Paul Smith

Dear Mr Brash, Key and all the rest,

Here's a  thought: How about walking away from that Everest of aspirations - beating Australia?  Once we used to it routinely in terms of GDP but then came 1984 and all that. Wouldn't be grand though if, just for a moment, we could put bottom line ideology aside, follow Australia's example and create wealth in different ways? 

Here's a scheme the Federal Government announced in October for seniors and its not-so-senior citizens. It captures what we insist on discarding - institutional memory - and at the same time binds communities together. Now there's an idea. (See story below): 

'The Federal Government is calling for interested organisations to put their names forward for a scheme to harness the skills and experience of mature age Australians.

'Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector, Senator Ursula Stephens, has launched the Golden Gurus website and invited interested organisations to become involved in the new national Golden Gurus program.

'The Golden Gurus program will harness the skills and experience of Australians aged 50 years and over.

'Through Golden Gurus, mature age Australians will be able to meet new people, develop social networks, access free training, and participate in an Ambassadors program.

'The new program will commence on 1 January 2010 and will be facilitated by a range of quality organisations across Australia.

'“Skilled and experienced mature age people voluntarily give their time to support Australian communities and small businesses every day,” said Dr Stephens.

'Golden Gurus was an idea presented at the Australia 2020 Summit and forms part of the Government’s social inclusion agenda.'