{"id":14082,"date":"2021-01-26T23:52:42","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T23:52:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmatilda.com\/?p=139883"},"modified":"2021-01-26T23:52:42","modified_gmt":"2021-01-26T23:52:42","slug":"true-blue-australia-for-whom-does-it-really-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/26\/true-blue-australia-for-whom-does-it-really-exist\/","title":{"rendered":"True Blue Australia: For Whom Does It Really Exist?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Australia is not for its people but for its plutocrats: for the billionaires, for the coal barons, for the media oligarchs, and for the corrupt politicians who represent them. It doesn\u2019t have to be this way, writes Liam McLoughlin.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first,\nthe answer is simple. Straya\u2019s for strayans, and who still says whom anyway? But\nperhaps it\u2019s a question worth a little more thinking music\u2026 Let\u2019s begin with an\nelimination round. For whom does Australia exist? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not for the 500\nnations of Aboriginal people living on \u201cnobody\u2019s land<\/a>\u201d as the First Fleet arrived at\nBotany Bay. Not for a 70,000-plus-year-old culture that fought a colonial\nonslaught which decimated a population\nof about 750,000, with only tens of thousands remaining by the early 1900s<\/a>. Not for those killed in the\nTasmanian genocide or slaughtered in 500\nmassacres around the country.<\/a> Not for the imperial subjects marched into slave labour or\nforced into reserves, missions and abusive homes for their \u201cprotection\u201d. Not\nfor those\ndeprived entry<\/a> to\nswimming pools, footy ovals, town halls, pubs and hotels for much of the 20th<\/sup>\ncentury. Not for the 6,000\nAboriginal Diggers<\/a>\ndenied land grants, pensions and gratuities, or prevented access to RSL clubs\nand their own children, nor for those discounted until 1967.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
(IMAGE: Chris Graham, New Matilda)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not for the one in three Indigenous kids taken from their families between 1910 and 1970<\/a>, nor for the second generation stolen<\/a> between the apology of 2008 and the reality of 2020. Not for the more than 430 Aboriginal people<\/a> who have died in custody since the 1991 Royal Commission, nor for the families of TJ Hickey, Ms Dhu and David Dungay Junior. Not for the Territorians denied the protections of the Racial Discrimination Act, nor those relying on ever-disappearing Aboriginal service budgets for life expectancy, child mortality, employment, mental health, incarceration and education outcomes which still languish far behind those of their fellow Australians. Not for communities so scarred by intergenerational trauma that 10-year old children are ending their own lives<\/a>. Not for Aboriginal sports stars booed for taking too much pride in their heritage,<\/a> and certainly not for anyone demanding \u201cvoice, treaty, truth<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not for many\nof those who\u2019ve come across the seas to live in an \u201cAustralia\nfor the White Man\u201d,<\/a> official\npolicy until the 1970s and unofficial doctrine ever since. Not for Asian\nimmigrants targeted in Howard\u2019s One Australia\npolicy of the 1980s<\/a> and\nHanson\u2019s One Nation Party of the 1990s. Not for the international students facing\nfood insecurity<\/a> and subjected\nto resurgent Sinophobia<\/a>, now the nation\u2019s second most popular sport. Not for the Chinese-Australians\nbullied<\/a> into the Two\nMinutes Hate for the Communist Party every second Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not for the 600,000 Muslims across\nthe nation<\/a>, public\nenemy number one in a two-decade\nmedia\/government war on Islam<\/a>. Not for communities at the sharp end of propaganda which teaches\ntheir fellow citizens that demonising, imprisoning, torturing, bombing,\ninjuring and killing Muslims is all part of a righteous War on Terror. Not for\nthose young adults who\u2019ve seen civilian practitioners of their faith locked\naway in offshore concentration camps, killed in Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya,\nSyria and Yemen, struck down by drone strikes in Pakistan, physically and\nsexually abused in Iraq, rendered, tortured and imprisoned indefinitely in\nGuantanamo Bay, occupied and terrorised in Palestine, gunned down in\nChristchurch mosques, and relentlessly attacked in a global war taking an estimated\nfour million Muslim lives<\/a>. Not for families whose identity is a punching bag used by shock jocks inciting\nrace riots, columnists warning of \u201cthe\nforeign invasion<\/a>\u201d,\npoliticians claiming a Muslim ban would be the \u201cfinal\nsolution\u201d to the immigration problem<\/a>, and media\nmoguls publishing 2,891 anti-Islam articles in a single year.