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Building Sustainable Prosperity
What do you stand for? 
 Its a simple enough question yet can be read a number of ways:
What 
do you stand for?What do
you
stand for?If you disallow as cynical backchat a third interpretation:
 
What
d 
o
you stand for?
 
,
the corequestions-within-a-question are:What issues and ideas are most important to you?What are your core principles and values?Ive been contemplating my responses to these questions over a long while and recently made anattempt to focus in one statement my core values and philosophy:To develop an economic
,
social and environmental future for the Canberracommunity that builds sustainable prosperity; to share that prosperity equitablywithout impeding its development
,
sustainability or diversity; to ensure employmentrights are enshrined as a core value of that prosperity
,
and to deliver inclusive socialoutcomes based on the fundamental tenets of respect and dignity for all
,
and earlyintervention programs for a life of wellbeing and learning.I would suggest we cannot consider our economy
,
community or environment in isolation. InCanberra we have
,
at our heart
,
an ongoing prosperity in a range of areas including our generalstandard of living
,
education levels
,
academic and cultural institutions
,
community connections andlifestyle. Add to this our natural bush capital environment and we are a pretty lucky lot. But wealso have a range of challenges such as population
,
global warming
,
burgeoning health servicesrequirements
,
an ageing demographic
,
homelessness
,
distribution of resources across the region
,
 urban development
,
transport etc. We need to ensure that our prosperity is available to be shared
,
 and that we have macro and micro reforms in place to overcome or adapt to our current and futurechallenges.Yet
,
we cannot share our prosperity effectively without being conscious of how we have achievedsuch advantages. We cannot develop our economy to the significant detriment of our localenvironment. We cannot ignore the importance of diversifying our economic base. We cannotcordon off economic and environmental outcomes without attention to building social andcommunity capital.Employment rights are also fundamental to our sustainable prosperity  we cannot say that we aretruly prosperous unless everyone has a safe work environment; that people have reasonableremuneration
,
conditions and flexibility. That employers and employees operate in an effectivelyregulated workplace
,
while allowing business to generate investment and new jobs.The way in which we deliver policies and programs is also critical to our future. I have written beforeabout thelens of social inclusion each policy being assessed against its potential to alienate a
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