Community Wealth Building goes down under!
Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House
Across the world Community Wealth Building(CWB) is growing. And through our global network and development activity, TDC is ready to assist and help administrations and locations in their development of CWB. So with a packed range of engagements, I recently undertook a 2 week advisory tour of Australia. I found a significant enthusiasm for CWB with some exciting activities taking place.
It is worth reminding ourselves of the global movement and how far it has come. First articulated by The Democracy Collaborative (TDC) in Cleveland in 2005. CWB spread to the UK – notable in Preston (also here for definitive guide) – and this has been followed in the UK, with dozens of areas that have now embarked on some form of CWB. Furthermore, in a recent blog following another TDC advisory tour, we reported on how Scotland is taking a national approach to CWB, with all 32 local Councils within the country developing bespoke CWB action plans. There is now a Minister for Community Wealth within the Scottish Government. National legislation is being developed to strengthen the legal basis for CWB as a key element of systemic economic transformation.
Similarly, many places across the US are already undertaking strategies within the CWB model. To this end, The Democracy Collaborative is engaging with numerous cities and local governments with the aim to scale and amplify CWB. With interest in Cities such as Amsterdam, and other European cities and now Australia, it is clear that CWB is on the rise, offering a clear means by which we can build a more democratic and just economy which genuinely works for people, place and planet.
Australia is a very rich country and there is no shortage of wealth, driven partly by mining and resource extraction (i.e Australia is one the world’s largest carbon producers, exporting up to 70% of its coal much of it to China. It also has significant global reserves of key minerals and rare metals). In some way, Australia is the world’s quarry and is on the front line of wealth built on resource and financial investment extraction. Whilst the global economy benefits, many Australians suffer from poverty. There is significant inequality of income and wealth with the poorest 50% of Australians sharing only 6% of national personal wealth, whereas the middle 40% and top 10% own around 38% and 56% respectively.
With this as the big picture background, first on my Down Under trip was a visit to Australia’s largest city, Sydney, which is now using the CWB model devised by myself and TDC. Last year the City consulted on their draft CWB strategy. This is their first step toward a suite CWB actions across the five pillars of our TDC CWB model. Key amongst this is a recognition that whilst Australia and Sydney have enjoyed nearly 30 years of uninterrupted economic growth, this success is not being shared by all of Sydney’s citizens, with significant issues of housing affordability.
In meeting with the city of Sydney, it was clear that CWB offers a key economic transition for the city, and it was fabulous to meet with and chat with key officials, Councillors and Deputy Mayor Jess Scully. Jess was not only a firm advocate for CWB, but also a big fan of TDC and our work. Her fabulous book, Glimpses of Utopia, was a fab free read on the plane home, albeit CWB is now more than a glimpse, but a fully fledged and burgeoning agenda.
Posing with Jess Scully, Deputy Mayor of City of Sydney
From there, I met with Inner West council, a suburb in the Greater Sydney metropolitan area. In Inner West the issues of gentrification, and land and housing affordability runs deep, with CWB being seen as a potential antidote. And I met with senior officials, politicians including Mayor Darcy Byrne and Deputy Mayor of Inner Philippa Scott. We explored the role of land and property assets in Inner West and possibilities as to how we can democratise them more. Inner West is a place to watch!
View from Inner West Council offices, looking back to Downtown Sydney
From these two engagement and workshop sessions, I went on to deliver 2 conference keynotes: Australian regional housing conference and the Economic development of Australia annual summit event. In these, I had a chance to convey the message and application of CWB to a wider audience representing economic development and policy practitioners, officials, and elected politicians from across the vastness of Australia(see presentation here). In these presentations my core message was that with huge global climate and economic crisis, CWB is the practical, realisable antidote to a fossil fuel and wealth extracting economy. In a range of fascinating conversations across both conferences, I was most struck on the need for Australia to make a huge industrial transition from fossil fuels and resource exploitation, with CWB a central, practical and essential role within this economic and industrial transition moment.
I also met with some organisations representing key aspects of community wealth building including Melina Morrison the CEO of BCCM – the peak body for co-operatives and mutuals in Australia – and the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors (ACSI), a member body tasked with providing a strong, collective voice on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues on behalf of its superannuation fund members. ACSI are a fascinating organization, perhaps key in making the Australian transition from a flailing property owning democracy to one in which all Australians have an active financial ownership stake. ACSI has a membership which includes 26 Australian and international superannuation funds, asset owners and institutional investors, with over $1 trillion in funds under management.
The next leg of my trip had me meeting with the Minister for Cities in the New South Wales government, Rob Stokes. In this we explored issues of gentrification, fiscal pressures as regards infrastructure and the challenges of traditional revitalization in changing the economy of people and places.
From there, my weekend was taken up with my attendance and contribution to a CWB session at the State of New South Wales Labor Annual Party Conference. Buoyed by recent Australia federal election success of the new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, this conference was a privileged opportunity to hear PM Albanese speak, watch proceedings, network with a range of shadow ministers and union leader. I also had a chance to explain the power of CWB for local, regional and Federal Australia. This Session on CWB was facilitated by Osmond Chu (see article on CWB written by Os here) from the Community and Public Service Union (CPSU), and Shirley Jackson of Per Capita and the Centre for New Industry Initiative. Oz and Shirley were just an absolute stars in facilitating meetings and getting me access to a range of people. Australian CWB has some key advocates and minds.
PM of Australia Anthony Albanese, on stage at the New South Wales Labor Party Conference
The CWB session at the conference was very well attended, and it is testament to the enthusiasm for CWB that the session overran by 30 minutes. It was great to share a panel with Shirley, who was an erudite and smart chair and the powerful Philippa Scott, (who I met early in the week in Inner West Council). At the event I also had the pleasure of attending the democratic left dinner. There, I got to meet another host of people. I also had the absolute delight of sharing a dinner table with the Labor Shadow Minister for Regional Development Mick Veitch, who has written a fine article on the power of CWB.
After the conference, I went into the practicality of delivering CWB in Australia with 2 well attended masterclasses on CWB, one in Sydney and the other in Melbourne. This was conducted in partnership with Economic Development Australia and SGS Economics, who have been championing CWB. I conducted these Masterclasses with another key CWB Advocate in Australia, Pat Fensham. Pat is principal partner at SGS and wrote a piece on Community Wealth Building in Australia. I did the global overview on some U.S. and U.K. case studies while Pat smartly added Australian examples and how it all fitted within Australian policy context. We were a good tag team!
Before I knew it, my time in Australia was close to the end. However, there was time for one last webinar on local economic development and one final speaking engagement at the Planning Institute of Australia Victoria State Symposium. Throughout my time in Australia, the one constant was the appetite and reception for Community Wealth Building.
In reflecting on the event, it is evident that Australia is at the beginning of a great journey with CWB. Whilst we have pioneers like Sydney Council and Inner West Council, there is also great potential within many other locations and within state and national parliaments. Like here in the U.S. and across the world, Australia faces the interconnected issues of wealth extraction, climate emergency, poverty, inequality, and a range of social and racial injustices. CWB is the means by which we can address them, by systemically changing how the economy works and who it works for. There is no alternative but to democratize the economy. We have much work to do, but CWB remains the lodestar for an economy that truly works for people, place and planet.
