Fund all stages of education

As the economy, technology, and the world changes, we need to ensure that people have access to the relevant education and skills as industry evolves. Circumstances may force some transitions, while others will be in response to new opportunities. It is important that children and adults alike are prepared for the changing needs of life. 

• Access to education to be readily available, not limited by distance or location, supporting optimal utilisation of information and technology as the world rapidly evolves
• Implement needs based funding (Gonski reforms), which remain unaddressed since 2013
• Incentivise teachers to work in disadvantaged, rural, and remote schools
• Provide training and support for workers transitioning from disrupted industries and professions to related positions in newly enabled industries.

Improve university outcomes

Universities serve dual purposes of education and research, which both need to be balanced to ensure one is not prioritised at the expense of the other. Improving security for research and its commercialisation, and reducing the overhead that is extensive in the university sector will provide a more efficient system for all, including the students who rely on it for education.

• Increase funding and funding periods for research to minimise the need for focus on grant applications
• Impose benchmarks to guarantee the use of public funds for academic salaries, teaching material and research
• Ensure publicly funded research is open-access, to allow free use by others
• Continue the HECS/HELP scheme to allow access to all, regardless of economic circumstances

Transparent government

In order to make informed decisions for a vibrant democracy, citizens need to know when the government is acting against their best interests. Public servants are expected to work for the people, and the people should have access to information to oversee their actions.

• Real-time disclosure of political donations above $1000 to show flows of influence over politicians
• Open access to advice behind policy decisions (better FOIA)
• Removal of restrictions of speech on public servants
• Re-fund the ABC

Anti-corruption and whistleblowing

Corruption appears to be widespread in Australian politics, and state ICACs have demonstrated that there are real cases of wrongdoing for which politicians need to be held to account.

• Create an anti-corruption commission at the federal level, with retrospective powers and open hearings.
• Implement protections for whistleblowers and activists

An economic model that works for all people

Australians, more than others, have an expectation of a fair-go. But that’s often not what they receive. With some unable to catch a break, others exploit the position they are in to pass their externalities across society.

The metrics we use to measure the status of the economy are relatively meaningless in guiding policy to support a high quality of life for all Australians. Rethinking our targets will allow us to refocus on building a better society.

• Remove taxation loopholes and poverty traps to allow the young and lower income to access the same tax system as the most wealthy in society
• Recognise alternative ‘budgets and balances’ that must be maintained and expended effectively, for a diversified metric of people’s quality of life.
  • Monetary: GDP, Budget, Unemployment
  • Environmental: Carbon Concentrations, Biodiversity
  • Personal: Opportunity, Education, Health and Wellbeing

Simpler and fairer economics

Consider a tax reform package based on land value tax and UBI with a negative income tax as a potential approach.

Oppose rent-seeking and parasitic monopolism

The Australian government appears to focus more on the welfare of some corporations than the welfare of the Australian people. No bid contracts, corporations allowed to grow too big to fail and parasitic monopolies allowed to flourish. The playing field is not fair and this impacts negatively on small businesses and Australians. We need to restore an even playing field.

Housing as a home

A roof to live under is one of the most basic needs one has, however adequate housing is becoming further and further out of reach for many in society

• Cease tax structures that incentivise properties as a portfolio investments such as the capital gains tax discount
• Replace stamp duty with more equitable revenue streams such as land-tax, to ensure housing is not left vacant solely as an asset.
• Allow increased zoning densities to enhance supply and limit urban-sprawl into surrounding bushland.
• Increase social/affordable housing stock.
• Increase Australian building standards so that buildings are accessible, comfortable and energy efficient.

Universal preventative healthcare

The Australian Medicare model is one of the best health-care systems in the world, but it needs to be continually funded to achieve its benefits. Early detection and treatment of disease achieves cost savings over the long-term, and allows for a healthier and more productive population.

• Add basic mental and dental health to medicare
• Increased budgets for bulk-billing, telehealth
• Treat alcoholism and other drug dependencies as health issues.

Universal Basic Income

An unconditional payment to everyone that ensures the basics of life are catered for may give people security to leave a bad situation and freedom to pursue a new future. No conditions means no bureaucracy, which improves productivity and efficiency, saving the country money and eliminating poverty traps that prevent people from building a better future for themselves.

