Looking at the national picture, there’s delicious irony in comparing how we started the year and how we are seeing off the end of 2015.
We started with a prime minister who was so backward looking he brought back honours that belong to another century.
He was so backward looking, he gave a knighthood to the husband of our Queen.
But fortunately we are finishing the year with a national leader who is almost fixated on the future.
He’s not everyone’s cup of tea, Malcolm Turnbull; no politician ever is.
But think about how we the people live our lives – the great majority of us avoid dwelling on what happened yesterday or last week.
If we do, we get asked: why, what is the point?
Tradition, loyalty, all the ancient values are wonderful things and no society can properly function without them.
But we have these in such abundance they take care of themselves.
There is no challenge in them.
The challenge for us as a young nation on the rise is in the values of tomorrow, next week, next month and the next 50 and 100 years.
We are not the sort of people who throw the baby out with the bathwater.
That is why we are in no hurry to become a republic: the truth is we are one already in everything but name.
Have no doubt about it, our Prime Ministers are more and more like presidents and that is why there is such drama across our land when we change them.
That’s so because the quality of national leadership has never been more important than now.
The calibre of leadership of our prime ministers is also vitally important in setting the bar for all of our leaders, from state premiers to mayors.
I am not going to suggest here that Turnbull will be a huge success compared to Tony Abbott, politics is too unpredictable to go down that road.
But for the country’s sake I do hope he will be a roaring success, as I did when Abbott assumed the top job in September 2013.
I wish him well and along with all commentators will continue to praise when he excels and criticise when he stuffs up.
The innovation agenda he has ushered in is commendable and I was most impressed with the PM’s repeated insistence that the most important thing Australia has is its people – its human capital.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]So as 2015 winds down, I hope Mr Turnbull realises that an innovative, smart and agile country does not discard people when they reach the age of 50 or thereabouts.[/social_quote]
And that is exactly what happens at the moment: as you approach the seemingly magic figure of half a century you start to feel the chill winds of redundancy fast approaching.
So if they don’t sack you they make life at work so miserable you can’t wait to get out.
And sure, some oldies go on to run their own successful businesses and wish they’d got out a lot earlier.
However, sadly, many of them will never be employed again and that is a national tragedy.
Most would be at the top of their game when shown the door by management – what a waste of all that experience, all those skills honed over 30-40 years.
I really hope the PM adds this issue to his innovation agenda because we can’t call ourselves a smart country if we keep shooting ourselves in the foot.
He needs to tell all bosses that there are ways to keep older workers that will benefit their company, including where it really counts, the bottom line.
It’s one of the big things Turnbull will need to do if he wants to be still here this time in 2016 and looking forward to the future.
