Quo Vadis Australia

Cyber Democracy Movement

The Values, Vision and Strategic Action needed
to ensure a successful future for all Australians in the 21st Century

“The Possible Dream”

by

Dr Ian Lin

It is Australia in the Year 2010. We are a vibrant and successful nation

enjoying the world’s highest quality of life -- with full employment, strong
economic growth, a sustainable ecology, and a civil and egalitarian society.
We are a nation noted for our prosperity, our social cohesion, and our
cultural diversity; and we have taken our place in the world as a leading
global citizen.

In the last 10 years, our economic, social, and political structures have
undergone a total transformation, and we have created a new Australian
culture that lets us more than meet the ever-changing global challenges of
the 21st century.

There is far more justice and equity in our society, and we live more healthy,
more balanced and more fulfilling lives. We now all have the opportunity to
not only earn a living, but also to lead meaningful lives. Our new policies
ensure that all Australians have equal opportunity to develop to their full
potential, and to both contribute and share in the prosperity of our nation.

We care for the elderly in our communities and draw upon their knowledge
and wisdom to mentor our careers and guide our younger generations.
Compared to the beginning of this decade, our society has far less poverty,
less violence, less drugs, fewer suicides, and far fewer disadvantaged people.

We have developed a networked multimedia education system that through

satellite technology, is freely available to all Australians, regardless of their
geographical location. Mentors in our communities have become part of our
education system, and in addition to information and knowledge, we now
emphasise wisdom – how to do well as well as how to do good. It teaches
our younger generations how to be enterprising, resourceful and responsible;
and how to use hindsight and insight to develop foresight. They are now

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well equipped to recognize and develop their own opportunities, and to
manage their own careers. Young Australians now face a future with a
positive attitude, confidence, optimism and hope.

We now direct our priorities for investment towards community

development, education, health, welfare, technology, innovation, and
research and development; and this emphasis constantly adds to the
intellectual, material and social capital of our nation.

At the beginning of this decade, rapid advances in new technologies made

the world the marketplace and source of supply for all goods and services,
for all enterprises, regardless of size or geographical location. After a slow
start, quick uptake of these technologies opened up a Pandora’s box of new
opportunities, especially for Australian small businesses. This greatly added
to the potential of our regional areas, since regardless of where they were,
small businesses could now directly access business opportunities anywhere
in the world.

Because of this, not only our cities, but also our regional hubs and rural
communities have developed totally new growth strategies, and are now
thriving mosaics of diversity – a cosmopolitan mix of government, business,
education, art, music, sports, leisure, food, people and cultures. The trend
towards urbanization has been reversed as business location becomes less an
less important, and more and more Australians choose to live the less
stressful lifestyles of smaller communities.

We are the leaders in solar technology and in other alternative sources of

energy, as well as in the development of renewable resources and the
creation of a sustainable environment. We continue to welcome peoples
from all over the world, and their diversity adds substantially to our global
success. We are known as the world’s most tolerant, least racist nation.

We have an advanced technological and transportation infrastructure that

binds together our entire nation and provides connectivity to the rest of the
world. It supports and enhances a globalised entrepreneurial business sector,
an enterprising and efficient public service, and a highly sophisticated and
diverse workforce.

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The growth engine of our economy is small business, and by grasping the
new opportunities of e-commerce, we have become the world’s leading
small-business nation.

Our small businesses now collaborate with each other, and combine their
enterprise, ingenuity and innovation to create a diverse mix of up-market
goods and services that carve out unique global market niches. They share
their resources through networked clusters, form virtual corporations, and
trade directly with a multitude of individuals and small businesses
throughout the world. They compete by being smart, by being different, by
being first, and by being friends.

The success of our new export strategies continues to create many new jobs
throughout Australia, and this has developed an environment of sustainable
growth and full employment.

The growing current account deficit that we suffered during the beginning of
this decade has been totally reversed, to the extent that since 2005 we have
enjoyed substantial trading surpluses. These in turn have contributed to the
rising value of our currency, and the Australian dollar is now worth US$1.75
– greatly improving the personal buying power of all Australians.

Over the last 10 years, continuous increases in corporate profits have added
substantially to government revenue, and full employment has meant
substantial savings on social welfare payments. The rising government
income and falling expenditure has led to large budget surpluses, and these
have been translated into major tax cuts. Over the last five years, tax rates
have dropped dramatically, and we now rank as one of the world’s lowest
taxed nations.

We are now a republic with a completely new political system that is much
more suited to the requirements of the 21st century. We got rid or the Senate,
the 8 State and Regional Governments, and the 760 Municipal Councils.
Instead, these have been replaced by a National House of Representative and
75 Regional Councils. This saves us $25 billion each year.

We elect our political leaders for their visionary leadership, their enterprise,
their imagination, their experience and their wisdom. They are guided by a
strong long-term vision for the future of Australia, and their policies

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recognize the need to combine short, medium and long-term vision, with
balanced economic, social and environmental outcomes.

