In the 1800s, the largest membership organisation in Australia was a friendly society called The Australian Natives’ Association (ANA). More than any other organisation, the ANA helped give birth to Australian nationhood and the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901.

Today, ANA sporting clubs can still be found across Australia. Some large insurance and mutual funds still carry the name ANA in their names. Many doctors, nurses and pharmacists were employed by the ANA, through its local branches or ‘lodges’. It was a mutual society of a very influential kind. It didn’t just advocate for the country’s well-being; it sought to build our national well-being, through social, educational, health, sporting and financial initiatives.

In 2026, Australia has lost its way. We’ve lost our national vision and our pioneering spirit. We have a Commonwealth in name only – Australians are increasingly divided by wealth, generation, ethnicity, religion and aspiration. Our politicians and institutions are distrusted by most of us. Politics can’t heal this loss of trust.

The Australian Project aims to get us back on track. We are a social movement, based on the historical precedent of the ANA. We can’t rely on politics to build social cohesion or our common wealth anymore. We have to do it as our forbears did it, 150 years ago – through local groups, practical initiatives, and mutual enterprise – which build up our capacity and the confidence to trust each other. Without capacity and confidence, politics can’t rebuild a nation.

When the ANA used the word ‘Natives’ in 1873, they meant Australians who were born here, as distinct from those born in Europe or elsewhere. That’s not the right word for us in 2026 – about one third of us were born outside Australia. We want to bring together all who now call Australia home, to work together in making our common home a truly convivial, cohesive and prosperous nation for all.

We are an opt-in social movement. We will have local chapters across the country. They will take social, educational, health, and financial initiatives like the ANA did. And they will cultivate leadership for a nation aiming to get back on track. We invite your membership and participation.

We aim to bring people together, one to one, in every street in Melbourne to build community relationships in three practical ways:

Talking in English and Other Languages
Sharing Home Produce
Supporting Ageing People Living at Home

We are based in Melbourne because we want to find a method of building community that works in our city. After that we may extend our movement elsewhere.

Talking in English and Other Languages

In every street in Melbourne, there is a person learning English, who needs conversation practice with someone local and friendly.

And in the same street, there are people living alone, good speakers of English, who yearn for conversation with someone local and friendly.

What if these people could be paired up, to talk to each other?

And in every street in Melbourne, there is also person learning a language other than English who needs a conversation partner, someone who is fluent in that language, who lives locally. Some of these learners are students, of all ages. Some are planning to travel overseas. Some just want to broaden their outlook and sharpen their mind.

And in the very same street, there will be people who grew up speaking a language other than English who would like to assist someone local in learning that language.

What if all these people could be paired up to talk?

Action: We want to pair up individuals in every street in Melbourne who are learning English or other languages with residents who are good in English or another language, for conversation. One to one, in every street, in every suburb.

Sharing Home Produce

Most households in Melbourne produce at least some fruit, vegetables, jams, cookies or other goods that can be shared. Nothing creates good vibes and friendship like a gift of home-made produce to neighbours. The more that is shared, the more good karma and friendships will follow.

Action: We want to connect up individuals in every street in Melbourne who have home produce they are willing to share with neighbours.

Supporting Ageing People Living at Home

In every street in Melbourne, there are elderly people living at home who need assistance with practical tasks that are beyond them.

Our ResponseOur parliaments and governments are now made up of the wrong sort of people. Instead of people with track records as problem solvers, innovators, community builders, entrepreneurs, thinkers and system designers, we have people who have mostly only ever done one thing – play politics. So long as this continues, we have no hope of meeting the many challenges facing the country.

We need a once-in-a-generation replacement of the current crop of politicians with a new batch of representatives who have proven track records in bringing people together, solving problems, and leading.

To enable this change, we will conduct Community Preselections to allow community members to select a community leader to represent them in parliament.

This process allows the community to bypass the party preselection processes of Liberal, National, Labor and Green parties which function as gatekeepers and protectors of our broken political system.

Australian Mutual Society

The Australian Mutual Society (AMS) is an opt-in social movement that seeks to enable its members to live a better life.

It is a response to political gridlock, institutional paralysis, and the collapse of a shared vision of a better life, at the very time when social fractures, economic divisions, and political tensions around the world are deepening. The narratives that guided our thinking about social change through the 20th century are no longer persuasive – political systems and corporations have proven highly resistant to reform, and philanthropy and charity are too limited in impact.

There is an older social tradition that we aim to revive – people getting together on the basis of shared values to create the communities we want to live in and build the businesses we need.

We aim to do this on a large scale, as a mass movement with over one million members in Australia, extending internationally as we are able.

We will combine 21st century technology and business models (social networks, social commerce, crowd-funding, the sharing economy, and social reputation engines) with a 19th century organisational form – the mutual society.

This combination of technology and mutuality can enable us to establish new institutions and large-scale businesses to serve the well-being of our members:

We can supply our members as consumers with the services we want, treating members as people instead of numbers;
We can create businesses in which our members can work and be treated as people and not commodities;
We can compete in business activity by cutting out the sales, marketing and distribution line item and supplying directly to members;
We can financially sustain The Mutual Society through member-based business enterprises, without financial dependence on external sources.

We are not a political party, religious community or a for-profit business. Our membership is diverse and includes people with various religious, cultural and political affiliations. What unites us is our core belief about the primacy of relationships and mutuality.

We believe that our relationships – with family, friends, social networks and communities – are the most important factor in determining our social and material well-being. We therefore aim to help each other strengthen and extend our relationships, and counter societal forces that would ignore or diminish them.

We do this by building a network of local community hubs, large-scale business enterprises, and adult education endeavours, based on the principle of mutuality – owned and controlled by members, and governed by values that enhance mutual well-being.

We stand for co-operation more than competition, substance over superficiality, and leadership over managerialism.

Timeline

March 31 2024: Close of nominations for Community Representatives

April 14 2024: Close of registration for Community Preselectors

May 1 2024: – Online voting day to select Community Representatives

Eligibility

To be eligible to participate and vote in the Community Preselection, community members must:

a. register as a Community Preselector with a $10 registration payment (to cover administrative costs); and

b. declare that they are not a current or recent member of Labor, Liberal, National, or Green parties.

The Criteria for Community Representatives (Candidates)

Community members may nominate as a Community Representative who:

a. have a history of bringing people together for the common good and a history of voluntary contribution in their electorate;
b. have a track record as a community leader, problem solver, innovator, community builder, entrepreneur, thinker or system designer;
c. are capable of representing the issues and challenges facing their electorate;
d. are capable of building trust and confidence in local democracy;
e. are able to mobilise community members in winning a seat in parliament, and
f. are not current or recent members of Labor, Liberal, National, or Green parties.

Register your Interest

Our goal is to have as many community members as possible participate in the preselection ballot in each electorate.

To participate and vote as a Community Preselector, register using this form.

To nominate as a Community Representative (Candidate) , register using this form.

Oversight

The Community Preselections process is hosted and supervised by the Steering Committee of The Sensible Centre.