In the interests of openness and transparency, we want to begin with a statement of intent. Why are we posting? What do we want to achieve? Who are we wanting to connect with?
In short we want to support robust debate about the things that matter to you and the Townsville community.
Our hopes for this blog are that it will facilitate a wide-ranging discussion of the issues that matter to us all. As well as being an opportunity it is also a forum that is badly needed. The current quality of discourse in the media and among our political leaders have reached a low ebb, and if the haven’t bottomed, they can’t be far off. Now is the best time to start conversations and engage in open, honest and heart-felt debate. These efforts will plant seeds, germinate ideas and allow them to eventually blossom into positive and productive changes for us all. We need better public policy that is evidence based, we need broader engagement across all levels of our community with that policy, and we need to build support and belief in what we need to do to make our society an even better place for us all.
You’re invited to be a part of it all.
Much has been made of the decline of political parties and people’s involvement with them. Certainly numbers are down, but that doesn’t mean that the quality of the public discussion needs to be either low or diminished. It doesn’t mean that the majority should abandon politics to vested interests, to the connected, to the privileged, or to the already powerful. We know that people still hold important ideas, beliefs, hopes and dreams.We feel that this will be an opportunity for us to raise the bar, and to fully discuss and debate the issues that really matter. We believe great ideas come from the bottom up, in from the sides, and even from the top down. We want you to help us generate those ideas, give them oxygen, and allow them to spread. There is nothing as powerful good ideas whose time has come.
We also want to bring facts, research, evidence, and quality theories back into the discussion. We promise that this blog won’t be a long boring opinion piece. The mainstream media already fills that gap. We will provide links to quality information. We’ll provide information, the fuel that fires robust debate. And we’ll give your voice the opportunity to be heard among many others. Rather than tell you how to think we’d rather come to an agreement or an understanding about what the evidence suggests. We’d rather hear what the experts have to say, not be drowned out by the loudest or the most persistent voice.
That’s why we’re here, and why we’d like you alongside us.
So to start off the discussions on matters of importance, we’d like you to share a few lines (or a few paragraphs), about what matters to you. What you see (or want to see) in our community? What you think? What would you like discussed?
As we move forward with this blog, we plan to ensure plenty of opportunity for your input and for you to enrich the conversation.
From the grassroots level we can (and we need to) start to push our ideas up, to float them, to elevate them, to allow them to rise to the level where they are taken on-board by our leaders, and where they can be given a good run in the battle of ideas which our parliament will become again when the current race to the bottom is finally won (or lost).
Be a part of it by…. Sharing what you think!