The deepening insecurity, stress, cynicism, economic divide, and social

division so evident in our society a decade ago have all but disappeared. The
disillusionment and confusion of change in those days, have been replaced
by a new set of values, a new vision for our future, new strategies for
growth, and a new-found national confidence.

Instead of defensively reacting to circumstances created by others, we now

proactively seek new global opportunities, and head for new horizons. With
a firm vision we confidently create our own future, and shape our own
destiny. We have a new national culture and our future is assured.

What brought about this major transformation of our nation? What created
this national metamorphosis?

Well, ten years ago, as we entered the first decade of the 21st century we
were confronted by quantum changes occurring throughout the world’s
economic, social, and political environments. The whole world was being
transformed by globalisation, privatisation, deregulation, rationalisation,
mega-mergers, and the instant mobility of capital. Global open-market
capitalism, focussed on short-term greed rather than longer term good, had
taken over.

Stock markets went crazy and fluctuated greatly as the world tried to adjust
to the new realities. Past economic theories, management tools, and
organizational structures became obsolete, as more and more global
competitors gained direct access to more and more global customers. These
customers in turn were able to demand and get, better and better products,
more and more customised, in smaller and smaller quantities, delivered
faster and faster, at lower and lower prices.

The nature of competition was rapidly changing, and there was emerging a
seamless new world economy based on intellectual capital, e-commerce,
dot.coms, global alliances, business clusters, and personal networks. More
and more, enterprises were being valued not for past performance and
physical assets, but for their future potential and their intellectual capital.

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We were entering a totally new age in human history – the Cyber Age. We
were becoming part of a Network Society, operating in an Information
Economy, working in a Cyber Metropolis, trading in a Borderless World,
living in a Global Village, and rapidly being identified by our e-mail address
in Cyberbia. We had entered the totally new dimension of Cyberspace – the
global interactive multimedia information and communications network.

In this totally new environment, it was not likely that we could use
yesterday’s strategies, to solve today’s problems, and expect to be in
business tomorrow. To survive, grow and prosper in the 21st century,
Australia needed quantum change. We needed to forge a new future, develop
a new vision, take advantage of new global opportunities, and head for new
horizons.

We needed a new Cyber Age culture ---a new enterprising, entrepreneurial,

imaginative and innovative nation. We needed to change our culture and
become new Australians in a New Australia.

However, there was one major and seemingly unsolvable problem.

What we are able to do as a nation is to a largely determined by the laws,

policies and practices put in place by our elected governments. It became
obvious that the primary requirement for a new enterprising, entrepreneurial,
imaginative and innovative nation, was a new enterprising, entrepreneurial,
imaginative, and innovative form of government.

We needed politicians with the values and experience to give us wise and
visionary leadership, and a political system that would produce this type of
politician. This could never be done under our old established system. More
than anything else, if we wanted a bright and successful future, we needed to
change our entrenched political system – we needed a new form of
democracy. We needed a total transformation --- and we were successful in
doing this.

The catalyst for the start of this transformation was the occasion of our 100th
birthday -- the celebration of the Centenary of Federation in the year 2001.
These celebrations focused our thoughts not only on the previous 100 years
but also on the future 100 years – what would our nation be like in the year
2100?

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While reflecting on where we had been and where we wanted to go, we
realised that a political system, developed under quite different circumstance
by six separate colonies 100 years ago, had become obsolete and totally
unsuitable for the needs of an Australian nation facing a totally different
future.

In the last 100 years, our political system had evolved into one that had now
become totally adversarial and confrontational --- where debate revolved
around personal vilification; where every decision was based on short-term
political expediency; and where the development of every strategy depended
solely on its effect on votes in the next election. Yet, what we needed was a
system where politicians acted for the long-term good of our nation rather
than for the short-term greed of their own party. We needed a different type
of politician.

However, the crux of the problem was not the politician but the political
system --- an entrenched system that was getting more obsolete and
irrelevant, and that could never produce the type of politician we all knew
we needed, if we were to have the future that we wanted.

Only quantum change could give us what we needed! We needed to throw

out the old and bring in the new! We needed a revolution! What was needed
was a popular uprising of the people ---- but we didn’t want social
disruption, coups, bloodshed or civil war! How could this be done?

We solved this problem by creating a new dimension in democracy – Cyber

Democracy. Just as our economic and social environments were being
rapidly transformed by new technologies, we realized that we could do the
same with our political environment.

We worked out how we could use the Internet to conduct a legal bloodless
democratic cyber revolution that would completely transformed our nation.

To do this, we went outside the entrenched political system, and on the

Internet created the Cyber Democracy Movement. We used the Internet to
greatly expand our access to relevant information and to bypass the usual
political propaganda and media sensationalism. We encouraged all
Australians to participate in system that would let them become better
informed, more knowledgeable, more involved and more active in the

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democratic process --- and through e-polling, let them exercise their voting
rights in a new way.

