She claimed that the present government is promoting simplistic solutions to complex problems (such as claiming job snobs as the cause of unemployment) and promoting fear instead of looking at issues in all their "complexity".
Macklin said that shadow ministers are developing a series of consultation plans for their portfolios, including such things as policy and community forums, site visits to workplaces, businesses, educational institutions and community projects, ALP Branch meetings to discuss policy issues, and formal presentations to the Shadow Cabinet from policy experts.
The ALP has appointed former Prime Minister Bob Hawke and former NSW Premier Neville Wran to undertake a wide-ranging review of the ALP's structure and organisation following its defeat in the 2001 election. All policies, apart from opposition to the further sale of Telstra, are also under review.
This is the prepared text of Macklin's address to the Brisbane Institute:
Thank you for the opportunity to be here today to explain Labor's Policy Review Process and the benefits of participating and contributing to it.
The Federal Parliamentary Labor Party has embarked on a wide-ranging policy review. Everything bar the further sale of Telstra is up for debate.
As Deputy Leader, my job is to coordinate the Review in a way that encourages as much participation and debate as possible.
As part of its policy review, the Labor Party is actively seeking the opinions and views of as many people and organisations as possible.
By stimulating debate about the issues confronting society, the Review will once again demonstrate to the Australian people that the Labor Party is the Party of ideas.
Labor's policy review process is not only about formulating policies; it's also about creating the environment that encourages participation and stimulates debate - the essence of an enlarged society.
I want to use the policy review process to tackle the disillusionment that builds up when people do not believe that they can make a difference or that their experiences are not important.
One of the most dispiriting consequences of six years under the Howard Government is a growing and pervasive cynicism towards the political process.
In Parliament over the past two weeks, day after day we have seen further evidence that this Government will sacrifice all pretence of truth and honesty to achieve its political ends.
What is more alarming is that each scandal lowers our expectations so that deceit and betrayal are now increasingly seen as the accepted norm.
So we're scarcely surprised when the former Defence Minister Peter Reith is caught out not once, not twice, but three times trying to cover up the truth about the children overboard affair.
Over the past six years Australians have become more and more disengaged from the political process at the Federal level.
Through the policy review process, Labor wants to develop the environment where Australians want to talk about complex issues and seek out innovative solutions.
Recent political debates have demonstrated that, on so many matters, the Federal Government is more interested in stirring up people's fears of the unfamiliar and unknown rather than looking at an issue in all its complexity.
Progressively, Australians are being lulled into a simplistic world where we're falsely reassured that the most complex problems can be explained away with glib one-line answers.
So the issue of border protection is confined to emotive arguments about stopping so-called queue jumpers.
And the 700,000 Australians who can't get a job are explained away as 'job snobs' with no mention of the fact that there are eight job seekers for every job vacancy.
And we're asked to believe John Howard's two-word solution to the drug problem - zero tolerance.
The problem in our education system has a simple answer too. The new Education Minister, Brendan Nelson, says young Australians don't complete high school because:
- …not all of us are biologically or emotionally, equipped or want to undertake that level of study
According to the Minister, Australian kids are dropping out of school not because the education system is failing them or because schools are starved of funds - but because some students are just not biologically or emotionally up to it.
Those that aren't up to it, he says, can spend their lives in what he describes as "a quiet pond"!
A serious flaw with the Minister's "quiet pond" analogy is that it implies that stillness equals security. It nostalgically recalls an era when an unskilled 15 year old could walk through the school gate straight into a job for life.
It pretends that early school leavers always find somewhere to improve their skills and employment prospects. It pretends that those who don't go on to university make a smooth and immediate transition to TAFE, a New Apprenticeship or a secure job.
But unfortunately, most don't.
The evidence suggests that early school leavers are more likely to become trapped - caught in a cycle of unemployment, low pay and employment insecurity.
According to research undertaken by Dusseldorp, over 200,000 young Australians are 'at risk' of substantial and ongoing labour market disadvantage.
These young people are not in education or full time work. They are not engaged in any activities that improve their skills or increase their job prospects.
What's more:
- Australia's Youth Unemployment Rate for January 2002 had risen to nearly 25 percent.
- At the start of the 21st century, Australia has the eighth highest rate of youth unemployment in the industrialised world.
- Australia's labour force is ranked third last amongst the industrialised nations according to qualification levels achieved - only Italy and Portugal have a less qualified labour force.
