Vern Hughes
Vern Hughes is an Australian advocate for civil society and Anglican layman. He is Director of Civil Society Australia and Convenor of The Sensible Centre.
Life and career[]
Hughes was at the first meeting of the Socialist Forum in 1984 and later served in its leadership until the forum dissolved in the early 1990s; the forum provided a space for people on the left to discuss issues outside of existing political parties.[1] The forum was later discussed and misrepresented[by whom?] in Australian politics when Julia Gillard, another member, became prime minister.[1]
He supported Mark Latham's articulation of the Third Way in Australia which advocated community engagement and social regeneration rather than market based or top down State interventions.[2][3]
In 2006, he founded, and was president of, the People Power Party, a reform party that sought to give ordinary people a voice in politics.[4][5] In January 2007 he was defeated for the party presidency after in-fighting with fellow member Stephen Mayne, and resigned from the party.[6] By August he was running as the Democratic Labor Party candidate in a by-election for the state seat of Williamstown,[4] and in Gorton in the 2007 federal election. In 2010 he led a group of Legislative Council candidates for the unregistered Parents Families and Carers Party.[7] In the 2014 Victorian state election, he convened a team of candidates in Melbourne's western suburbs as Voice for the West.[8]
From 2007 he was Director of the Centre for Civil Society, which became Civil Society Australia in 2016.Director In 2018 he convened The Sensible Centre [2]
Publications[]
Hughes has written on many social, political and theological topics for publications and organisations that span the political spectrum. He made several contributions to the New Right think-tank the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA)[9] including Reconciliation: Where to now? in 2000, and The Empowerment Agenda. Civil Society and Markets in Disability and Mental Health in 2006.[10] Earlier contributions to IPA publications dealt with the importance of community self-reliance and mutualism in the 1995 article Between Individual and State[11] and on the history of gambling regulation in Australia in Gambling and the State in 1996.[12] He also contributed to the Health Care reform debate in 2004 emphasising the role and potential of mutualism in an article published by the libertarian think-tank Centre for Independent Studies.[13]
In 2010 he published an essay called "Twelve Reasons Why Australia Needs a Conservative Party", in which he said: "There is a tradition in Australia of people gathering in local communities to help themselves, build social relationships and make a difference. But to strengthen society it is also necessary to challenge both neo-liberalism and managerialism in their public influence. Challenging just one or other of them will not do: their corrosion of society is a joint reciprocal effort, the result of a pincer movement in operation over the course of a century. Here are 12 compelling reasons why Australia needs a contemporary transformative conservatism to challenge both neo-liberalism and managerialism, and fill the vacuum at the heart of our public life."[14][15]
References[]
- ^ a b Chip Le Grand for The Australian. 4 December 2012. Gillard style already in place when the ratbag lefties met in 1984
- ^ Vern Hughes, Opinion article, The tragedy of Mark Latham, former thinker, The Age, 13 December 2004. Retrieved 14 October 2014
- ^ Mark Latham, The Latham Diaries, (2005) Melbourne University Press [1] via Google Books. Retrieved 14 October 2014
- ^ a b "Spinning around". The Age.
- ^ "Stateline Victoria". Abc.net.au. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
- ^ "Mayne returns to strife-prone party as chief axed". The Australian.
- ^ "New political party for parents, families and carers".
- ^ "State Election 2014 results". Victorian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
- ^ Millar, Royce & Schneiders, Ben. Sydney Morning Herald, 25 August 2013. Free radicals
- ^ Contributor profile, Institute of Public Affairs website, Retrieved 20 October 2014
- ^ IPA Review, Vol. 48, No. 2, 1995: 32-38. Institute of Public Affairs
- ^ IPA Review, Vol. 48, No. 4, 1 January 1996. Institute of Public Affairs
- ^ Policy Vol. 20 No. 1 Autumn 2004. Centre for Independent Studies
- ^ Australian Parliament Bibliography
- ^ Vern Hughes for On Line Opinion, 2 March 2010. Twelve Reasons Why Australia Needs a Conservative Party
- 1957 births
- Living people
- People Power (Australia) politicians