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Children locked up in immigration detention on Nauru, August 2016. This image is courtesy of Mums 4 Refugees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not for refugees, because \u201cwe will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come<\/a>\u201d. Not for Shahraz Kayani<\/a>, waiting five years for the Immigration Department to allow his wife and children to join him in Australia, before setting himself on fire on the steps of Parliament House in April 2001, and dying weeks later from his burns. Not for Reza Barati, murdered by at least two security guards and other staff during Manus Island riots in February 2014. Not for Omid Masoumali, whose self-immolation during a UN Nauru monitoring visit and delayed medical transfer cost him his life. Not for the children of the Nauru files whose stories of assault, sexual abuse and self-harm were dismissed as \u201chype<\/a>\u201d by the Australian Government. Not for the thousands of refugees held hostage to domestic political machinations at the hands of successive governments for the first two decades of the 21st<\/sup> century. Not for those whose human rights are nothing compared to the promise of a more generous parliamentary pension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not for its workers,\nwhose\nshare of GDP sank from 58% in 1975 to 47% in 2018<\/a>, a loss\nof $17,000 per person per year<\/a>. Not for those experiencing what the Reserve Bank governor described\nas a \u201ccrisis\nof low pay<\/a>\u201d, still trapped\nin poverty despite earning a full-time minimum wage<\/a>. Not for regional\nworkers experiencing high joblessness and economic insecurity<\/a>, neglected by a National Party\nserving big agriculture and mining. Not for urban workers, blessed with more\njob opportunities but who face obscenely expensive housing markets fuelled by\ncheaper and riskier lending, a tax system conducive to property speculation,\nand disinvestment in public housing. Not for the underemployed, with rates\namong the worst in the OECD<\/a>, nor for the large temporary visa workforce enduring\nunsafe conditions and below minimum wage pay<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not for those fighting these declining conditions in a nation where union membership has fallen from above 50% of the workforce in the 1970s, to around 15% today<\/a>. Not for workers in a country which the International Trade Union Confederation categorises as a \u201cregular violator\u201d of union rights<\/a>. Not for the essential workers on the frontlines of a global pandemic, who would likely trade the morale boost of a grateful public for a single improvement in their material circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Workers and unionists gather at Hutchinson Ports, in Botany, Sydney in September 2015. (IMAGE: Maritime Union of Australia, Flickr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not for the poor\nand unemployed, lifted above and then\ndumped below the poverty line<\/a> in their millions as pawns of pandemic politics. Not for those\nsitting on long waiting lists for social housing in each state and territory.\nNot for the old, 700\nof whom were failed by federal politicians<\/a> abrogating their duty of care to victims of a deadly\nvirus and an even more virulent ideology. Not for the 80%\nof young people who feel anxious about the climate emergency,<\/a> nor for the hundreds of thousands of\nschool strikers who\npromise to be \u201cless activist\u201d if their government is \u201cless shit<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not for people\nwith disabilities, carers, artists and academics, all\nexcluded from pandemic payment<\/a>, nor for the bushfire victims yet\nto receive much more than a burnt fig leaflet<\/a>. Not for the close\nto half of Australians who will suffer a mental disorder in their lifetime<\/a> and will try to access mental health\nservices which the peak medical body says are \u201cgrossly\nunderfunded<\/a>\u201d. Not\nfor young LGBTI people who are five times more likely to\nattempt suicide<\/a>, nor\nthe trans\nfolks who are 11 times more likely to do so<\/a>. Not for the hundreds of ABC\njournalists made redundant by years of conservative attacks<\/a>, nor for those\nreporters threatened with jail time for doing their jobs<\/a>. Not for climate activists fighting\nfor a future, nor for black lives demanding truth-telling about the past and\njustice in the present. Not for the one\nwoman a week murdered by her current or former partner<\/a>, not