which has seen the UK economy stuck in neutral for two years.
Cameron's Coalition government has begun to implement cuts that will see over $150 billion cut from public spending in the UK, including cuts to welfare payments. A public servant has been made redundant every minute of every day, and departmental budgets have been cut by 19 per cent.
The alleged economic growth that was to flow from this has not appeared, but this has not deterred Mr Blond. Like any good spruiker he is now trying to make his vision international.
Blond's Australian performances, including Q&A this week, would have been an amusing sideshow if it wasn't for the fact he has already met with the Coalition shadow cabinet and briefed Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on his 'vision' of how to take the axe to public services while singing Kumbaya.
He may as well have been advising the recently-elected Liberal state governments in Victoria, NSW and Queensland who are slashing and burning the jobs required to deliver decent government services.
Blond's insistence that if only government got out of the way people would fill the gap is about as convincing as an inspirational greeting card.
His thinking is totally inappropriate for a country that already has a comparatively small public sector by the standards of developed countries. The UK's public sector – born out of the post-war welfare state - represents nearly half the economy, Australia's is only about one-third.
Australia's thriving community sector is already working with the public sector to deliver services to the aged, people with disability and the homeless.
Yes, Australian governments fund not-for-profits and faith-based charities to perform social work. But this is not a case of government abdicating its responsibilities or "getting out of the way". It is a case of combining the resources of government and the skills of locally based public sector professionals, with the expertise and passion of not-for-profit groups.
People expect government to take care of the vulnerable and provide a decent safety net for all.
Take disability for example. While thousands of voluntary organisations work with people with disability, the bi-partisan political support for a National Disability Insurance Scheme recognises the need for government to intervene and provide the funding needed to properly care for people with disability.
Australia's federal public service administers agencies like Centrelink and Medicare, which serve millions of Australians each year. The CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology provide services that simply cannot be duplicated by the private sector or by groups of concerned citizens.
If Customs was abolished, does Mr Blond really think a voluntary network of binocular-wielding citizens would immediately spring up to patrol our waters?
Despite their intellectual shallowness, thinkers like Phillip Blond act as a useful fig leaf for conservative governments.
All research shows that the public likes governments to provide decent services, and takes a dim view of cuts. People want access to the services they need, when they need them. Contracting out has been a mixed success, as has privatisation of public assets.
So anyone planning to sack at least 12,000 public servants and cut at least $50 billion from the federal budget over four years – as Tony Abbott plans to do – had better have an effective cover story.
Mr Abbott has not said where these cuts will come from but to give you an idea of the scale, $50 billion represents more than three times our annual defence budget, or more than half of the annual total of all pensions and other welfare payments.
You can see why thinkers like Mr Blond are prized by politicians.
A warm and cuddly wraparound for their cost-cutting is more attractive than the cold truth. The Coalition has a hard-wired, ideological disdain of the public sector and when in office, it will cut the services all Australians rely on.
Posted by:Robyn S - 4 Sep 2012, 1:52pm Having seen Phillip Blond on ABC's Q&A the other week, I have only two words to say BIG MOUTH
Posted by:Ian Lines - 4 Sep 2012, 7:08am The days of productivity increases are over. No economy can sustain the cuts in jobs that productivity increases initiate. It is now time to decrease productivity and increase number of jobs dramatically. Wages of course must stay at same levels for approximately half of the hours currently worked. 'The system can't take it' you say? Of course it can't. But the system is well and truly redundant, only being propped up by those who are too conditioned in supporting the ruling class that they have trouble imagining a more appropriate system. Wake up people - money is not tied to labour, gold or anything else. The rich do not have to get poorer for the poor to get richer. So when someone says to you, 'Where will the money come from', tell them to realise that 'money' is only figures on a computer screen, not the tangible commodity that they are conditioned to believe. Once this is understood by the majority of people the doors are open to advance society. Our union can be a mainstay in removing austerity/poverty from the Australian political agenda. Be an active member and not a bystander hoping that someone else will change things for you.
Posted by:Dominique - 28 Aug 2012, 12:02pm I have read the entire Big Society report and I find it very scary that it could happen in Australia.
I believe that it should be given a lot more publicity, because average people don?t know, or are not motivated enough. However, if they knew the implications they would vote with their feet.
The ABC is a good forum, but I believe it should be discussed on main stream TV stations, people should be told what is waiting for them.
