Creating old fashioned social reform with new tools and glitter

I've got to the point where I am openly saying that I think we need a new wave of social reform of the kind the great suffagist leaders of South Australia championed back in the late 1800's. This might seem a bit retro, but it's well overdue IMHO.

Why do we need a new wave?

It's important to understand where I live in this discussion. I come from a place called South Australia. You probably haven't heard of it, but I can assure you it is a hot bed of progressive politics, government innovation and social reform. We invent the crazy progressive stuff here and then export it all over the world. Things like votes for women, gay rights, Aboriginal land rights and most exciting of all - the Torrens Title System! Whoooooop! Progressive, amazing - also sometimes quite boring and driven by efficiencies. But it's part of who we are. Part of our local identity.

South Australia is one of the few places in the world where our ability to work together, to respect differences of opinion and to come together to protect our shared ideals of freedom and equality are woven into the fabric of our community. The hard work and coming together of those early suffragists did not end with the granting of the vote. Our community continued to work together to improve the lives of all people, with a particular focus on children. The knowledge of how to do this, the networks and the organisations are carefully handed down from generation to generation. When it's time to use them South Australian women - and a few South Australian men- know how to do it. It's not by being partisan. It's by finding common ground. All of us working in the same direction, just not all on the exact same projects.

So why now?

There is no single moment that made me think we need a new wave of social reform. I didn't just wake up one day thinking 'my goodness those ladies in crinolines were so cool I want to try being like them!'. It's was a slow, dripping realisation that actually, there is no other way.

About a year ago I realised that a large number of the women that I knew who had children that had started school that year were turning into white wine drinking alcoholics. At some point between them welcoming the arrival of their first born and sending them off to school the late afternoon glass of wine turned into a bottle.

In talking to them, it seemed like these women who had grown up in the late 90's era of girl power, had suddenly found they had none. Sure, we had the right to vote and technically you could go into any industry you wanted, but actually reality didn't match the vision we'd been sold on CD. Promotions had gone to men (often less qualified than them) and they didn't always complain because they were going to have a baby soon so did it really matter? On returning to work it turns out that mens careers don't stop just because you are out of the office on maternity leave and so they were coming back part time to jobs that were different to the ones that they left. Their colleagues had continued to grow while their own working days became less powerful with each new child arriving. Their opinions less valued. Their skills and qualifications less important. Then they would leave work early to pick up kids and start dinner and put on the endless piles of washing. Not really the world of the Spice Girls. More the reality of Call the Midwife.

This of itself is not what made me call a wave. It's not great, but let's be honest these are privileged problems to have.

What made me call the next wave was my Premier telling me to put my hand up for child protection.

Why child protection?

To be honest, this isn't a reflection on our Premier or our child protection department. There is no where in the world that is doing this as well as they could be (except for perhaps Leeds). But I live in SA and I work in SA, so that's where my focus is.

Children are some of our most vulnerable citizens and rely on us as adults to use our voices on their behalf. That is something so many of us have been trying to do for a long time. Their families, communities, teachers, nurses, even the child protection staff. So why do we still have so many children in such vulnerable circumstances?

I've worked my whole life trying to make a difference for our most vulnerable children. I grew up in a low SES community and made it my personal mission in life to try to stand up for the kids from my school who might not have as strong a voice as mine. Mine is a voice laced with privilege - I'm university educated, can talk posh when needed and am generally a respected leader. But the struggle that I have personally had has made me realise just how big this problem is and to be honest, it feels like we're not much more advanced some days than we were back in the days of the suffragists.

What is the exact problem?

So that feeling I described, the one that creates the white wine alcoholics? Imagine that as a society wide problem. Sure, we have formal equality. Women can vote. Aboriginal people can vote. But we are still not in the positions of structural power to do anything about it. Putting politics aside (although it needs to be examined) there are so many areas where women's voices and diversity generally are not as loud as they need to be.

We don't control the budget and even when we do, we are put through multiple hoops to demonstrate an evidence base for our work while the guys get funding to run car races or build submarines with little scrutiny. Sure, there are economists who will back them up, but it's a self-perpetuating cycle where unless you can find someone with a PhD to create a report for free most organisations and individuals working in traditional gendered areas like teaching, nursing and child protection are hamstrung by the inability to get the evidence to get the report to get the funding to do anything about it.

Meanwhile the male economists are happy to take millions in government hand outs to keep supplying the same information to perpetuate economic policies that didn't work in the 1950's and continue to create the kind of inequality that sustains the need for child protection in the first place.

In practice, this means that we do nothing. We aren't moving forward. We are just circling and complaining that we don't have enough money for the healthcare system and that we have parents on meth. So we put forward the same old tired economic policies and then wonder why nothing improves.

This isn't a uniquely South Australian problem but South Australia can provide a unique solution

This situation is being lived by democracies all over the world. It's not unique to South Australia, but we do have a unique advantage if we want to try to solve these issues in new ways. We know how.

We are the best place in the world to try new things and to create social reform. We've been doing it since the beginning. We have the systems, the processes, the people and the culture to try something truly ambitious. Something so blue sky that no one else in the world is even brave enough to attempt it.

We are South Australia. We are South Australians. Social reform starts here. Freedom and equality is in our blood. We can do this. We can change it here and then share the best world, the best economy and the best society for children- with the entire world.

So how do we create a 19th century movement in 2022?

That is something I don't know how to do, but I am so looking forward to finding out. The ladies of the 19th century didn't have anything like the tools we have today. If they wanted to share their views with members of parliament or colleagues across the seas it was time intensive and slow.

These days we have instant publishing, available to anyone the world over. Our tools can be serious, but a well placed meme can have the same impact. We can organise, collaborate, challenge and innovate all with the touch of a button.

To be truly a movement it will need actual human interactions too - and that I am very much looking forward to. It's been too long since I went to a rally and painted a banner or celebrated with friends as our social reforms passed through conventions and parliament. COVID has changed the way we have done things and one of those things is that we won't take for granted out ability to join with people in human ways. It is our shared humanity that will bring change. Real change. The kind that changes the world.

So what is next?

That's not up to me. I have some ideas, but in a true democracy it's about everyones ideas being at the table. I think we might need an alternative economic plan with some agitation around food security and domestic violence, but others will want to address structural and systemic racism, child protection department short comings and the justice system. Whatever your passion and however you want to address it go and have a good crack. Everyone deserves to play a part in our amazing democracy- and thanks to the wonders of the internet everyone can now create their own membership cards! So go forth, start whatever work you think is most important and agitate for change. Everyone deserves a seat at the table. And every child requires us to take up our own agency.