20 Years Since Mabo: Pride, Shame and the Vibe

June 3, 2012 5 Comments

“I didn’t do it. I wasn’t alive back then. Why should I be expected to care?”

Recently I was sharing with some students the truth that Australia’s history is littered with episodes of racism against our first Australians. Declaring our land ‘terra nullius’ (no-one’s land) when the English discovered it was only the beginning. At Federation our indigenous Australians were deliberately excluded from the census and from even being subject to Federal Laws. The following year most Aborigines were excluded from voting too (unless they were already enrolled). Then there was the restrictions placed on freedom of movement – pretty much every ‘Boundary Road’ in Australia was originally a road that indigenous people were not allowed to cross - and the fact that legitimate wages earned were often taken away by employers and spent on Aborigine’s behalf. In some states Aborigines could not marry without permission from the government. In other states they were not permitted to own their land or choose where they lived. Also, while all other citizens had the pension and maternity allowance enfranchised between 1908 and 1912, Aboriginals did not.

While much has now changed, nevertheless, for each of these things I feel deep regret.

Eddie Mabo

But not everybody does.

Some fellow Australians believe that because these were the actions of people from a bygone era it is not right that their descendants feel any remorse. After all, we today did not commit nor agree with these acts.

Let me be clear: I think this is a wholly defensible position. If you are Australian, you do not have to be ashamed of our racist past. But understand, refusing shame means you must also forfeit pride.

As for me, while I am sorry for some episodes in Australia’s history, I am also deeply proud of my country. We were one of the first to award women’s suffrage. We eradicated smallpox and we brought penicillin to the world. We’re the country of the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, the Big Pineapple and the Snowy Mountain Scheme. Ours is Don Bradman, Herb Elliot and Caroline Chisolm. We believe class is for school rooms, and hearts are for sleaves. We love football so much we have three versions of it, and none of them involve a round ball. We died at Gallipoli, we charged at Beersheba, we bled at Kokoda. And over and over we have proven that you don’t need to be a big country to be a great one.

See that’s the thing about all history: it has moments of both heroism and villainy, victory and indignity. And if you truly love your country, and want to identify with its past, then you have to accept both or none. To do otherwise is to be an arrogant hypocrite – and there are few things more unAustralian than that!

Thus, as we today celebrate 20 years since the Mabo judgement – a day where native title was acknowledged as real – remember that it’s completely fine to wave the Aussie flag while wearing a black armband. Indeed, it’s about as honest as you can get. At least, that’s the vibe of the thing I’m getting.

 

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We’re Number 2 (and Number 1)

April 18, 2012 Leave a comment

Three weeks ago (March 28) the poorest countries of the world became the richest.

How?

Well if you add up the GDP of all the richest countries (GDP = Gross Domestic Product = basically the total $ produced by a country thru goods and services) and then add up the GDP of all the developing countries, as of March 28, the developing countries’ number was bigger.

Of course developed economies number about 30 countries, and the developing world has about 150 – so it’s not exactly even. But it is a noteworthy landmark all the same. Times are changing.

For example, China spent more money on groceries than the USA last year. And next year China will be the biggest user of oil tankers - with 1/4 of all tankers looking to be bound for China come 2015.

Don’t worry too much though. The International Monetary Fund still says Australia has the strongest developed economy in the world and will outperform everyone else for the next two years. So that’s pretty good.

The end. Economics trivia over.

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What I Wish Wasn’t True About Refugees

January 4, 2012 9 Comments

Dadaab Refugee Camp

Let me say at the outset that I like refugees and I think Australia should accept more. The hysteria concerning the ‘flood of boat people’ and how they are ‘taking money away from hardworking taxpayers’ is tripe. People who risk their lives to travel to free countries are not an enemy to be fought. Australia need not fear the sojourner, the alien, the widow, the orphan, the poor or the suffering. We are a compassionate people and our government should reflect that.

All that said, here’s some hard, sad facts.