What can we do? What do you plan to do? This should not be discussed by union members, but by everyone.
Regards
Posted by:Ian L - 28 Aug 2012, 8:23am Regarding the comments by Alice - 23rd Aug 2012. You are absolutely correct Alice. Empirical studies (see 'The Jobless Future' for a start {it's a book - Google it})show that the jobs lost in the 1989'Recession we had to have' never came back. Jobs continue to be shed rapidly as our politicians bleat about how well we are all doing.Further empirical studies show that if every person of working age had a full time job, the work needed to fulfill the whole world's requirements would give every worker a career of four years. This research did not include China coming online as a mainstream consumer. This makes the work situation even worse. This is not a reason for dismay. What it means is that we humans will be released from drudgery into leading meaningful lives acheiving the meaningful lives that we aspire to. I hear the non-thinkers screeching 'Where will the money come from'. To these people I can only say try to break out of your conditioned mindset and realise that the free market system that the Western world works under is not collapsing - it has collapsed. It is now open to replacement by a far more appropriate system geared to the human needs of the 21st century and not to the 18th Century from whence it came. Support our union to help initiate a system worthy of the 21st century and of the human race.
Posted by:Phil Andrews - 27 Aug 2012, 10:00am I differ with your opinion that the privatisation of public services has had "mixed success". It has had no success, you have only to look at our run down chaotic telecummunications, the massive hikes in electricity prices, the run down public transport systems to see that privatisation of public services doesn't work, never has worked and never will work, and I challange anybody to name a privatised public service which produces better service at a lower cost. You cannot replace something which is driven by service with something that is driven by profits.
Having seen Phillip Blond on ABC's Q&A the other week, I have only two words to say BIG MOUTH
The days of productivity increases are over. No economy can sustain the cuts in jobs that productivity increases initiate. It is now time to decrease productivity and increase number of jobs dramatically. Wages of course must stay at same levels for approximately half of the hours currently worked. 'The system can't take it' you say? Of course it can't. But the system is well and truly redundant, only being propped up by those who are too conditioned in supporting the ruling class that they have trouble imagining a more appropriate system. Wake up people - money is not tied to labour, gold or anything else. The rich do not have to get poorer for the poor to get richer. So when someone says to you, 'Where will the money come from', tell them to realise that 'money' is only figures on a computer screen, not the tangible commodity that they are conditioned to believe. Once this is understood by the majority of people the doors are open to advance society. Our union can be a mainstay in removing austerity/poverty from the Australian political agenda. Be an active member and not a bystander hoping that someone else will change things for you.
I have read the entire Big Society report and I find it very scary that it could happen in Australia. I believe that it should be given a lot more publicity, because average people don?t know, or are not motivated enough. However, if they knew the implications they would vote with their feet. The ABC is a good forum, but I believe it should be discussed on main stream TV stations, people should be told what is waiting for them. What can we do? What do you plan to do? This should not be discussed by union members, but by everyone. Regards
Regarding the comments by Alice - 23rd Aug 2012. You are absolutely correct Alice. Empirical studies (see 'The Jobless Future' for a start {it's a book - Google it})show that the jobs lost in the 1989'Recession we had to have' never came back. Jobs continue to be shed rapidly as our politicians bleat about how well we are all doing.Further empirical studies show that if every person of working age had a full time job, the work needed to fulfill the whole world's requirements would give every worker a career of four years. This research did not include China coming online as a mainstream consumer. This makes the work situation even worse. This is not a reason for dismay. What it means is that we humans will be released from drudgery into leading meaningful lives acheiving the meaningful lives that we aspire to. I hear the non-thinkers screeching 'Where will the money come from'. To these people I can only say try to break out of your conditioned mindset and realise that the free market system that the Western world works under is not collapsing - it has collapsed. It is now open to replacement by a far more appropriate system geared to the human needs of the 21st century and not to the 18th Century from whence it came. Support our union to help initiate a system worthy of the 21st century and of the human race.
I differ with your opinion that the privatisation of public services has had "mixed success". It has had no success, you have only to look at our run down chaotic telecummunications, the massive hikes in electricity prices, the run down public transport systems to see that privatisation of public services doesn't work, never has worked and never will work, and I challange anybody to name a privatised public service which produces better service at a lower cost. You cannot replace something which is driven by service with something that is driven by profits.