Apparently, I am to speak about the importance of think tanks in an era of digital and political disruption. Fascinating for some perhaps but a little heavy for the first week back from holidays. Instead I thought I may regale you with tall tales and true about the McKell Institute’s first eight years. But first let me welcome you here this afternoon, thank you for attending and thank Clayton Utz for hosting.
It was Wayne Swan who argued that since the 1970’s the progressive side of Australian politics has been outgunned and out financed when it comes to think tanks and that this had allowed the right to dominate the intellectual debate. The Institute for Pubic Affairs, Menzies Research Centre, The Centre for Independent Studies, The HR Nicholas Society, The Sydney Institute and the Alan Jones Breakfast Show gave the conservatives a policy heft that was unmistakable in assisting their political fortunes.
To be fair they only sometimes took the policy advice of the first five.
In contrast I think it is fair to say that when it came to think tanks and policy institutes that the progressive side of Australian politics was tired and certainly underfunded and unable to match the work of the conservative bodies or turn their creative output consistently into deliverable policy outcomes. We had the Fabian Society, Evatt Foundation, Per Capita, John Curtain Research Centre and the Australia Institute. I think it is fair to say they were a mixed lot.
Defeat concentrates the mind and the heavy defeat of the NSW Labor Government in 2011 made many in the Labor movement impatient for good policy outcomes. The Federal defeat of the Rudd Government in 2013 meant that impatience became a creative force.
The old policy debate over ownership of commercial public assets such as electricity was simply taken out of our hands and influence. And the new terrain, how to achieve fairness in a post-modern economy, following the ruins of the GFC, and how we were to achieve inclusive growth where everyone could get a fair share, became central to our thinking. We needed an intellectually robust but progressive and practical approach to these issues. This was the environment in which the McKell Institute was born.
NSW is at the centre of Australian life - economic, political and cultural. What happens here matters for the nation. We knew that the ideas generated here would take on a life beyond NSW and so they have. The men and women of the labour movement came together to form the McKell institute about 8 years ago wanted an effective, professional and progressive voice in the public debate, in the life of ideas of our great state and through it, the life of the nation.
I think over the past 8 years we have satisfied that desire. One pathway to success was to keep the Institute’s work narrowly focused.
At the McKell Institute we eschewed such interesting and contentious areas as Migration, gender politics and foreign affairs and concentrated on those issues that we thought impacted on the everyday lives of our citizens: Health, Education, Economics and Finance, Infrastructure and Superannuation.
In seeking a name for the Institute we reached back into Labor history to William ‘Bill’ McKell, NSW’s Labor wartime Premier and Treasurer between 1941 and 1947 who formed such an important and effective partnership with Prime Ministers John Curtin and Ben Chifley.
Bill McKell was brought up by his mother, became a boilermaker and then union official who was adopted by the South Sydney community as one of their own. They remained fiercely loyal thereafter. But he was also a Barrister, Parliamentarian and Governor General. And in politics where your enemies often define you, few had a bigger, stronger or more vindictive force to deal with than Bill McKell. The fact that he and others in the Party wrestled Jack Lang into submission says a lot about the strength and resolve of the man.
Bill McKell the man has faded from our view, now virtually gone from living memory but by all reports he was moderate, inclusive, progressive, practical and non-ideological in his approach to Government. The times make the leader and perhaps the darkness of governing in 1941 and 1942 meant that any sensitive and thoughtful leader should put ideology and partisanship aside.
At the McKell Institute we seek to emulate that practical, effective and responsive approach that Premier McKell has such a reputation for.
At the Institute we believe good policy development involves more than shouting three word slogans, is more nuanced than talkback radio allows, and is more important to our success as a people than many cynical commentators are prepared to accept. In setting up the Institute we believed that you can be fearless, progressive and democratic and still find common ground across the spectrum.
Bill McKell was no shrinking violet. He knew partisanship and he knew about loyalty to a tribe. He had been active in the ALP during the Great Strike of 1917, the conscription debates and the impact of the depression. He knew about taking sides and upsetting conservatives.
Remember that it was Menzies who said of his appointment as Governor General in 1947, that it was; ‘shocking and humiliating’. (Imagine this boilermaker and union man from South Sydney meeting the King.) But Bill McKell also had faith in the good sense of his follow man and knew that a good idea could unite a people. So, do we, sixty years later.
Apparently even Menzies warmed to McKell before he left the Vice Regal post.
From a standing start we have grown the McKell Institute into a respected multi jurisdictional thought leader in the public place. That success has had many parents.
First, our generous members and supporters. Without your constant ongoing financial, and other assistance we would be nothing and wouldn’t have enjoyed such success. Thank you and please continue that support.
In particular I would like to acknowledge the decent and gifted men and women of the Australian Union Movement who supported the McKell Institute concept from the very beginning, acutely aware of their responsibility to play a positive role in the political and industrial life of the nation.
The many Institute Directors who have served McKell over the years have been diligent, professional and loyal. They have attended to their duties with intelligence and integrity.
We have been especially well served by our academic partners, researchers, fellows and staff and I thank them for the hard work and intellectual rigor that they have always brought to our research and publications.
I want to acknowledge the two CEO’s who have led the Institute, Mr. Peter Bentley and Mr. Sam Crosby. They have both been tireless in their efforts to support and grow the Institute. They are both perceptive and gifted leaders, and thoroughly fine men.
We especially thank Peter for establishing the organization and leading it through those early, challenging times. Peter was especially resilient. He showed great determination in those early years, emailing out McKell membership forms and then half an hour later following up with a phone call to explain what it was actually a membership to. And Sam who is responsible for it’s growth to maturity and expansion into Victoria and Queensland, never an easy task. We especially wish Sam every success in the coming election where he is the Federal Candidate in the seat of Reid.
Finally, I am delighted that Craig Emerson, economist, author and former Federal MP and Minister has agreed to chair the McKell Institute. We appreciate his continued involvement in the public debate and in the progressive labor cause and wish him every good fortune.
The work of the McKell Institute is clearly going to become more important in coming years as the political cycle turns and as Ministers and Governments take their advice from a broadening range of sources. Whilst it has been distressing to see the deliberate downgrading and insulting approach to Departmental advice under recent conservative State and Federal governments, it has certainly opened up the area of policy development to wider fields; Universities, Industry groups, consultancy firms, not for profit associations, the media and of course credible rigorous political institutes like McKell. That development can’t be a bad thing.
February 6, 2019.
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