On the Couch with Jackie Bray

Caretaker Conventions 2025

Building a New Civilization of Zero Poverty, Zero Unemployment and Zero Net Carbon Emissions : Ushering in A World of Three Zeroes through Social Business

Speaking as a former M&A lawyer and senior leader at a top tier fund manager,
Kat Dunn, CEO Australia of Grameen Australia argues that we need to overhaul capitalism. We are so focused on growth, we risk compromising our prosperity. Now more than ever we have the information and connection at our fingertips to advance society, yet we are afraid of technological social dislocation.
Not only could our efforts to eradicate poverty be impacted – we could see unemployment rise. But what if poverty was not created by poor people, rather by the systems we have designed for ourselves? And what if the idea of unemployment was created by the fiction of employment? And what if there was a way to combine business, technology and capitalism to solve some of humanity’s greatest challenges? In this Don Dunstan Oration, Kat Dunn explored the ideas of social business, microfinance and A World of Three zeroes, and urged us to reframe our assumptions around human nature, our economic system, incentives and the purpose of our lives.

Grameen Australia is an independent replication of Grameen Bank which, in 2006 was jointly with its founder Professor Muhammad Yunus, awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for lifting millions of people out of poverty through microfinance.

View Katrina Dunn’s presentation slides here.

View the transcript of the event here.

The Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) ACT Division is calling for nominations for the 2018 Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Sector Management. These pre-eminent Awards aim to encourage and recognise better practice and innovation across the Commonwealth, State/Territory and Local Governments in Australia.

The Awards aim to encourage and recognise better practice and innovation across all levels of Government in Australia. They focus on specific initiatives and are based on organisations demonstrating success against four demanding criteria. The Awards are designed to honour the achievements of public sector work groups, units and teams rather than individuals, with organisations needing to demonstrate that they are able to devise and implement innovative customer focused initiatives. Nominees must also demonstrate that their success was not accidental, but that it was the result of a methodical and sustainable approach to improving the organisation’s practices in client satisfaction, leadership, people management, change management, planning, governance and innovation.More information about the Awards is available on IPAA ACT’s website, including all nomination documentation and the Invitation to Nominate document.

The main Award category is Sustainable Excellence in Public Sector Management for which the judges may determine Gold, Silver and Commendation Awards. Two supplementary Awards, ‘Collaboration’ and ‘People and Change Management’, may be awarded at the discretion of the Judges.

Last years gold winner went to South Australian Government: Department of Primary Industry and Regions for their initiative: South Australian River Murray Sustainability Regional Economic Development Program.

Nominations for the first stage open today and close on Thursday 31 May 2018. Finalists will be notified on 18 June and will progress to a second round of nomination and judging. Award winners will be announced at a function in Canberra in October. If you require assistance with your nomination or have any further questions, please email admin@act.ipaa.org.au or contact the IPAA office on 02 6154 9800.