1. Damian Carey - A Personal Summary
I have spent my entire professional life as an independent, self-employed health care practitioner working
in the context of a tradition going back thousands of years. I have approximately 40,000 hours of clinical
experience and a deep familiarity with the landscape of the human body in health and disease. It is only
now at the age of sixty, after a lifetime of study and practice, a post graduate degree in acupuncture and
as a nationally registered Chinese Medicine practitioner, that I am willing to claim the title Doctor of
Chinese Medicine.
My background says a number of things about me: I am dedicated, intellectually curious, self-reliant and
persistent, a competent manager and capable of sustained care and compassion. My entire life has been a
close up study of people, their pain and suffering, their aspirations, hopes and fears.
I would like to use this format to outline the influences which inform my inner world, so you may be in
no doubt about my motivation. I can name six fields of interest that have significantly shaped my
thinking: Chinese Medicine, Buddhist Philosophy, Permaculture, Aboriginal culture, Science and Music.
My experience as a Chinese Medicine practitioner gives me a unique insight. The health of an individual
has a direct correlation to the health of a nation; the same principles apply: deficiencies must be tonified,
circulation must be promoted, stagnation must be dispersed, boundaries must be strengthened and
pathogens eliminated, resources require protection and distribution, harmony must be established. Above
all, the conscious spirit must be allowed to flourish. Applied to the nation, the philosophical frameworks
of Chinese Medicine remind us of the need to honour the big picture, the goal of a harmonious national
life wherein all of our functional departments operate synergistically to ensure the continuous arising and
the stability of the whole.
In addition to Chinese Medicine, I am strongly influenced by Buddhist Philosophy. My core values, the
fundamental principles on which I strive to operate, are Wisdom and Compassion (qualities that appear
to be somewhat lacking in our current system of governance). These are the twin pillars of Buddhist
thought and the qualities through which I filter and assess my political philosophy.
The principle of Wisdom rests essentially on understanding the interdependent origination of all
phenomena. To put it into common language, there is only one life, one consciousness, of which we are
all a part. This is not fanciful philosophy; it is science. Compassion naturally arises out of this
understanding. Compassion is the instinctive response to the observation of suffering and abuse in the
world, a world the wise person sees as being inseparable from their own existence.
A third area of great interest to me is ecology, the environment, the biosphere. I am particularly interested
in the Permaculture movement. This in essence is a designed agricultural system which mimics the
complexity of natural sustainable ecosystems. It has been used successfully to reclaim degraded land and
to produce food in a manner whereby harvesting is the main job. I am deeply committed to the
protection and sustainable management of our water and soil, our forests and reefs, our deserts and
animals, for our future generations.
In my early twenties I spent a year employed as a gardener at Port Keats in the Northern Territory, an
Aboriginal settlement town later known as Wadeye. This was the most difficult experience of my life up
to that point. One thousand aboriginal people from five different tribes, traditional enemies, were forced
to live in that place and the atmosphere was bleak and violent. The culture of these people had been torn
apart, yet there remained a deep connection to the landscape. My experience that year showed me that
our first people have much to teach us about connection to the land. They must be deeply acknowledged
and respected in our culture if we are to move forward as an integrated nation.
Later in my life I was enrolled at the University of New England undertaking a Science degree. I had
plotted a course that blended human physiology and soil science. I did manage to pick up a HD for
Chemistry, but that particular calling ‘twas not to be. However science remains in my mind a vital area of
importance for our development as humans. The sustained and abundant funding and support of science,
starting in primary school and extending to such bodies as the CSIRO, is critical to our national life.

2. The final area of influence that I have listed is music. I play guitar and bass and I sing somewhat. It has
been a lifelong passion, often given short rations, but always tugging at my heart strings. A friend of mine
recently described music as the mathematical art of the cosmos. I believe that the arts are not a luxury but
rather an essential part of our humanity. All children, all adults should be supported and encouraged to be
creative, to express themselves, to participate in the creative unfolding of their environment. I believe that
one of the roles of government is to support the cultural life of our people and education of our children
in the arts.
We are on the threshold of a new era in human civilisation. Emerging renewable technologies offer the
possibility of independence from centralised power systems, running our houses and transport with the
power we generate at home. Communication technologies offer the possibility of fully informed debate,
rapid feedback on critical social issues and active democratic empowerment and consensus. The
convergence of modern science, natural law and indigenous wisdom offers hope to build a civilisation
that honours and respects the entire biosphere, with all of its natural treasures and cultural riches. But in
order to achieve these things we must confidently and continuously articulate a vision; and we must get
the fundamental wealth distribution working correctly.
As a direct result of our current global economic system we have a situation where the excessive pollution
of our world, combined with the global destruction of forests and ecosystems, is leading humanity and the
entire biosphere to a crisis of survival. We are being challenged to move away from the old system into a
more respectful, co-operative and compassionate world where we harvest our energy requirements from
benign, sustainable sources. The process of reaching a global consensus to take affirmative action is
essential for humanity's future existence.
I have been interested in politics for a long time; the Whitlam years unfolded during my early adulthood
and left me with a distinct impression of the capacity of a government to change the political discourse
and to comprehensively alter the social fabric. But the idea of getting personally involved in politics was
not much more than an occasional flight of fantasy over the decades since.
Now, however, my children have grown and almost flown and the opportunity to work as a member of
Nick Xenophon’s team has arisen and I am honoured and delighted to be a part of it. It will be a
challenge to emulate Nick’s authenticity and integrity; it will be a pleasure to learn from Nick’s
negotiating skills; it will be demanding to live up to Nick’s impeccable manners. It will be a delight to be
mentored by a master of the political arts.
My initial motivation for entering into the political sphere was my dismay at the actions of the Coalition
government. Their first two years under Tony Abbott was a text book case of how not to run the
country. Day after day we witnessed broken promises and dissembling; the trashing of our social fabric
and our legal obligations; the dumbing down of our national narrative; the diminishing of our national
pride and integrity; the decimation of our hopes for a respectful and fair society. I was and still am deeply
offended by this and truly fearful for our national future.
On the positive side, it has given the Australian people the opportunity to reflect on what sort of nation
we want to create. The vast majority of us are people of good will, wishing to live in peace, wishing to
give our children a good education and a happy childhood, without oppression or excessive limitation to
our freedom. Australia has an abundance of refreshing, transformative ideas crying out to be
implemented. There is plenty enough wealth in our national resources, our good will and intelligence, to
build a happy, sustainable and prosperous life for our all nation.
Of course this will only happen with visionary leadership, political will and an abundance of passionately
expressed logic and common sense. I intend to contribute to that. I intend to be part of a team that will
give Australians a vision of how politics can indeed be done differently.
Damian