Hawke Centre Forum on Environmental Sustainability, Work, Life and Consumption

Monday 6 April 2009

Audio transcript available here 

Jointly presented by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre, The Centre for Work + Life and The Australia Institute

The fight against climate change is being conducted on many fronts by governments around the world, but the amount we work, and the amount we spend is not one of those. Many Australians work long hours, take few holidays and spend lots of money. This event will consider the potential to reduce our impact on the environment simply by rebalancing our work and family lives. Working four-day weeks and taking six weeks leave each year not only means more time for our lives, but less money spent on stuff.

Speakers:

• Dr Richard Denniss, The Australia Institute
• Professor Barbara Pocock, Director, Centre for Work + Life, Hawke Research Institute

Dr Richard Denniss is Executive Director of The Australia Institute, a public interest think tank based in the national capital of Canberra. An economist by training Richard is interested in the development of new macro measures to guide policy development and implementation. His research centres on the design of market regulation, particularly in the areas of the labour market and the environment. He has published a number of articles and monographs on new measures of national well being based around the construction of the Genuine Progress Indicator for Australia and has published widely in academic journals and is the co-author of Affluenza: When Too much is never enough and Australian Policy: Theory and practice.

Professor Barbara Pocock is the Director of the Centre for Work + Life has been researching work, employment and industrial relations in Australia for over twenty years and has undertaken considerable analysis of work and its complex intersections with households, families and social life, which has resulted in many publications and extensive involvement in public policy development, media commentary, and public speaking. Recent books include The Work/Life Collision (2003), The Labour Market Ate My Babies: Work, Children and a Sustainable Future (2006), Living Low paid: the Dark Side of Prosperous Australia (2008) (co-authored with H. Masterman-Smith) and Kids count: Better early childhood education and care in Australia (2007) (co-edited with E. Hill, and A. Elliott). She is a Director of The Australia Institute and in 2008 became a Member of the Strategic Council, of the Climate Institute (Australia).

While the views presented by speakers within the Hawke Centre public program are their own and are not necessarily those of either the University of South Australia or The Hawke Centre, they are presented in the interest of open debate and discussion in the community and reflect our themes of: strengthening our democracy - valuing our cultural diversity - and building our future.