"The UK Government of Tony Blair has done a lot more than any Australian Government to build a strong social economy", says ACCORD's Senior Research Fellow Andrew Passey

"Our vision is bold: social enterprises offer radical new ways of operating for public benefit. By combining strong public service with business acumen, we can open up the possibility of entrepreneurial organisations - highly responsive to customers and with the freedom of the private sector - but which are driven by a commitment to public benefit rather than purely maximising profits to shareholders." (Tony Blair, Forward to Social Enterprise White Paper, 2002)

ACCORD's latest seminar, UK Government Embraces Third Sector - Opportunities for Australia? was held, in partnership with the NSW Premier's Department, on Monday 22 March at the Premier's Department, Sydney. Senior government policy makers and third sector professionals came together to discuss what lessons Australia might find in the UK experience.

"It's clear Australia's third sector development is being hamstrung by its poor relations with state and federal governments, and by the absence of a coherent policy framework." Mark Lyons Professor of Social Economy at UTS

UK Developments
Since coming to office in 1997, the Blair government has launched a number of important initiatives to facilitate the growth and transformation of the UK third sector. To a significant extent these have been a response to developments within the third sector and to ideas generated by left-leaning think tanks.

Andrew Passey, Senior Research Fellow at ACCORD, and Mark Lyons, Professor of Social Economy at UTS have been looking at these developments. At the seminar they outlined their analysis, and discussed the opportunities they see for Australia emerging from the UK experience.

Australia's Experience
While Australia has a large third sector, many believe its development is hamstrung by its poor relations with state and federal governments, and by the absence of a coherent policy framework. In Australia, government policy is piecemeal, with no national or state policies focused on the third sector as a whole.

By contrast, in the UK, the Labour government of Tony Blair has been engaged in an unprecedented set of initiatives designed not only to foster 'traditional' activities such as philanthropy, but also to broaden forms of third sector activity, deepen infrastructure support for the sector, and foster new types of third sector organisations. Partly as a result, the UK third sector is playing an ever-larger role in the national economy.

With the recent creation by the ALP of a Shadow Ministry for Community Relations, and its conference resolution to work with the sector and state government to develop a better regulatory framework for the sector, the time seems right for this kind of discussion. The full report including recommendations will be launched shortly by ACCORD.

Download the seminar powerpoint slides [PPT, 100KB] or get the PDF [PDF, 54KB].