In an effort to rebuild people's trust in our democracy, long-standing commercial client Paul Bassat has established a not-for-profit organisation that will seek people’s views on important issues via town-hall style forums and an online platform called Amplify.
We asked Paul, the co-founder of Seek and venture capital fund Square Peg, what drove him and his family to establish the charity and what he hopes it will achieve.
You’ve spoken about the impetus for establishing the Amplify platform in broad terms – was there a moment or a series of moments that crystallized your decision to run with the idea?
Like many others, I felt a sense of frustration about the lack of serious policy debate and increased polarisation in Australia. At a certain point, I decided that I could either remain frustrated or attempt to do something about it.
AMPLIFY was the outcome of that thought process and it took shape after input from many different people.
We seem to be experiencing a period of intense mistrust of politicians, business leaders, the media and diverse, previously highly regarded institutions. How can/will Amplify energise people to engage in processes they no longer trust?
We believe that many are both frustrated at their inability to be heard and make a difference but at the same time open to finding a way to get involved. We have seen a big change in the traditional institutions in our society and a decreased relevance of political parties, unions and churches. AMPLIFY is providing a non partisan place for people to get involved and make a difference.
Where would you like to see Amplify in two, five and/or 10 years’ time?
We want AMPLIFY to build a large membership that reflects the rich diversity of Australian society and have a significant core of that membership really engaged with our work.
We hope to be identifying policy prescriptions that help solve some of the most critical issues in our society and have our political leaders actively engaging with those ideas and implementing policy reforms.
How involved will you be personally?
We have a world class team led by Georgina Harrisson as our CEO. I will be a very engaged chair but operating very much in a non executive capacity.
What was the nature/scope of ABL’s contribution?
ABL has been a critical partner from day 1. We have received outstanding legal advice from the team led by Jonathan Wenig and Jess Wills and the firm has been incredibly generous to us. That is a very rare combination and we are very grateful for ABL’s support.
Pictured in photo: AMPLIFY's Georgina Harrison (CEO) and Paul Bassat (Founder)
