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Changes to the main John Button Prize

The John Button Prize seeks to enhance the quality of public policy writing and debate in Australia. It is managed by the John Button Foundation (see About the Foundation), and funded by public donation. The Foundation is still seeking significant donors to ensure that the Prize is presented in perpetuity.

The main John Button Prize is also changing. Following the 2010 Federal election and the view on all sides of politics that debate about the long-term challenges facing Australia had reached an all-time low, the Foundation has decided to amend the criteria and conditions for the John Button Prize.

From this year, the Prize will present $20,000 to the best piece of thinking and writing on a subject of public policy — not, as previously, on politics and public policy. It is a small but significant shift from the Prize criteria of previous years. By tightening the focus of the Prize we hope to draw public attention to work that provides the most original, rigorous and imaginative responses to one or more of the long-term problems facing Australia.

In this light we are very pleased to welcome Dr Michael Keating, former Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, to our judging panel.

Detailed criteria for the John Button Prize and an entry form are via the links on the left.

Introducing the John Button School Prize

This year we introduce the John Button School Prize, an award for the best piece of writing on politics or public policy — ideas for Australia’s future — by a Victorian secondary school student between Years 10 and 12.

The School Prize will award $2500 to a student and $2000 to the winner’s schoolschool for an essay of no more than 2000 words that in the view of our judges shows the most insight, originality and judgment on a political subject or on an issue affecting Australia’s future.

Former Federal Ministers, the Honourable Barry Jones and the Honourable Dr David Kemp, have agreed to be judges on the inaugural School Prize, which gives an opportunity for the brightest and most engaged young Victorians to show their ideas and passions in writing.

The Foundation is grateful to the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, Social Education Victoria, the Victorian Association of Teachers of English and the History Teachers Association of Victoria for their support in establishing the John Button School Prize.

Click here for more information about all judges, detailed criteria for awarding the prize, project partners and an entry form.

New members of the Board

We are delighted to welcome former Victorian Premier, the Honourable Steve Bracks, as chair of the Foundation.

Other new board members are the Honourable Fred Chaney, former Federal Minister for Social Security and Aboriginal Affairs; Jane-Frances Kelly, Cities Program Director at the Grattan Institute and Joshua Funder, chair of the Per Capita think tank.

We are also very pleased that Loretta Mannix-Fell, who was executive assistant to John Button for 15 years, has been appointed as Foundation Executive Officer. Loretta has been working in the philanthropic sector for the past eight years and has a Masters of Business (Philanthropy and Social Investment). For queries about our work, please contact her at loretta@johnbuttonprize.org

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