Brumby 'plagiarises' Tony Blair's respect agenda

AN initiative to encourage tolerance has been copied from British Labour.

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THE Brumby government's "respect agenda", including the appointment of the nation's first minister to encourage respect in the community, has been exposed as a copy of an initiative launched by former British prime minister Tony Blair in 2005 and dumped three years later.

In what the opposition is calling one of the most "flagrant acts of political plagiarism", Victorian Premier John Brumby announced on Wednesday that former AFL footballer and Planning Minister Justin Madden would be the state's minister for the "respect agenda", to help tackle growing problems of racism, anti-social behaviour and alcohol-fuelled violence.

Mr Brumby said the minister would be in charge of a "whole-of-government approach" to restoring respect, including respect ambassadors, encouraging acceptance of racial diversity and promoting volunteerism and teaching young people to respect themselves.

The Premier's respect agenda is not new. Mr Blair first used the exact slogan to describe his program aimed at stamping out anti-social behaviour in Britain. It included parental intervention, anti-social behaviour orders, targeted school programs and encouraging volunteerism among teenagers. Mr Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, dismantled the initiative, the respect taskforce and the respect action plan months after he came to power in 2007.

Mr Blair said of the respect agenda and the respect taskforce in January 2006: "I believe in the innate decency of the British people and I believe that, together, we will eradicate the scourge of anti-social behaviour and restore respect. What lies at the heart of this behaviour is a lack of respect for values that almost everyone in this country shares: consideration for others, a recognition that we all have responsibilities as well as rights, civility and good manners."

Mr Brumby signalled his intentions in December 2008 to launch a multi-million-dollar campaign to teach young people about respect through schools, community groups and encouraging volunteerism.

"Our government understands that many Victorians are concerned about anti-social behaviour in the community," he said on Wednesday, after announcing Mr Madden's new role. "We have got some challenges in our community, particularly based around what I call respect. If you respect yourself, you don't go out and binge drink; if you respect your community, you don't go out and vandalise it; if you respect people around you, you don't go out and beat them up."

The opposition's spokesman for scrutiny of government, David Davis, said Victorians needed more police and zero tolerance, not slogans copied from the British government.

"This is a major embarrassment to John Brumby and his government which will go down in history as one of the most flagrant acts of political plagiarism," Mr Davis said. "Victorians need real policy solutions like more police on the streets, a zero-tolerance approach to crime and tougher sentencing, not empty words and slogans copied from internet sites."

Federation of Indian Students of Australia chairman Gautam Gupta said encouraging racial tolerance was a good step but the government needed to concentrate on more practical solutions to prevent violence against Indian students. "We need more police on the streets," he said. "When we talk to police, they tell us we don't have the numbers and we can't be everywhere at once."

A spokeswoman for the Brumby government said the Liberal Party says on its website that respect is one of its core values. "Now Ted Baillieu (the Opposition Leader) is opposing it. No wonder nobody knows what he stands for," she said.