(1) Accepting boat people will kill people. If getting on a leaky boat and sailing across open ocean means the possibility of a life in Australia, some people will take that risk. And some of them will drown. This does not mean that onshore processing cannot be argued for – the idea has its merits – but those who uphold it must concede the point that it incentivises a highly dangerous practice that will result in a body count. Same where offshore processing just acts as a temporary waypoint to Australia.

(2) Each refugee accepted into Australia who arrives by unregulated means (either air or sea), and is allowed to remain, has actually taken a spot away from a poorer refugee. We have been told that the ticket price for a boat trip from Indonesia to Australia runs between $7,000 and $13,000. One imagines it must be higher to arrive by plane (visa forgery and what not). Yet there are over 400,000 refugees in the Dadaab refugee camp on the Kenya-Somalia border, and who knows how many thousands of Burmese refugees in Malaysia don’t have a dollar to their name. They are the neediest of the needy, and they will never be able to afford a boat or plane ride. The practice of accepting refugees who arrive by paying people smugglers inherently disadvantages the poorest of the poor.

(3) Australia cannot accept every single refugee. There are over 40 million displaced people worldwide. That is twice Australia’s entire population. As much as it pains me to say, there must be a limit to the number that we accept. Deciding on that number must be one of the most difficult decisions anyone ever makes, but a decision must be made and it is our politicians who get that job.

Unfortunately, acknowledging these truths doesn’t actually solve the issue. Nothing actually solves the issue. It’s really, really complicated. It involves real people who need real help because they are experiencing real persecution.

Anyway, that’s enough for now. I’ll blog on the policies currently being advocated by Australia’s major parties next post. In the meantime feel free to have a read of my 2010 post: The Truth About Refugees.

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“Australia is the Wealthiest Nation in the World” – Pollytics

December 11, 2011 Leave a comment

If you’re on twitter it might be worth following Pollytics. He/She (I actually don’t know!) posted this article on the Crikey website a few days ago. It explains how a compelling case could be made for regarding Australia as the wealthiest nation in the world.

Here’s one of the best bits:

So this is our (Australia’s) economic reality – we are the wealthiest nation in the world with 75.5% of our adult population making it into the global top 10%, our economy has grown faster than nearly all others (certainly faster than all other developed countries), our household income growth has been one of the fastest in the world (including our poor having income growth larger than everyone else’s rich!), we have the highest minimum wages in the world, the third lowest debt and the 6th lowest taxes in the OECD and are ranked 2nd on the United Nations Human Development Index.

And this didn’t happen by accident.

This happened by design.

This happened because of 30 years of hard, tedious, extraordinarily difficult policy work that far, far too many of us now either take completely for granted, or have simply forgotten about.  We have, without  even realising it, created the most successful and unique economic and policy arrangement of the late 20th and early 21st century – the proof is in the pudding. A low tax nation with high quality, public funded institutions. A low debt nation with world leading human development and infrastructure. The wealthiest nation in the world where even though our rich get richer, our poor have income growth so extraordinary that it increases at a faster rate than the rich expect to experience anywhere else in the world but Australia.

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How Equal is Australia?

August 20, 2011 2 Comments

How much do the richest 20% make compared to everyone else?  Well, it really depends on how you judge it. If based on take home income, then this is what it looks like in Australia.

To give you a point of comparison, here is what it looks like in four other countries. You’ll notice Sweden is the most equal, and the US is the least.


It’s nice to see we’re doing okay.

I was inspired to find this info after reading an article by Norton and Ariely about what people perceive to be the distribution of wealth to be in the United States, compared to what it actually is and what people would prefer it to be. Judging it by wealth distribution is different because it takes into account assets as well as income. It is here that social economic inequality is truly revealed. The table below is taken directly from that article.

What do you think the ideal income and wealth distribution rates should be in a civilised society? Surely it is a problem that, in the US, 85% of the wealth is controlled by only 20% of the population, while the bottom 40% don’t even account for 1%?

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