Welcome to Australia's first national community-based futures planning process
We have it in our power to create the world anew
Welcome to Australia Together - a long term plan for Australia by Australians
%20-%20.jpg)
Australia Together is a plan for a better Australia currently in draft form.
It is a plan that canvasses aspects of various Visions developed in the last decade by diverse communities of Australians who have worked together to think about the longer term and imagine the future they want for our next generations.
Australia Together organises these Visions to form a coherent picture of a preferred future by 2050. By assembling our diverse aspirations in one place it enables Australians to work together to select the Directions we want to take towards that Vision and the routes we would prefer to avoid. It then enables us to map out and integrate our Targets and Strategies to make our Vision a reality. Because it has an inbuilt monitoring and reporting system, Australia Together also allows us to check whether we are moving towards or away from the Vision and adjust course if necessary.
​
A key principle of Australia Together is inclusion. It is founded on a conviction that one of Australia's greatest strengths is our diversity and that if we wish to realise our Vision we will need to work together on a plan which enables all Australians to feel that their future can be assured. It assumes we will succeed by capitalising on our diversity.
Draft uploaded
24 July 2022
Australia Together is in its "starting draft" phase
ACFP is currently developing the what we call the "starting draft" of Australia Together for consideration and discussion by all Australians. The draft is based on extensive research about the current health and wellbeing of the nation, conducted by ACFP's founder, Bronwyn Kelly. This research is published in full in By 2050: Planning a better future for our children in 21st century democratic Australia. Her research in this book focused on two things:
-
the state of Australia's society, environment, economy and democracy in the early 2020s, and
-
development of a community driven planning methodology to map out acceptable paths to a better future by 2050.
​
Drafting of Australia Together is being done by ACFP in a completely transparent process. You can follow the drafts of the plan as they develop and make suggestions. ACFP publishes the incomplete drafts and revisions, additions and deletions. This process commenced in 2020 and is expected to continue through to 2025.
Australia Together includes:
-
a Vision Statement which collates expressed opinions about the preferred future of the nation - where everyone can be assured of a place in that future;
-
a set of Directions which by which Australians can travel safely to that future, knowing what we will become as a nation and knowing that we can all belong;
-
a set of Targets and Strategies that have been optimised and integrated to ensure that we can travel toward our Vision via the preferred routes; and
-
Australia's first consolidated National Wellbeing Index complete with:
-
baseline data about our quality of life, our social cohesion, our environmental health, our economic strength, the health and strength of our democracy and our standing in international citizenry in the early 2020s, and
-
connections between the baseline data points and Targets and Strategies necessary to enable Australians to reach their preferred vision for a better life via the safe routes.
-
​
With the plan and the baseline data for the National Wellbeing Index developed to this level, ACFP was able by 2022 to deliver a report on progress towards the draft Vision for Australia Together. This report is The State of Australia 2022.
Click here to check whether Australia is moving towards or away from the draft
Vision for Australia Together
Current estimate of completion of
Australia Together
Approximately 65%
Australia Together
is being released as a series of drafts.
It is a live planning space that any and all Australians can become involved in.
The idea is to draw people in to refine it – like ‘crowd writing’ but within an organised framework that is flexible enough to help everyone build some confidence about their future.
ACFP is always scanning information about Australian values and preferences for the future to keep the Vision for Australia Together up to date. Significant new research on Australian values is available in a book by ACFP's Founder Bronwyn Kelly, The People's Constitution.
Read The People's Constitution here.
For more information on the sources of the
Vision for Australia Together read our blog article about where the Vision came from here,
or read By 2050.​
The current Vision for Australia Together
The current Vision for Australia Together is a draft for purposes of discussion by Australians.
It has been developed by analysing a range of Vision statements that have been put together already by Australians in an array of community engagement and survey programs conducted in various parts of Australia in the decade to 2020. These include:
-
Visions developed by local councils across Australia in consultation with their communities;
-
Visions (or approximations of visions) developed by some state governments for the future of their states;
-
a Vision for “Australia reMADE”, developed via a wide-ranging community engagement program in 2017 by a group of civil society and environmental organisations in association with the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples;
-
a vision of the aspirations of Australians developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in association with its Measures of Australia's Progress (MAP) program in 2013;
-
an “outlook vision” developed by member organisations of the Australian National Outlook 2019 (National Australia Bank, business leaders, universities, non-profits and the CSIRO); and
-
a range of other sources including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Centre for Policy Development's 2017 Survey "What do Australians Want?"
​
The Vision for Australia Together
takes elements of all these visions and puts them together.
It organises them so that for the first time we have a good chance of making them a reality.
The current Directions for Australia Together
Like the Vision, the Directions of Australia Together are a draft for purposes of discussion by Australians. They have been built first by taking the “topic areas” of policy, legislation, administration, institutions and services that we rely on when running our country. We have selected 57 of these topic areas and grouped them into four categories of:
-
Society - with 16 topics
-
Environment - with 19 topics
-
Economy - with 9 topics
-
Governance - with 13 topics
For each of these topic areas of policy and administration ACFP has been able to set a preferred Direction of travel. We call this the signpost system. Effectively, this functions to describe in more detail what we want to become as a nation as we travel towards the Vision. Click here for more information on the Australia Together signpost system for safer travel to the future.
The Vision and Directions for Australia Together
work together to help us travel safely towards our preferred quality of life by 2050 or sooner.
Browse the 57 Directions for Australia Together
Current Targets and Strategies for Australia Together
ACFP is using National Integrated Planning & Reporting - or National IP&R to build up the Targets and Strategies of Australia Together for community consideration.
​
Targets come in two types:
-
Ambitious Targets, and
-
Targets which set a floor for performance - in other words they simply aim for no deterioration from the current level of performance.
​
Strategies also come in two types, meaning they are developed by two distinct but related processes:
​
-
A process which collects and integrates existing Strategies, and
-
A process that allows for imagination of new Strategies.
​
Any Australian can make a case for inclusion of a Target or Strategy at any time. Find out how here.
​
Australia Together has been structured so that it is easy to select the best combination of Targets and Strategies for making the Vision for Australia Together a reality.
Click here to find out how the structure of Australia Together works to inspire good, inclusive strategic planning for a diverse, democratic nation.
Indicators for Australia Together - Our National Wellbeing Index
​ACFP is also establishing Indicators of progress for Australia Together. These Indicators include baseline data to make up a National Wellbeing Index.
The Australia Together National Wellbeing Index is now the largest dataset held in one place about the nation's wellbeing and security in the 2020s. It includes statistical data on over 270 indicators of Australia's current health and wellbeing - socially, environmentally, economically and democratically.
This Index allows us to:
-
measure our progress towards or away from the Vision for Australia Together and the Targets of the plan, and to
-
report on progress in a factual and transparent manner that will be easy for all Australians to read.
​
The National Wellbeing Index being built for Australia Together is the nation's first consolidated set of measures for the health of our society, environment, economy and democracy relevant to the plan for Australia Together. It will continue to grow throughout the decade to ensure Australians can measure their progress towards a better future.
Find out more about the
Wellbeing Index for Australia Together here.
%20-%20.jpg)