• Direct payment of $500 per week or equivalent tax credit for every citizen over 18 years of age, effecting a minimum income guarantee.
• Replace many conditional welfare streams and replace taxation brackets with a flat tax rate.
• Additional top-up payments for aged, disabled, carers, etc, to match existing rates and achieve a minimum liveable income for their needs.
• Net take-home income will not change substantially for many, but every citizen will receive the benefit of security that a UBI affords.

Recognition of Australia's First Nations

In line with FUSION's Fair and Inclusive Society position, FUSION stands for the Uluru Statement from the Heart as a first step to better representation of First Nations in Australia. FUSION supports the constitutional change the Uluru Statement requires to establish a First Nations Voice in Parliament.

FUSION supports steps towards a Treaty with First Nations. Australia is among the only Commonwealth countries without a legally binding treaty with its first peoples. A Treaty would provide an opportunity for First Nations people and the Australian state to speak to one another, for the first time, as sovereign to sovereign.

FUSION stands for changing the date Australia Day is celebrated. Why celebrate on a day that is a day of mourning for so many? It only recently Australia moved Australia Day to the day the First Fleet arrived in Port Jackson. There are many other significant dates to choose from.

A more just society

Justice starts with an even playing field, and requires belief by the community that people are treated equally under the law.

• Focus on outcomes and restorative justice, rather than punishment.
• Reduce recidivism by improving rehabilitation.
• Reduce actual and perceived discrimination.

LGBTIQA+ Rights

Fusion believes in a fair and inclusive society where LGBTIQA+ individuals are guaranteed safety with government intervention only to protect an individual's rights or health, or where the provision of public money is required.

The Sex Discrimination Act does not need to be amended to make discrimination easier.

Medicare should be expanded to provide long term healthcare for LGBTIQA+ individuals including prescribed gender affirming hormone treatment, surgical procedures, products and services. 

Ensure schools are safe and inclusive for all students by: 

• Abolish the federally-funded school chaplains program and fund a youth counselling program
• Implementing safe schools program
• Implementing age appropriate sex, gender and healthy relationship education into the national curriculum

Ensure all domestic partnerships have the same legal standing regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

Freedom of speech

Speech is the cornerstone of the enlightenment and the safeguard for all other liberties, protecting not just the right to speak, but the right to hear, understand, and judge the ideas of others. Free speech underpins our ability to think, create, innovate and progress.

• Remove censorship, blasphemy, and other laws against speech

Constitutional bill of rights

Recognising the inherent dignity and worth of all human beings, a bill of rights would ensure the rights that are fundamental to a fair and ethical society are extended to all within it. A bill of rights can restore balance and provide unambiguous checks on the creeping intrusion of the state into private life.

• Freedom of speech, association, and religion
• The rights to privacy, and a trial by jury
• The right against indefinite detention, and unjust seizure of property

Voluntary assisted dying

Voluntary assisted dying is an important aspect of the principle of self-ownership. Support for voluntary assisted dying is not a statement of any kind on the value of life, it is merely respect for the right of persons to make decisions on these matters for themselves in the light of their individual circumstances. While safeguards are necessary, all people should be allowed to live and end their lives with dignity and peace. Bans on voluntary assisted dying create a legacy of suffering and a shattering loss of dignity and autonomy.

• Decriminalise physician-assisted dying.
• Introduce regulatory processes and safeguards to ensure euthanasia is completed free from coercion, with informed consent, and after sufficient mental and physical health assessments.

End native logging and broadscale land clearing

When forests are cleared for housing, farmland, and timber, it destroys the habitats of native animals, releases stored carbon, and reduces the quality of the soil they were once grown upon.

• Cease all native logging and preserve remnant vegetation.

End fossil fuel extraction and rehabilitate land

Fossil fuels are not only the leading cause of global warming, but fugitive emissions and pollutants are spread throughout the air, water, and soil, damaging the environment for years to come.

• No new fossil fuel projects.
• Cease all government subsidy to fossil fuels, land clearing and native forest logging.
• 2-year window to cease fossil fuel extraction
• Establish rehabilitation bonds on all existing extraction projects appropriate to sufficiently repair mines and surroundings.

