Michael Wesley, director of the foreign policy think tank, the Lowy Institute, has won the third John Button Prize for writing on public policy.
Dr Wesley won the $20,000 award for his book, There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia.
There Goes the Neighbourhood argues that the benign and comfortable world that has allowed Australia to be safe and prosperous is changing quickly. Asia’s big, dynamic economies have reshaped Australia’s, and their ambitions and fears are bringing greater uncertainty to regional relations. Armed stand-offs in the waters through which Australia’s trade flows are increasingly common. The book argues that Australia’s choices – even minor choices such as over foreign investment or trade deals – will assume great importance to mutually jealous powers in the region.
The judges of the John Button Prize praised There Goes the Neighbourhood as an important and timely book that “presents a sophisticated view of Asia as multi-centred, diverse and fluid.”
“The book shows that we in Australia are complacent about our place in the world at our peril,” said the chair of the panel, Morag Fraser. `In four or five years time, someone will read There Goes the Neighbourhood and say,He got it right.‘’'
The judges particularly noted the book’s attention to the role played by history and culture in explaining the thinking of four leading Asian countries.
The John Button Foundation seeks to lift the quality of writing and thinking about politics and public policy in Australia. It is bipartisan, relies on public donation, and was created in memory of the late Victorian Senator, Federal Industry Minister and writer, John Button.
In receiving the prize, Dr Wesley said, “I’m surprised and delighted to have won. My growing concern is that two decades of Australian prosperity have convinced Australians that we don’t need to engage much with the wider world. Yet it is more important than ever before that Australia does”. “At the heart of our purpose at the Lowy Institute is to increase the quality of ideas and debate about Australia and its role in the world”, Wesley added. “Through policy research and fresh ideas on Australian public policy, we can rightly honour the vision of John Button”.
There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the rise of Asia, Michael Wesley, May 2011, is published by New South Books.
One of our board members, former Federal Minister Fred Chaney, is giving a public lecture at Melbourne University on Tuesday October 11, on the subject of Integrity in Parliament — Where Does Duty Lie? Fred is always an engaging, stimulating public speaker and this lecture promises to be particularly good. A flyer for the event and a link to the registration process is provided here. You are welcome to attend.
The University has created a link for online registration:
http://cccs.law.unimelb.edu.au/index.cfm?objectid=27963340-5056-B405-5119A5D095835B6F (this link will go offline at 5pm on Monday 10 October).
Dr Michael Wesley (winner John Button Prize 2011), James Button, The Hon Michael Kirby and Thomas Posa (winner of the inaugural John Button School Prize 2011
Dr Michael Wesley winner John Button Prize 2011
Justince Michael Kirby giving 2011 John Button Oration
Thomas Posa receiving 2011 John Button School Prize from Sally Warhaft
Thomas Posa, a 15-year old student in Year 11 at Melbourne High School, has won the inaugural John Button School Prize. The winner was announced at the John Button Oration, which was held at BMW Edge as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival on Saturday 27 August.
Thomas, who will receive $2500 and a commemorative plaque, won the Prize for his essay, Australian Healthcare Policy and Reform since 2007. Melbourne High School also receives a plaque and $2000.
The judges commended the essay’s depth of research, sophisticated analysis, ability to marshal evidence and high-quality writing.
Honourable Mentions were awarded to Phoebe Jones of Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak for an essay on asylum seeker policy and Anna Gruen of Melbourne Girls Grammar School for an essay on the carbon tax and climate change.
Thomas’s essay looks at the history of health care funding since World War Two, examines the hospital reform process launched by former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and focuses on the need to make more progress in producing an equitable health system, especially in tackling mental illness.
While health is Australia’s largest industry and we are recognised as having one of the best healthcare systems in the world, tens of thousands of Australians are failed by the system annually.
Tom said that he felt very proud to have won the Prize. He chose health reform as his essay subject because “it was the Rudd Government’s big initiative and because it is a huge issue as our population ages.”
Tom, who hopes to study economics and law and one day work for the Department of Foreign Affairs or Treasury, said he thought that overall Australia was heading in the right direction, but “there are a lot of things to be done, particularly about climate change, which is a really big issue for my generation.”
The judges commended the essay’s depth of research, sophisticated analysis, ability to marshal evidence and high-quality writing.
The annual John Button School Prize commemorates the life, work and writing of John Button, the late Victorian Senator, Federal Minister and writer. It encourages students in Years 10 to 12 who feel strongly about Australia’s future to publish their best ideas in an essay. The John Button Foundation urges all Victorian secondary schools to submit their students’ work in the 2012 Prize. Details at www.johnbuttonprize.org.au
The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, the Victorian Association for The teaching of English, Social Education Victoria and the History Teachers’ Association of Victoria, are all supporters and partners of the John Button School Prize.
This year’s John Button Oration, The Fire Within, was given by former High Court Justice, the Honourable Michael Kirby.
Works on Australia’s relations with Asia and on the stalling of important reform over recent years in Australia have dominated the shortlist of the 2011 John Button Prize.
The four contenders for this year’s Prize are:
Gary Banks AO, Chair, Productivity Commission for his speech ‘Successful Reform: Past Lessons, Future Challenges’
George Megalogenis, journalist and commentator with The Australian for his Quarterly Essay ‘Trivial Pursuit: Leadership and the End of the Reform Era’
Dr Michael Wesley, Executive Officer, Lowy Institute for International Policy for his book ‘There Goes the Neighbourhood: Australia and the Rise of Asia’, and
Prof. Hugh White, Visiting Fellow, Lowy Institute for International Policy for his Quarterly Essay ‘Power Shift: Australia’s Future Between Washington and Beijing’.
The judges of the Prize, created in memory of the late Industry Minister and Victorian Senator, John Button, said the four shortlisted works all challenged the growing complacency in Australia’s political culture and the struggle to produce substantial reform in the long-term interests of the nation.
The winner will be announced on August 27, at the Melbourne Writers Festival’s John Button Oration, to be given this year by former High Court judge, Michael Kirby.
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 Executive Officer of the Foundation. Loretta has worked in the philanthropic sector for the past eight years and has a Masters of Business (Social Investment & Philanthropy). For any queries about the work of the Foundation, please contact her at loretta@johnbuttonprize.org
The main John Button Prize is changing. Following the 2010 Federal election and the view on all sides of politics that debate about the long-term challenges facing Australia reached an all-time low in that campaign, 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 response to one or more of the long-term problems facing the nation.
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.
John Button School Prize: A new initiative of the Foundation. 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 school 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 winning student will also be offered the opportunity to fly to Sydney, in the year after he or she wins the prize, to attend the final judging meeting of the panel awarding the main John Button Prize for writing on public policy.
You’ll find more information about all judges, detailed criteria for awarding the prize, project partners and an entry form here.
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 this venture.