We persuaded Australians to accept the responsibility of making a difference

by creating their own future and shaping their own destiny. To do this, we
invited all Australians to join the Cyber Democracy Movement, so that
together, we could create a strong vision for the future of Australia.

To do this, we developed web pages that outlined a set of possible scenarios

for our future, together with the strategic options and actions that could turn
these scenarios into reality. Our aim was to get all Australians to
collectively discuss, debate and refine these scenarios; and through an
Internet polling process, to finally arrive at one preferred scenario – one that
a majority of Australians saw as their vision for the future of Australia.

What type of society did we want for our children, our families, our
communities, our nation, our world, and ourselves? What future social,
economic, political, cultural and natural environments did we want? Were
there new perspectives we should take regarding the future of work, careers,
business, government, education, technology, demography, communications,
and ecology? Was there a future where we could individually make a
difference -- where we could not only do well, but where we could also do
good? What could that future be?

Collaboratively as a nation, we worked on the answers. Through cyber

networks as well as through physical groups within our own communities
and amongst our friends, we formed discussion forums to debate the future
of Australia, and discuss the values, vision, and strategic actions we needed.
We formed a broad image of the future and its possibilities, and developed
the foresight that gave us the wisdom to create the nation that we wanted.

By the beginning of 2005 we had arrived at a national consensus. Through

an Internet polling process, and outside the established political system, we
had identified a majority of Australians who had agreed on a vision of what
they wanted for the future of Australia, and on the strategic action needed to
turn that vision into reality.

Through Cyber Democracy, we had established a voting majority that could

win both an election and a referendum under our established democracy. We
were now ready to act.

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We formed a new party – The Quo Vadis Australia Party – knowing that we
already had the votes to win. We ran for election, won a mandate, and
formed government in the election of 2005. Being the party in power, we
immediately conducted and won a referendum, were able to democratically
change the constitution, and established a new system of government.

Through a bloodless democratic cyber revolution we had succeeded in

overthrowing an old established political system. We had successfully
developed a new dimension in democracy.

Australia is now a republic with a two-tiered system of government. Gone

are the old Senate, the eight State and Territory Governments, and the seven
hundred and sixty Municipal and Shire Councils. Gone are many houses of
parliaments, their bloated bureaucracies, and their wasteful duplication of
resources and effort.

In their place we have a single national House of Representatives, and 85

Regional Councils. The House of Representatives consists of
representatives of the Regional Councils, and is responsible for turning the
vision of the people into reality. It develops and implements policies of
national significance, in areas such as education, health, welfare, ecology,
finance, transport, trade, immigration, infrastructure, technology, and
investment.

The elected Regional Councils are responsible for the strategic and
operational plans that best suit their own local region and resources, and that
best contribute to the advancement and realisation of the national vision.

The Prime Minister and Cabinet are now popularly elected. As part of the
new election process, political parties nominate a slate of candidates for their
Ministry, together with the portfolios they will hold so that we can evaluate
their suitability for their nominated positions.

The leaders of our nation are now elected for their integrity, values, vision,
intellect, experience, and wisdom. To attract the best possible people, we
ensure that our politicians are among the highest paid members of our
society.

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No longer do we have to vote for representatives that are presented to us by
an internal party pre-selection process; and no longer is the Prime Minister
and Cabinet determined by internal party politics that often elevated
inexperienced, inept and inadequate party faithful to high positions.

Our streamlined political system, networked through new information and

communications technologies, has saved us $25 billion each year since its
implementation in the year 2005. These savings are now used to finance
continuing investments in education, ecology, technology, health, social
programs, research and development, and innovation, and are making a vast
difference by greatly improving our national well-being and quality of life,
without any additional tax burden.

Where do we go from here? With only one-third of one percent of the

world’s population, we are a small nation in a big world. The only way for
us to succeed in an era of continuous change, increasing complexity, and
open-market global competition is for all Australians to work together with a
common purpose, guided by a common vision, to create the nation we want
for our future.

Through Cyber Democracy we now have that purpose, we have that vision,
we know where our future lies, we know what type of society we want, and
we know how to get it.

This is not only the “Possible Dream” it is also the “Achievable Dream.” All
it takes is for all Australians to accept the responsibility to become
personally involved. We must think further ahead, become more informed
and knowledgeable about the future and its possibilities, and develop the
wisdom and foresight that will let us proactively create our own future and
shape our own destiny. All it takes is a change of mindset – and a change of
mindset is free of charge!

All Australians are invited to participate in the development of the Cyber

Democracy Movement. A decision not to become involved is a decision to
maintain the status quo – and if we do this, where will Australia be in 10
years’ time? It’s your future --- you choose! More of the same --- or New
Horizons?
14 July 2000

Dr. Ian Lin, The Quo Vadis Group, 18 Powell Street, Killara, NSW, 2071
E-mail: ianlin@quovadis.com.au Tel: 02-9418-2400 Fax: 02-9418-2287

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