for the women who live in one\nof only two developed countries where the\ngender pay gap rose in recent decades,<\/a> and not for the women\ngrossly under-represented and under-served by their governments<\/a>. Not for the publicly educated, with\nprivate schools\ncapturing 75% of federal funding<\/a> and Australia\u2019s system ranked as the fourth most privatised in\nthe OECD<\/a>. Not for students\nwith a critical interest in Liberal Party history, blocked by that party just randomly\ndoubling tertiary humanities fees<\/a>. Not for the nurses, doctors and patients endangered by billions\nin hospital cuts<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m starting\nto think this country isn\u2019t so much for its people at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, for whom\ndoes Australia exist?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the 200 richest individuals and families, enjoying a 66-fold wealth increase in the last 36 years<\/a> and whose combined fortune has soared $82 billion over the past 12 months, to a total of $424 billion<\/a>. For the 104 billionaires, up from 91 in 2019<\/a>. For the property tycoons, now amassing wealth of $81.56 billion<\/a>, just as an October 2020 Foodbank report showed food relief requests had risen 47% since the pandemic began<\/a>. For the newly minted tech billionaires like Mike Cannon-Brookes, who owns the only $100 million house in Australia<\/a>, a fun fact for the 100,000 homeless Australians<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(IMAGE: Chris Graham, New Matilda)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For the fossil\nfuel companies, whose money\nfloods our political system<\/a>, whose lobbyists\ncrowd the corridors of power<\/a>, and whose former representatives\nnow staff the Prime Minister\u2019s office<\/a>. For the two richest Australians, mining magnates Gina\nRinehart and Andrew Forrest, who have doubled their money over the past year to\na combined\ntotal of $52 billion<\/a>.\nFor mining tycoon Clive Palmer, who spent $83m\nspreading misinformation<\/a> which may have cost Labor the 2019 federal election, since punished by a\nfortune\nwhich has risen from four to nine billion<\/a>. For ExxonMobil Australia, paying\nno income tax<\/a> on the\n$42 billion they made over the most recent five years of tax data. For the\nMinerals Council of Australia, whose millions\nin advertising killed the mining tax<\/a> and whose millions in\ndonations secure billions in coal subsidies<\/a> from all their favourite political parties. For the\nAustralian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, whose expenditure\nas the\ncountry\u2019s fourth biggest political donor<\/a> is still great value for expanding the oil and gas\nindustries which may cost the Earth. For the gas executives of the COVID Commission\nwho have objectively\nconcluded<\/a> that what\na country still recovering from an apocalyptic climate-fuelled fire season\nreally needs is a national network of big, beautiful gas pipelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For old media oligarchs like Rupert Murdoch, amassing $18 billion<\/a> purely through grit, determination, climate denial, misogyny and race hate. For his personal political whims, sabotaging social and environmental reforms for generations. For his monopolistic ambitions, which have helped create the third most concentrated media market in the world behind Egypt and China<\/a>. For News Corp, which regularly avoids paying any corporate tax on billions in revenue<\/a>. For the Liberal Party speechwriters and advisors who once called News Corp home<\/a>. For new media oligarchs like Mark Zuckerberg, granted billions in tax breaks<\/a> and pumping conservative venom throughout the veins of the polity in return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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News Corporation chairman, Rupert Murdoch. (IMAGE: New Matilda)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For big\nbusiness, taking\nthe lion\u2019s share of $400 billion in subsidies<\/a>, incentives and cheap loans received since March 2020.