EGALITARIAN AUSTRALIA

1
EGALITARIAN AUSTRALIA

• Death of the fair go?

2
Egalitarianism in Australia

• A distinctively Australian value.
• Is it under threat today are the riots in
  Macquarie Fields evidence of social disadvantage
  and government neglect or the rioters just bad???

3
Questions for today

• What are the origins of the vision of Australia
  as an egalitarian society?
• What have been the material effects of
  Australias commitment to egalitarianism?
• What meanings does egalitarianism have in
  contemporary Australia?

4
Outline

• Defining Australian egalitarianism.
• Historical context 19th century beginnings to
  1950s peak.
• Material effects of the commitment to
  egalitarianism.
• Debates in contemporary Australia the death of
  egalitarianism?

5
Defining Australian egalitarianism

• 1. Equality of opportunity and equality of
  outcomes.
• 2. Egalitarianism of manners Jack is as good as
  his master.
• 3. Sameness - only equal if we are all the same

6
Origins of Australian egalitarianism

• Class relations.
• Life on the frontier.
• The significance of the 1850s gold rushes.

7
Material effects

• Australia as a social laboratory.
• suffrage
• the social wage
• welfare benefits
• Influence on the role of government.
• Equality of outcome.
• The ideology of mateship

8
Egalitarianism of sameness

• The doctrine of the equality of man was never
  intended to include racial equality and was never
  intended to apply to the equality of the
  Englishman and the Chinaman.
• (Edmund Barton, Australias first PM)

9
Sunday Too Far Away

• What ideas of egalitarianism are evident in this
  scene?

10
The 1950s a prosperous nation

• The development of an expanded middle class and
  an affluent working class.
• High levels of home ownership
• Relatively even distribution of wealth.

11
Critiquing the equality of sameness

• Tall poppy syndrome.
• Fosters mediocrity.
• Emphasis on cultural and racial homogeneity.

12
What about today?

• Shifts in the meanings of egalitarianism.
• The divide between rich and poor.
• Two Australias - elites and ordinary
  Australians.
• Class vs cultural differences as the main
  dividing line.