Apr 30th 2018

GetUp launches bold vision for the economy

After ten months consultation with academics, international policy experts and tens of thousands of GetUp members, GetUp has launched Future to Fight For: a bold social and economic vision to build a flourishing Australia and take action against growing inequality.

“This is not radical – this is common sense, and it’s basic decency.” 
Joseph Stiglitz: Nobel Prize winner; former Chief Economist of the World Bank.

“GetUp has nailed it. [This] document is terrific.”
Stephanie Kelton: Economic Advisor for Bernie Sanders’ 2016 Presidential Campaign; former Chief Economist of the US Senate Budget Committee.

“Exactly the right idea at exactly the right time. Congratulations to GetUp for being the ones to start the campaign.”
Dr Steven Hail: Lecturer at the University of Adelaide School of Economics.

GetUp gave the first look of the policy platform to its one million members via an interactive online CrowdCast this evening. GetUp National Director Paul Oosting said the vision was an unapologetically ambitious but eminently achievable pathway to an economy that works for all Australians, not just the elite.

“We have to step beyond the narrow vision of what we're told is ‘politically possible’ and fight for the future we want. We need a new charter of economic rights for a new age,” Mr Oosting said.

“We have the resources, technology, and skills to build a society where no-one is forced to subsist in poverty. We can guarantee people a decent job, a decent income, and give them lifelong access to education, training, and childcare. We can ensure everyone has access to safe and secure housing, basic utilities powered by clean energy, and banks that don’t exploit us.”

The seven key policies included in Future to Fight For:

  1. National job guarantee
  2. Universal lifelong education and retraining
  3. Universal access to early education and childhood learning
  4. Guaranteed basic income
  5. Guaranteed housing
  6. A household energy guarantee
  7. A public banking system

To read the policies in full, go to futuretofightfor.org.au.

Mr Oosting said Government intervention was needed to fix a system that has led to one per cent of Australians controlling as much wealth as the bottom 70 per cent, and company profits surging 32 per cent in the same period real wages rose just 0.03 per cent.

“We can see the problems with our economy in our everyday lives. It's the car window repaired with duct tape, or the overcrowded bus that gets us to work late. It's the forgone family holiday, and the postponed trip to the dentist. It’s the oppressive feeling that there is never enough – enough work, enough money, enough time with those we love. This isn't normal. And it isn't something we have to accept,” Mr Oosting said.

“We need a new vision for our society – a charter of economic rights that replaces the narrow interests of corporations and wealthy elites with our collective interest as citizens.

“We must recognise the simple truth that we don't exist to serve the economy, the economy exists to serve us.