#20 State Capture: causes and solutions - with Scott Ludlam
Description
Today I speak with former Senator Scott Ludlam. Scott Ludlam served as the Senator for Western Australia from 2008 until 2017, advocating on environmental justice, human rights, and also, which we won’t be able to talk about today, national security laws and the resulting surveillance we as citizens experience.
Today’s topic is big enough. State Capture. The World Bank defines State Capture as “the exercise of power by private actors – through control over resources, threat of violence, or other forms of influence – to shape policies or implementation in service of their narrow interest”. It is a term I hadn’t heard of until I read Scott’s wonderful book, Full Circle. And just last week, Scott Ludlam, as part of the Australia Democracy Network, released a report on State Capture. It’s pretty brutal, but there’s hope. It’s brutal because it shows how much of our political system has been flipped to meet the needs of private interests rather than our interests, and that elections alone won’t fix the problem. But there’s hope because the report reveals that there are immediate and practical reforms that we can push our politicians to address, now. There has been a theme emerging across interviews with George Williams, Andrew Wilkie and now Scott Ludlam – it is that our democracy is on a slippery slope, but there’s points that we can exit this slide. We just need to be clear and deliberate about it.
Show notes:
Learn more about State Capture: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/state-capture-and-democracy-in-australia-and-the-importance-of/13757632
Endorse the framework for a fairer democracy: https://www.ourdemocracy.com.au/the-framework/
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