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Geoff Lake

Biography:

Geoff is a local government councillor and former Mayor of the City of Monash. Last year he was elected President of the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) by the 79 councils across Victoria. He also serves as a Vice President of the Australian Local Government Association and as a board member on the Metropolitan Fire Brigade.

Statement:

Australia has much to look forward to over the next twenty years and beyond. However, how the country responds to the myriad of challenges that we face today will determine our success in building a happier and wealthier society for tomorrow.

A key to our continued growth and success will be our approach to immigration issues. Australia must not turn its back on the essential ingredient of our success of the past century - the diverse migrants whom have made Australia their home. The last decade has highlighted some of the negative aspects of the latent prejudices that exist within public policy and Australian society. This runs counter to the type of Australian society that we should be aspiring to build and progress. There will always be an element of the Australian population that views immigration as a threat to their way of life. Public policy must not play to such prejudice but rather demonstrate the significant benefits that flow to the whole country from embracing multiculturalism and immigration.  

The size and functioning of government will also be an issue that will continue to frustrate many people. Given the relative small size of our population, there is a need to reconsider the intergovernmental framework within which our democracy is based. It is hard to find someone who is a staunch defender of the justification for our current three tier system of government. However, the idea of changing such familiar structures is not practical and is not likely. Instead governments must work better together to aggregate up where there is advantage and devolve down when warranted.  

Local government has a key role to play in this regard. In our rapidly globalising world, people are just as likely to communicate with a person over the other side of the world using the internet than they are to talk to their next door neighbour. Local government is best to address the disengagement many people increasingly feel as they lose a sense of community at the local level. State Government is the level that must be raided in the interests of providing a better holistic system of government. Responsibilities such as health and education should be coordinated nationally to better respond to the growing challenges in these areas.  

Australia must invest more in education and on research and development. Requiring a component of superannuation investments to be placed in local innovative businesses would be a step in the right direction to achieving this aim. Moreover, Australia needs to achieve world class rankings for its leading universities. Of crucial importance to the whole country is the quality and breadth of the government secondary education system. It is a great shame that the gap - both real and perceived - between government and private schools is growing. More investment into our government schools is essential to ensure that we do not allow the two tier model of our health system to engulf our education system.