Fairer, Smarter, Stronger: What Progressive Patriotism Means for Australia
Australian Prosperity Institute Editorial
Jesse J. Fleay, Editor-in-Chief, Research and Policy
Ethan Urch, Director, Media and Strategy
Since launching and listening to you, we have been thinking about how we want to progress forward. Keeping our society just and regular is critical in this journey. In an era of technocrats and volatile geopolitical events, Australians are confronted with more information online than ever. Separating the wheat from the chaff can be confronting and difficult for many. Australian Prosperity Institute believes that Australia must come first, but that anyone—from any part of the world—has a right to be an Australian through their contributions, skills, and care for our way of life. We believe that nationalism destroys nations, while patriotism lifts and unites nations through cooperations beyond borders.
What we mean by ‘Progressive Patriotism’
Pride with responsibility. Reform with unity. A practical path for a fair, smart, and strong Australia. Loving Australia means keeping faith with its people—past, present, and future. It isn’t flag-waving or point-scoring. It’s the steady work of building a country that lifts households, strengthens regions, and earns respect in a tough world.
Progressive Patriotism is simple:
Pride in who we are and what we’ve built.
Responsibility to fix what isn’t working.
Unity so change is something we do together, not to each other.
We are committed to publishing your voice on the matters affecting you. As we continue to engage with the public, decision-makers, and leaders, we want to establish a few rules to keep all contributors on the level. We want to set ourselves apart from media which seeks to entertain a hunger for negativity. We are committed to bravery, through Progressive Patriotism.
Progressive Patriotism differs from narrow nationalism and its outdated ideology
Progressive Patriots are not nationalists. They are the ones living Australia’s true values daily, rather than shouting down others through a desire for domination and control.
Progressive patriotism is not narrow nationalism: We reject zero-sum politics and culture wars. Strength comes from capability, not slogans; from welcoming contribution, not drawing new lines between neighbours. We seek resolution and only incite bravery.
Progressive patriotism is not pure ideology: Good policy serves people where they live. We start with evidence and delivery, not doctrine. If a policy can’t be implemented, it’s not a plan, it’s a press release. Too many voices throw silly policies to the air for a reaction, or because they have not thought it through. The Australian Prosperity Institute have heard Australians, and they have had enough.
‘Stop looking for a fight, start looking for a resolution’ let’s get on with the work: The Australian Prosperity Institute believes that, while there are mouths to feed, children to care for, and lines of people to house, Australians deserve more than having their time wasted with ideologies and old grievances. If the intention is not to resolve these grievances, and unite our common humanity, we—like the Australian people—have lost our tolerance of it.
Our principles
Intergenerational duty: Australians are stronger when governments invest in skills, our environment and finite resources, through sustainable programs and infrastructure. We who stand today inherited Australia, but we must each ask of ourselves: how do we want to leave Australia and its region for others, when we are gone?
Capability first: Governments must increase support for TAFE and university talent pipelines, apprenticeships, research, and industry, so that Australia can make, build, and export our unique and diverse cultural, social, economic, scientific, and industrial value to the world.
Shared prosperity: We affirm that economic and social prosperity is indicated through living wages, stable rents and mortgages, with accessible and fair services for all Australians.
Place-based balance: Strong regions and strong cities need smart and affordable housing, and well connected transport networks. Australia’s prosperity will be powered through a diverse and skilled national workforce, to maintain its digital economies, sustainable energy grids, and future infrastructure.
Clean, reliable energy: Transition that cuts bills over time, creates jobs, and secures our grid.
Unity in diversity: A bigger “we” built on fairness, contribution, and respect.
The API policy compass - five tests
Every API recommendation must pass these tests before it reaches the page:
People Test: Will a typical household feel the benefit of it?
Place Test: Will it strengthen both suburbs and regions, beyond Australia’s cities?
Capability Test: Does it build the skills, technologies, and industrial depth which only Australians should control?
Resilience Test: Does it lower the risks posed by crises in energy, supply chains, health, or climate?
Delivery Test: Who does what? By when, With what money? How will we measure success beyond the dollar that drives it?
If a policy fails any one of these, we commit to reworking it, until it can be implemented through reasonable means. We are committed to improving this in our approach, and expect potential contributors to agree to this sensible undertaking.
What this looks like in practice
Energy you can trust: We know that we can build renewables with firming and storage; that we can modernise transmission, and link projects to local jobs, and cheaper bills in the long term.
Skills to match the moment: We know that we can fund practical pathways in care, construction, advanced manufacturing, and digital design. We can align targeted migration to housing and services capacity if we continue to choose sustainable projects within our economic means. Prosperity can be cultivated in sound economics, not that of greed or incompetence and its neglect.
Decentralised growth: We know that regional hubs can be built through the energy incentives from carbon, so that people living in regions gain a fairer cut of the cloth in the project of regional transformation. We affirm that carbon industries owe it to Australians and the world, to pay their fair share toward housing targets, connected transport, health, and education which place families and communities at the top of the priorities list.
Housing supply with standards: Faster approvals and infrastructure sequencing are simple means to accelerate available houses, when their builds are better staffed and equipped, with more sustainable resources. These houses last, and are affordable in maintenance. Improving fair rules for build-to-rent schemes, and the continued roll out of affordable housing, are critical. They can only succeed, however, where there are services and retail in place, especially in areas of gentle density. New communities cannot exist in prosperity without local services, local jobs, and connectivity to more services and jobs as our population grows.
National resilience: Smart stockpiles, domestic production of critical goods, and interoperable data systems before the next global shock, is our larger national imperative at the Australian Prosperity Institute. Australian society can only be secured with sensible local, state, and federal planning. Australia’s economy must come first, but we must invest across borders and in the interests of our country, our region, and our world. Australia must seek partnerships with nations who refuse to violate the sacred trust which is placed in them by their citizenry. Australia looks to its own critical issues, in need of resolution first. Australia’s expectations of its own institutions is critical if governments and businesses are to empower other nations to confront their own crises.
How we communicate - our accessibility standards
Clarity — structure and essence
We strip ideas to the bone, show the steps, and lead readers to the evidence and detail of our ideas and proposals for reform.
Texture — language and words
We prefer lived examples over abstractions; metaphors used to illuminate the way for all, rather than obscure the path for all but a few.
Comfort — presence and alignment
Calm, steady, and aligned to values. No panic, no spin. If the evidence shifts, we say so, and we update the plan.
Why this matters now
Australia cannot drift through a decade of global change. Progressive Patriotism gives each of us a unique personal compass: fair in its outcomes, smart in its methods, strong in its execution. It asks Australians to act according to their will, and invites a citizenry of builders, not bystanders.
The bottom line
We will publish work that households can recognise, ministers can implement, and communities can track. Every brief will include a scoreboard, a timeline, and a map of responsibility. Prosperity is a project—and projects need plans. Fairer. Smarter. Stronger. That’s not a slogan. It’s a standard we intend to meet.
