South Australia Establishes Nation Centre for Social Inclusion

The South Australian Government has initiated discussions across Australia as part of a move to establish the nation’s first Australian Centre for Social Innovation to developing effective remedies to key social issues.

Receiving the final report from Thinker in Residence, Dr Geoff Mulgan, titled Innovation in 360 Degrees: Promoting Social Innovation in South Australia, the SA Premier Mike Rann committed $6 million over the next three years towards the project.

The new centre will be a partnership between the state government, business, community organisations, the universities and commonwealth and local governments. Discussions have begun with key stakeholders in other states.

The SA Premier says it will be a truly national centre with an independent governing board drawn from across Australia and linked to the best and brightest minds across the world.

It is proposed that ACSI will both initiate projects and collaborate with partners from business, government, academic and the Not for Profit sectors from across Australia, to design and test new solutions to some of Australia’s most pressing social challenges.

In his report, Geoff Mulgan has proposed some potential themes in his report:
• Health outcomes for at risk/high need groups
• Education outcomes for excluded groups
• Reduced housing stress and security for poor/low income or disadvantaged groups
• Aging

In conjunction with these themes ACSI could also be well placed to consider
• Poverty reduction
• Reducing water and energy use (not strictly a PBI issue, however water shortages and carbon trading will impact on vulnerable groups)
• Social and economic participation for key need groups – youth, older workers, disability, sole parents, long term unemployed, ex-offenders, substance abuse
• Access to law and justice for disadvantaged groups
• Reducing the ‘digital divide’ for disadvantaged communities

These themes would work under the proposed PBI tax status as long as the focus was reducing poverty, disadvantage and ‘misfortune’.

The Mulgan Report can be downloaded at http://www.thinkers.sa.gov.au/images/Mulgan_Final_Report.pdf