This Whitlam Institute Perspectives paper by the Hon Barry Jones AC is a passionate plea for political leadership which has the gumption, intellectual power and persistence to "shatter old beliefs, look towards transcendent possibility and tell a story to be proud of". This paper takes us on a political expedition spanning several decades from the Whitlam years to the present.

In Barry Jones' inimitable style, the paper explores the international shift away from social democracy in the late 1970s through the modern 'growth as consumption' economic mindset that has resulted in intense individualism, and a collapse of socially and environmentally attuned policy-making.