It's hard facts like these that should be the starting point for any serious discussion of education and employment policy - not baseless talk about young people not being biologically up to doing year twelve.
The Labor Party is not content with an unemployment rate of 7 percent and 700,000 Australians out of work.
Our goal must be the creation of a high skill and high wage economy.
Identifying and then formulating the policies that will deliver these outcomes is critical to my work as the Shadow Minister for Employment and Education.
Labor's recognises the critical links between education, economic growth and employment.
The consultation process embedded into the Review Process will ensure that our Shadow Ministry discusses future directions for Labor policy with the broadest range of people.
To do this, Shadow Ministers are developing consultation plans for their portfolios that will include:
- Policy forums that bring together a small number of experts to develop recommendations in each portfolio area.
- Community forums that enable community organisations and individuals to share their experience and offer recommendations to Shadow Ministers.
- Public submissions so that organisations and individuals can submit policy recommendations in writing to Shadow Ministers.
- ALP Branch meetings to discuss policy issues within the party's structures.
- Site visits by Shadow Ministers to workplaces, businesses, educational institutions and community projects.
- Formal presentations so that experts can outline emerging issues to Shadow Ministers and Shadow Cabinet.
- Shadow Minister's program of meetings and appointments with business, unions and community interest groups.
Labor's policy review process will take time because we are committed to understanding the issues in all their complexities.
The Policy Review process is more than just assessing Labor's 2001 policies, it is also about identifying emerging trends and responding to new challenges.
Community expectations and the nature of work and business practices are rapidly changing, it therefore follows that the way we organise and frame issues must also change.
More and more, policies based solely on glib slogans are failing the test of relevance.
This is particularly true for the generations of Australians who entered adulthood in the 1980s and 1990s.
No longer are they captive to ideology or standard political loyalties. And they are all too familiar with the uncertainty of our times - both domestically and globally.
Their expectations and experiences no longer fit neatly into prescribed categories.
For example, more and more people are waiting longer to start their families with significant long-term consequences for our society and our economy.
Yet there has been very little scrutiny of the reasons behind the trend.
The policy review process is so much more than assessing the relevance of what we did in the past, it is about provoking new ways of thinking about problems and their solutions.
Why has there been a 9 percent drop in the number of homebuyers in the 24 - 34 age group from 1986 to 1998.
And what impact are significant HECS debts having on university graduates who are delaying buying a home or having children?
Why do women choose to delay having their first child and what are the reason behind their decisions to have fewer children?
What impact do our tax and social security laws have on the capacity of women and men to combine having children with paid work?
For example, the new tax system provides additional support where one parent stays home with a child under five.
But if this parent decides to go back to work, he or she is slugged with very high effective marginal tax rates. Combined with the high cost of childcare, returning to the paid workforce can simply become an economic liability.
The question needs to be asked - do these arrangements support the choices families are making?
Until we have a clear, well-researched understanding of the factors underpinning the trend to delay family formation, we won't fully appreciate the long-term consequences.
How much of the delay is due to a lifestyle choice and how much is driven by economics?
Labor's policy review process is examining a whole range of policies that impact on family formation and whether existing policies are predicated on outdated views of how people live their lives.
Through the review, we can determine how key policy areas like education, welfare and taxation need to change to give more support to young families with young children.
Labor's challenge is to construct policies that are based on a detailed understanding of the issues that are relevant to people's lives.
Australia needs new approaches; it needs creative and innovative policies.
The Federal Parliamentary Labor Party wants everyone to start talking more and more loudly than ever before. We want to hear what's wrong; how people think we can fix it; and how government can make a difference.
People involved with think tanks like the Brisbane Institutes, ALP Branches, unions, community organisations, universities, schools, pensioner groups and workplaces - will want to engage with us in different ways.
It's up to us to recognise and define the needs of all Australians and then do something about them.
This review is part of our determination to re-invigorate and "upsize" the democratic process and, I can promise you, it will be inclusive, transparent and broad ranging. This is no quick political fix.
It is a dynamic process.
It is a time to encourage people to raise their voices and be heard.
Nationally, Labor can only succeed when it restores people's faith in the political process.
When it encourages all Australians to once again become enthusiastic about the policy process.
When it inspires them and includes them and, above all, when it convinces them that they CAN make a difference.
The ALP's Deputy Leader, Jenny Macklin, has outlined the state of play with her party's Review Process in an address to the Brisbane Institute. In a wide-ranging speech, Macklin discussed the problem of "pervasive cynicism" with the political process.