I'm moving to Sydney in late June to take up a new job at an organization called GetUp! which is organizing online a new movement of Australians interested in seeing a more progressive government.

It'll be interesting to delve more directly into national level politics. My take: For the last 10 years, Australia has been governed by the conservative "Liberal Party", under the leadership of Prime Minister John Howard. They're against Kyoto & supporting George Bush in Iraq. They've slashed funding for many community, cultural and public media institutions, and introduced very harsh policies on refugees. The PM and the people around him and have done nothing for reconciliation with Australia's marginalized Aboriginal people, and scuttled any momentum in Australia's new millennium move to become a republic. They've introduced several waves of 'reforms' that significantly reduce people's rights at work, but during their time in office Australia's economy has increasingly relied upon the wealth generated by raw materials rather than from any new innovative companies (the only time I ever hear about an Australian technology company in the news, it's the illegal file-sharing company Kazaa!). So, in my view something needs to change. The problem is that the political opposition doesn't seem much better from a policy perspective (and they certainly are not very successful at winning national elections...). Australia remains a great place, but we could, and definitely need to, do much better, if we are to remain a relevant, safe, and constructive country -- part of a globalising and risk-filled world.

While I've been overseas mostly for the last couple of years, I've also been back to Australia quite a bit, and I think it is true that the quality of the political debate is much poorer in Oz compared to the UK and Canada. In both these other countries, there is genuine and relatively open discussion and reflection happening *within parties* (of all perspectives) and a whole community of people from community groups, policy groups, universities, activists organizations, the media, and all sorts of professions who take an active interest in reflecting on issues in an often non-partisan but generally progressive and constructive manner. Perhaps because voting is not compulsory they have to at least try to keep people engaged (rather than accept apathy). And just more parties (of varying degrees of health). There are also many more initiatives that exist that use new technologies (and after all, some of these things like "email" are not really new at all anymore - we all use them on a daily basis) to engage people in political discussion & mobilization.

To a large extent, GetUp! is modeled on the success of activist websites in other countries (perhaps most of all, U.S. based Moveon.org). So, at least my understanding (I may well find I have this very wrong, so don't quote me!) is that GetUp is here to fill this niche - to use technology, the media, and community, to connect a progressive movement that can take effective action to make Australia a more progressive place. It's about giving a community, voice, and opportunity for influence to those that want to be part of Australian progressive politics, but have found themselves impotent, disconnected, and alienated by more traditional political structures.

I'm slightly daunted by the challenge ahead (I'll be Online Director), but excited to be working with a fabulous team including Brett Solomon (founder of the Oxfam International Youth Parliament). I've spent a lot of time these last few days reading the literally hundreds of blogs and comments that GetUp!'s existence (positive, negative, constructive and not so constructive) has already generated online since it's launch (in its first, very much start-up year, the website has garnered more than 100,000 members!). So I've have become very aware of the sizable needs ahead in terms of ensuring GetUp generates a lively and active following and becomes a trail-blazer (much like TIG) at learning about, using and mashing up new technologies to create new & experimental forms of political community.

The move to Sydney will I hope go relatively smoothly and beyond work (the majority of the day, I do need to remind myself), it'll be fun to explore this great city (even if I am arriving in Australian winter). I'm looking forward to catching up with - and making many more Sydney friends, and being much closer to my family. At the same time, I'm sure I will miss even more my 'global family' (I just have to convince, coax, encourage, and help, you move to Australia too!) and specifically my friends from London and Toronto. And I guess that's why we have TakingITGlobal- which, of course I intend to remain even more actively involved with!

More details and I'm sure blogs, once I (ahem) sign the contract, move, start work, and work out exactly what it is they want me to do!