Recognise and incentivise biodiversity and regenerative agricultural practices 

The biosphere is a complex system, and reductions in biodiversity, soil quality, and vegetation results in consequences that are far unforeseen by those interacting with the land. By utilising practises that preserve and restore the land to a historic state, we can expect them to be sustainable into the future.

• Provide carbon credits for carbon sequestration and rewilding.
• Develop and implement properly-resourced ecological restoration programs engaging Aboriginal knowledge keepers and the Indigenous Rangers Program.
• Multiply the capacity of the Indigenous Ranger Program to help implement Area Ecological Restoration plans.

Manage watersheds and restore the small water cycle

Inadvertently draining aquifers, wetlands, and waterways, along with the removal of vegetation has caused the destruction of the small water cycle, which relies on local evaporation to trigger rainfall. With the increasing prevalence of drought caused by the climate emergency, efforts to rehydrate Australia are required.

• Incorporate watershed restoration into Area Ecological Restoration Plans.
• Bestow the rights of nature on rivers and wetlands.
• Review all water licences for the Murray Darling.

Copyright, IP, and the public domain

The proper purpose for copyright and patents is to protect authors, inventors, and other content creators, by providing them with a limited period of exclusive rights over their works - encouraging creative activity. Their use has shifted though, and are now often used to eliminate competitors and their work, with litigation used to prevent creativity and new culture. For culture to grow, and progress be made, these creations must be returned to the public domain.

• Review trade agreements that inflict foreign regulations on Australian creators.
• Modernise copyright with a Creative Works Act, so that our culture is not merely sold back to us under the control of rent-seeking monopolies.
• Review and reform the patent system with the aim of creating a fairer and more innovative market.
• Oppose monopolistic corporate behaviour in favour of more open, competitive and free markets where innovation and creativity will flourish.

Privacy and digital rights

There are large power imbalances between the average citizen and the government and corporate institutions that dominate every facet of our modern lives. To maintain our fundamental human dignity, and ensure our public and private institutions represent the interests of the people, we must protect both the privacy of individuals, and their freedom to express themselves. In the modern world, that means digital rights, with minimal censorship, network neutrality and freedom of expression in all of its forms.

• Enshrine network neutrality and freedom of expression in law.

Intellectual property reform

• Review and reform the patent system with the aim of creating a fairer and more innovative market.

• Reform the current Copyright Act, and replace it with a new Creative Works Act.

• Oppose monopolistic corporate behaviour in favour of more open, competitive and free markets where innovation and creativity will flourish.

Separation of church and state

The state must govern for all members of society, but religious laws and policies are exclusionary, and can not hope to represent the entire population. It is important that decisions made about the future of the country be based on facts, evidence, and logic.

• Remove religious prayers, rituals, and bias from government and public institutions and their documentation.
• Abolish blasphemy laws.

Ethical education

The views children develop in their younger years are likely the most influential on the type of people that they become. Teaching compassion, honesty, and freedom of thought will help to create a more kind and fair society.

• Teach ethics in school to expose children to questions of morality and truth, as an alternative to religious education.
• Replace the National School Chaplaincy Program with a National School Counselling Program, using trained counsellors suited to the role.

Responsible global citizenship

Australia’s relationship with the world is essential and needs to be managed well. Going-alone in a conflict is not an option, and the alliances and friendships that we have with our neighbours are critical.

• Expand use of diplomacy and aid in support of global human rights
• Ensure aid is provided even in times of Australian strain, to secure allegiances that are strong
• Support political asylum for refugees, particularly for whistleblowers and those exiled for defending democratic freedoms.

Defensive posture and capability

It must be ensured that the country is not ‘preparing to fight the last war’. Modern conflicts are likely to be economic, subversive, space, or cyber related - so in addition to physical defence of the nation with armament, protections of our way of life need to be implemented.

• Develop strategic alternative supply chains for critical elements of the economy.
  • Semiconductor and IT infrastructure
  • Medicinal products and precursors
  • Food and food processing
  • Steel and plastics processing, machining, and fabrication capability
• Renew faith in democracy, institutions, and the media.