Civility and maturity are inexticably linked

Civil conversation and maturity are inextricably linked.

Language and its use, indicates something about the user’s wisdom.

That being true, Wednesday’s public meeting to discuss the proposed closure of Shepparton’s Andrew Fairley Avenue was civil, wise, and a sea of good sense.

From the chairman, former councillor and public thinker, John Gray, right through to the fork-lift driver who welcomed the closure, there was an admirable degree of decency.

Civility springs obviously from maturity, but Wednesday’s meeting had another ingredient, the little something extra that ensured it was rooted in the common man’s experience, and so wisdom borne of familiarity.

The meeting, called in response to a decision made at the March meeting of the City of Greater Shepparton, was held using a trestle table and chairs set out in a space usually occupied by buses at Ford’s Shepparton Bus Services Depot in the heart of the city’s industrial area.

The meeting’s reason for objecting to the avenue’s closure was articulated by the environment in which it was held – the road’s closure would dramatically increase costs and difficulties for the bus company – a sentiment reflected by nearly all at the meeting.

It was obvious that all at Wednesday’s meeting agreed that the community needed to stand with SPC Ardmona as it confronted competition from around the world, but most were concerned, and rightly so, that public space it seeks is precious and once sold to a private enterprise, it is lost forever.

Most thought that innovative planning and thinking could see the company retain, and improve on its competitiveness and the community retain its use of the avenue.

Although never mentioned, there appeared to be a status quo-style of thinking that aligned most at the meeting with the business as usual paradigm; a model that has, in the minds of many, taken the world down a dead-end street.

Wednesday night’s warm example of civility will be needed on a hitherto unseen scale as our community wrestles with a collision of circumstances, such as energy and resource depletion, an injured atmosphere, economic disarray and a burgeoning population.

Wisdom and resilience will be in high demand and rather than limping toward a solution that is about continuing what we have done for centuries and has not only seriously disrupted earth’s ecosystem, gouged the planet’s finite and irreplaceable resources, but has brought down a pervasive and alarming inequality, we need to do it differently.

The modern world is responsible for many good things, but accounts for the cost are coming and an even cursory examination of world events suggest we have to change our ways.

It is right and proper to protect the sovereignty of Andrew Fairley Avenue, but it should be just the beginning of a civil and mature conversation to protect what is public from private enterprise. 

Building has a life of 200 years, but is it renewable?

Tony Abbott makes his prognostications from a building in Canberra designed to last at least 200 years.

Australia's new parliament house
 - under construction in the eighties
 and designed to last 200 years.

The PM’s predictions, even considered generously, might apply to the next 20 years; just a tenth of the life of our “new” Parliament House opened in 1988 in Canberra.

Architect Romaldo Giurgola faced constraints in creating Australia’s new administrative home, among them that the building must remain viable for 200 years; an idea deserving applause and one, you would hope, would apply to decisions made by the occupants.

The ideas, policies and processes they consider need to be arrived at and seen through the lens of the long-view; that is they need to look far beyond the damaging limitations of the electoral cycle and plan for a future far exceeding the limited horizon of modern politics.

Writing in the “Clock of The Long Now: Time and Responsibility: The Ideas Behind the World’s Slowest Computer”, Stewart Brand discusses ideas that go well beyond the 200 years mandated for our 1988 parliament house.

He argues that we should all, and that includes politicians, be thinking thousands of years ahead.

The Shepparton-based group, Slap Tomorrow, has its ideas and hopes clearly rooted in today, but are sharply aware that tomorrow is going to be decidedly different place in that it will insist in on a fresh approach to living.

Conscious that energy in all its forms allowed for the creation of what exists today, but understanding traditional forms of energy are finite and in serious depletion, Slap Tomorrow is organizing a public September forum at which energy will be discussed.

The keynote speaker for that event will be the associate professor from the University of New South Wales, Mark Diesendorf, who presently teaches environmental studies and was the author of “Sustainable Energy Solutions for Climate Change” published last December.

Writing in his new book, Prof Diesendorf, who like the Slap Tomorrow group is conscious of existing societal dynamics, said that without credible visions of a sustainable future and strategies to achieve them, it will be impossible to avoid devastating, irreversible changes to earth’s climate.

Discussing the transition to an ecologically sustainable, energy secure future, Prof Diesendorf said there will be “winners and losers”

“Jobs in fossil fuels will decrease, while jobs in energy efficiency, renewable energy and public transport will increase,” he wrote.

He discussed the need for government policies to ensure a socially just transition away from a fossil fuel-based society to one relying on renewable energy.

“Unfortunately,” he wrote, “some governments articulating the dogma of ‘leave it to the market’ appear reluctant to make any effort to smooth industrial transitions”.

Parliament House will be there long after Mr Abbott has left the building and we can only hope that somewhere in his legacy is a flicker of renewable energy.