by Kathryn Parker, ACCORD

The SEN Conference (22/23 May) titled "People before Bureaucracy" while admirable in its thematic approach left me with the impression that bureaucracy would always reign supreme, powerful and inflexible, despite an emerging culture and need for greater 'civic entrepreneurship' in government. According to Vern Hughes, 'civic entrepreneurship' is about making government structures work for people, by initiating and implementing change in the face of inertia, vested interests and ideology. Civic entrepreneurship is about building new relationships with consumers, residents, families, businesses, schools and communities in which the strategic capacity of government is used creatively, flexibly and responsively.

Evidence presented at the Conference satisfied me that governments in Australia have a long way to go to meet Vern's definition of being 'civic entrepreneurs'. This is not to say that there aren't any innovative government practices that are encouraging flexibility, and greater financial and resource independence of community constituents. Some examples of flexible government programs exist due to enterprise ingenuity, and as a result of unawareness by and isolation from relevant departments. Representatives of the Boys from the Bush from Far North Queensland spoke about the success of their business, their products and entrepreneurial skills of their workforce that consists of former state offenders. They regard their isolation and lack of contact with state and federal governments as the driving force of their achievements.

Nevertheless, government representatives who attended the Conference, rated their 'civic entrepreneurial' characteristics differently. Senator Amanda Vanstone, who opened the conference, acknowledged that it could take governments still a while to 'get it right', especially in its partnerships and programs. It had to be sure, however, that distributed funds were to be 'well accounted for and well managed, and lead to demonstrable outcomes'. A Finance and Treasure representative from the Victorian Government claimed, that they still needed to better measure the value of community and other projects rather than just concentrating on the 'finances'. However, social accountability performance measures were not part of the conference agenda.

Indigenous Cape York representatives spoke about how the needs of their communities were consistently being misunderstood and misreported by government, despite high numbers of 'do-gooders' visiting their communities. Poverty faced by their communities could be traced to 'powerlessness' and inability to control their own financial, environmental, government, and civic future. Noel Pearson and Ritchie Ahmat's opening presentations were refreshingly honest, brutal and realistic about the ability of government to demonstrate 'civic entrepreneurial' tendencies in their Cape York communities.

The session on welfare reform highlighted interesting and innovative developments in the community sector, in particular new alliances and partnerships being created between businesses, the community and social enterprises. Patrick McClure's presentation about progress in welfare reform since the McClure Report provided insight to increasing partnerships, (facilitated through the Prime Minister's Department), between business and commerce. The Prime Minister's Awards for Excellence in Community Business Partnerships with over 260 nominations demonstrate the increasing importance of social and corporate responsibilities. Other examples of social enterprises are Mission Employment's involvement with a soup kitchen/cafe in Fortitude Valley that has created a source for employment and provided a great meeting place for locals and tourists.

There were a number of interesting and informative presentations and workshops, where individuals, entrepreneurs and communities demonstrated innovation, leadership and entrepreneurial practices. There was no apparent evidence that the various federal and state government departments were doing anything different - except trying to listen and understand the needs and wants of their constituents. This did not appear to me to be a brand of 'civic entrepreneurship', or a departure from previous practices, or indeed an imbued sense of being 'innovative in government'.

As well, I was sorry to miss the first day of the Conference, in particular the Indigenous Enterprise summit to learn from some of the innovative indigenous developments.

Kathryn's presentation on Community Investment Mechanisms drew strong interest and lively debate on the slow uptake of innovative community finance mechanisms and policy developments in Australia, when compared to other developed countries. The presentation is attached separately to this article.