Bio
Nick Green is a policy advisor to the Hon. Dr. Andrew Leigh, Shadow Assistant Treasurer in the Australian Parliament. His work focuses on a range of policy areas, particularly reform to the Australian Cooperatives and Mutuals sector and competition policy. The office is responsible for developing the Australian Labor Party’s “National Sharing Economy Principles,” and creating policies to facilitate cooperative platforms. Nick will address the particular opportunities and risks for government facilitation of cooperative platforms, including the potential for a bipartisan response to a recent Senate report. He has degrees in Economics and Communications, and also has interest in migration policy and intellectual property rights reforms. He is starting to learn Tamil.
Support for platform cooperatives is gaining momentum in Australia. The sector has the broad support of many different institutions and political actors. Australia is well-placed to harness the benefits of cooperatives, particularly in the digital age. The key issue is to shape the digital economy in a way that does not leave behind anyone. Governments and co-ops must tackle head-on the issues of workers’ rights, retirement savings, multi-factor productivity stagnation, and increasing inequality. Nick will speak to the particular institutional challenges in Australia. Specifically, he will address the lessons that can be learned as government and co-ops seek to facilitate platform cooperatives to confront these issues.