LECTURE: Fear and Public Policy

You are invited to a public lecture as part of Diversity Dialogues program by

DR CARMEN LAWRENCE Federal Member for Fremantle, National President, Australian Labor Party

Fear and Public Policy

Abstract: There is plenty of scope, even in established democracies, for fear to be used as a device to maintain and expand the power of governments and their supporters. Such fear is not so much fear of government itself, as it is in despotic regimes, but fear of the other of other citizens, of outsiders and the marginalised. It is a calculated exploitation of both the explicit and the inchoate fears that many of us have.

Fear can be manipulated and attached to objects and circumstances which do not pose an objective threat. We learn what to fear and can be induced to behave fearfully, even in the absence of a tangible threat. One of the consequences of such tactics is a profound distortion of public policy, so that we apply ineffective remedies to poorly defined problems.

Brief CV: Dr Carmen Lawrence’s parliamentary career began in State politics in 1986 when she won for the Australian Labor Party the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Subiaco, held by the Liberal Party for the previous 27 years. She was promoted to the State Government Ministry in 1988, as Minister for Education. She was re-elected to Parliament in 1989, representing the seat of Glendalough. Following the State Labor governments re-election her responsibilities were increased with the addition of the Aboriginal Affairs portfolio. In a leadership change on 12 February 1990, Dr Lawrence made history by becoming Premier of Western Australia and Australia’s first woman Premier. Following Labor’s narrow defeat at the 6 February 1993 State election, Dr Lawrence became Western Australia’s first woman Opposition Leader. She also held the positions of Shadow Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Employment and Federal Affairs. On November 14, 2003, Dr Lawrence was elected by the first popular ballot of ALP members as President of the Australian Labor Party. Dr Lawrence also speaks and writes regularly about refugee policy and democratic reform. Many of her articles are regularly published on the Sydney Morning Herald Web-Dairy, and she continues to speak out in Parliament on these and other important issues.

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