Australia’s economy may appear strong on the surface, but beneath the bonnet lie deep structural challenges: from rising inequality and insecure work to ecological breakdown. These demand more than piecemeal fixes; they need upstream economic transformation.
Our Economic Change lead, Dr Katherine Trebeck, alongside Josh Devine from Regen Melbourne, hosted a workshop at Progress 2026 on going upstream for this economic transformation. Progress is the largest social justice conference in Australia, with more than 1,500 people attendees, 140 speakers from across the world and 60 sessions on how to win the change we need for people and planet. Here are some insights from the workshop.
The roots of the problems
The workshop opened with a provocative question from Frances Moore Lappé: “Why are we collectively creating a world that none of us as individuals actually want?”
Participants identified numerous downstream challenges facing Australians today, including:
- Housing unaffordability
- Climate-driven bushfires
- Indigenous land loss
- Loneliness and mental ill-health
- Youth crime and family violence
- Wealth inequality and poverty
- Misinformation and rising fascism.
Using upstream thinking, which is where attendees traced these symptoms to deeper economic roots rather than just looking downstream at the problems this system creates, they came up with the causes of these issues. These included corporate capture, extractive production systems, property as investment rather than shelter, deunionisation, and incentives that prioritise profits over social benefits.
The vision: naming the world we want
Rather than spending all our time on the problems of today, the group also imagined alternatives to our current economic system. Drawing inspiration from Regen Melbourne, Indigenous wisdom, and The Next Economy’s regional research, participants named what a better economy needed to deliver: dignity, fairness, connection, and ecological care.
“Lego wins” as glimmers of light
The workshop celebrated existing examples of positive change, what we refer to as ‘Lego wins’, the instances of what we need more of to build the economy we could have. Examples of these wins pointed to by the participants included:
- Community ownership: Hepburn Wind, energy co-ops, housing cooperatives
- Food systems: Oz Harvest, food co-ops, farmers markets, Buy Nothing groups
- Environmental action: Kelp farming, native nurseries, rooftop solar uptake
- Social infrastructure: Community gardens, third spaces, community toy and tool libraries
- Policy wins: Social procurement policies, minimum rental standards, Medicare
These examples demonstrate that alternative economic models are already emerging across Australia.
Dominant mindsets
Yet these ‘Lego wins’ are not yet adding up to systemic change at the scale and pace needed. Pervasive myths and assumptions lock policy into inadequate downstream efforts. Some of these myths and assumptions called out by workshop participants include:
- Productivity leading to higher living standards for everyone
- Fiscal responsibility being more important than environmental stewardship
- Humans are primarily selfish and competitive (homo economicus)
- Welfare as a ‘burden’ rather than social good
- Economics is a science with hard, unchangeable rules
- Capitalism is superior to democracy
Steps for action
As the workshop finished, participants were invited to share examples of work that offered vehicles for working on economic system change. Organisations mentioned as potential partners and outlets included WEAll Australia, Rewiring Australia, Common Cause, and Energy Consumers Australia.
Rising inequality, insecure work and ecological breakdown reveal deep structural problems in Australia’s economy that demand more than piecemeal fixes. ‘The economy we could have’ workshop showed that these issues are not inevitable — they’re the result of choices shaped by power and values — and that alternative economic models are already emerging across the country.
Read the report ‘The economy we could have’ for more details on where we can go to from here.
📢 Stay tuned: In the coming months, we’ll be releasing a series that dives deeper into the glimmers of light we see in Australia for building ‘The economy we could have’.