Retiring state MP Susan Close has sounded a warning about threats to democracy, in the 2025 Dunstan Oration.
The annual event, run by the IPAA (SA) in partnership with the Don Dunstan Foundation, was a valedictory speech of sorts for Dr Close, who is leaving parliament after a career that saw her ascend to Deputy Premier and take crucial ministerial positions in education and the environment.
Dr Close told the December event that Australia’s “quest for fairness, our self-styled ‘fair-go’ and egalitarian country are under threat, and we cannot look away from that”.
“At its heart, this speech is about democracy, our democracy, and how we collectively can strengthen it and not allow self-serving bullies to take it away from the people,” she said.
She talked in detail about two policy areas: education and the environment.
She was deeply concerned about Australia’s “highly segregated” school system, which separates students based on the socio-economic status of their parents to a degree not seen in similar nations.
Nature and climate change was her other key theme. She connected the threats to our environment to democracy, given the failure to do more to protect nature will have a disproportionate negative impact on disadvantaged people.
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