What is good governance? How do we not only govern well but in this age where unfortunately the truth is not so much an absolute, the good, the wisdom of the wise but perception - something subjective.

My closest friend the former Lord Mayor of Wollongong was pilloried as a politician because he endeavoured to clean up the political act on the Wollongong City Council. He was vandalised by Lisa Carty of the Illawarra Mercury but the ICAC Commissioner in his verbal preliminaries recently has praised his fortitude.

Poor governance is just a slip away - we can slip from the sheer pressures of office. But corruption can creep in unawares - because evil is often well disguised, appears to advance the cause of politics, but behind it may lay deception and self-interest.

The terms governance and good governance are increasingly being used in development literature and the corporate sphere. Governance describes the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented). So, public institutions conduct public affairs, manage public resources, and guarantee the realisation of human rights. Good governance accomplishes this in a manner essentially free of abuse and corruption, and with due regard for the rule of law.

Good governance defines an ideal, which is difficult to achieve in its totality. However, to ensure community life, actions must be taken to work towards this ideal.

Good governance involves eight major characteristics:

These characteristics assure that

In Tasmania we have much to thank God for. Strong views, argued positions, opposition welcomed and usually in an atmosphere of conviviality.
On major agreed concerns of today there appears to be a more ready agreement for some bipartisan togetherness. Not least the 'Sorry Day' to which I will return.

I am confident that there was bipartisan support for the Government's outstanding support of the St David's Cathedral Conservation Appeal. 1.5 million dollars is a magnificent gift in any one's eyes. Whilst some wrongly read a church/state demarcation in Australian law, there is no such thing; rather a neutrality of good governance whereby Church has and will continue to play a valued roll. This gift marks the iconic status of this Cathedral. Although small even by Australian Capital City status, St Mary's Sydney dwarfing us as the 19th largest Cathedral in the world.

This Cathedral of St David, designed by famed neogothic English architect GF Bodley, is the quintessionally perfect cathedral in form in Australia and one of the most beautiful. And so it has played its place in social history - in the promulgation of Hobart Town to the City of Hobart, to the birth of the Australian Labor Party under Bishop Mercer, (beware those red English Bishops) and in more recent times the mourning and civic gatherings for the awful Port Arthur massacre. This cathedral is committed to being a place of engagement with the city and a place of prayer, praying for our Premier, Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Greens personally and for their respective parties but for every member in our cycle of prayer by name regularly.

Thank you for standing with us in our conservation project.

Good strong opposition manages to distance itself from total self-interest for the common good; to engage with the good ideas of government seeking right amendment and opposing that, which must be opposed.

Today all State Governments share common infrastructure and strategic concerns.

Foremost is education. Knowledge brings right power. Knowledge flowing from learning brings good living standards to the working poor. We must lift the standards of quality teaching. The teacher unions with schools must put the students and children first within the framework of good conditions.

Second is health. We pray for a solid Commonwealth-State funding arrangement. Just this week I had to help a 34 year old disabled man get to Royal Brisbane for treatment.

Our hospitals require visionary leadership and funding.

Roads and infrastructure.

But there are other things that touch Joe and Joan citizen

I am not a wowser. Far from it, I am an Anglican.

Our society, despite its wealth, its relative comfort, our freedoms, is in many ways more afflicted by anxiety, depression and suicide than ever. Martin Seligman the acclaimed American child psychologist, author of the Optimistic Child and other books is spending six months at Geelong Grammar. He notes that the rate of child depression today is 40 times the rate in 1901. Why?

I recommend his web page to every Parliamentarian.

Today's troubles have much, on my reflection, with the busyness of life, the quality of relationships, the fear invoked by the press and several major confronting problems.

Firstly the ethos and ready access to the ever growing gambling epidemic. Billions of dollars are wasted for the rich. Unfortunately governments depend for their reward.

George Orwell writes in Down and Out in Paris and London

At six we went to a Salvation Army shelter. We could not book beds till eight and it was not certain that there would be any vacant, but an official, who called us 'Brother', let us in on the condition that we paid for two cups of tea. The main hall of the shelter was a great whitewashed barn of a place, oppressively clean and bare, with no fires. Two hundred decentish, rather subdued-looking people were sitting packed on long wooden benches. One or two officers in uniform prowled up and down. On the wall were pictures of General Booth, and notices prohibiting cooking, drinking, spitting, swearing, quarrelling, and gambling. As a specimen of these notices, here is one that I copied word for word:

Any man found gambling or playing cards will be expelled and will not be admitted under any circumstances.

William Booth the founder of the Salvation Army knew that gambling was a narcotic - a keeper poor of the already poor. The working man's analgesic. I do not need to tell today of the suicides, the houses sold on mortgage reclaim, the abused children and wives. When will it stop? When will we take a reality check?

The abuse of alcohol. Drinking in the streets of our lovely city is rampant. Surely we notice the empties everywhere - around this cathedral site, the urinating and worse.

Will we like other major cities declare alcohol free zones? I can think of nowhere better to start than the Georgian streetscape of Murray and Macquarie to Franklin Square.

Local Government legislation lacks teeth. We must not allow brothels, clubs and places that are not compatible with hospitals schools and churches within a legislated distance of these places where our young and elderly and ill need safety. I commend that measure to you for urgent attention.

But these are nuts and bolts - nitty gritty - minutiae. You work hard. You serve us well. Leaders are often pilloried and sometimes abused and rarely praised. You as Parliamentarians will not probably get the praise owed while you are in office. But I hope you get words of encouragement as you work for us. Without encouragement even the strongest leader wanes.

Can I leave you with a question... What inspiration can you bring to our people from this sitting? It may be a useful but architecturally inspiring monument - The Federation Square or Sydney Opera House. But remember the angst that flowed for many years from those enterprises.

Knowing Tasmania a little - it may be new walking tracks on our pristine coast or a new poetry gathering or the promotion of the arts of the people something like the sculptures on the eastern suburbs seaboard of Sydney.

I hope ladies and gentleman that as Parliamentarians you will inspire us this sitting. We are simple people. It may take a project. I leave that with you.

Or could we take a further exemplary lead with our indigenous peoples... How do we continue to say we are sorry - but in a way of acknowledgement? Could we as some have already hinted be firm advocates for a 'Sorry Day' public holiday and the inclusion of the aboriginal flag in the insignia of State and Commonwealth?

I commend you and we, the churches of Hobart, undertake as I have said to pray for you.

AMEN