\nFor the banks, insurance companies, hedge funds and other financial institutions\nwhich between 2005 and 2010 alone increased\ntheir asset value from $3 trillion to $4.6 trillion, or 340% of GDP<\/a>. For these institutions who have since\nbeen exposed by a Royal Commission<\/a> for charging the dead, deliberately misleading regulators, and\npushing dodgy financial advice and insurance products, yet continue\nto lobby successfully against meaningful reform<\/a>. For the CEOs, whose wages have\nrisen as a proportion of the median worker\u2019s wage from\n15:1 to over 180:1 in the last four decades<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the\nmajor party politicians who have capitulated to the corporate takeover of our\ndemocracy. For the Prime Minister paid half a million dollars a year to fuel\nthe fires of climate destruction and for the Opposition Leader paid $390,000\nfor failing to oppose him. For those who\u2019ve spent\n20 years switching off lights on hills nationwide<\/a> with their positions on offshore\nprocessing, boat turnbacks, the NT intervention, welfare, surveillance, civil\nliberties, police powers, Israel, military spending, trade, lobbying,\ndonations, The Greens, migration, and fossil fuels. For those whose corruption\ngrows more pungent by the hour, and for those whose daily failure to call it\nout reeks just as much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, for\nwhom could<\/em> Australia exist?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How about a\nstraya for strayans?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not just for\nthe 200 richest gaming the system in their favour, whose wealth belongs to all\nof us and should be taxed accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not just for the fossil fuel companies polluting our politics and poisoning our planet, and which should be held responsible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"new
(IMAGE: flickr, Max Phillips)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not just for\nold and new media oligarchs profiting from lies and division, whose power should\nbe dissolved to the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not just for\nbig business privatising social wealth, not just for finance sharks in a\nfeeding frenzy, not just for CEOs whose self-valuation at 180 times the ordinary\nworker surely has all the hallmarks of a forever cocaine binge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not just for\ncorrupt politicians and their spineless colleagues, who serve their donors far\nbetter than their constituents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for the\nFirst Australians, whose 232-year struggle for justice continues with almighty\nstrength, resilience, dignity, patience and grace. For Charlie Perkins and the\nfreedom riders of the 1960s, for the cattle workers of the Wave Hill Walk-Off,\nfor those who pitched the tent embassy in the name of land rights, for the tens\nof thousands who marched in \u201888 to mark Survival Day, for Eddie Mabo and his defeat\nof terra nullius, for the indomitable spirit of resistance which drives the Black\nLives Matter and Djab Wurrang activists of today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For migrants and refugees who, far from occupying our welfare queues while also stealing our jobs, are some of the greatest contributors to Australian society. For Behrouz Boochani, who texts a bestselling, award-winning book from prison but is denied residency, more than for Peter Dutton, who can\u2019t even text his misogyny to the right contact<\/a>, yet somehow retains his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Home Affairs minister Peter Dutton. (IMAGE: Screencap, ABC 7:30)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For its\nworkers, whose unions have given us everything from annual\nleave to awards, penalty rates to meal breaks, compensation to unfair dismissal\nprotection<\/a>. For the\nshelf stackers, pharmacists, nurses and schoolteachers, whose pandemic efforts\nhave made Scott\nCam look somewhat less than essential.<\/a> For the low wage earner and the casual, for the\nunderemployed and insecure, for those working in unsafe conditions or just made\nredundant, all of whom deserve a high-wage Jobs Guarantee far more than Gina,\nTwiggy and Clive deserve their multi-billion-dollar pandemic pay rise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the poor\nand unemployed, whose dinner should not depend on the day\u2019s job applications. For\nthe homeless, who have a right to a roof over their heads, for the old, who deserve\ngenerously funded and well-staffed care, and for the young, who need to believe\nin their own futures. For people with disabilities and their carers, for whom\nsupport should not depend on finishing a bureaucratic Tough Mudder. For the\nartists who tend to the nation\u2019s soul and for the academics who open our minds.\nFor those fighting the fiery devastation of climate change as much as for those\ndrowning in their own thoughts. For LGBTQI communities, for whom the right to\nequal love and respect should not be conditional on a national vote. For journalists\nspeaking truth to power and for activists supporting their right to do so. For\nwomen to feel safe, well-paid and forcefully represented. For all Australians\nwho, like every other human being on the planet, deserve the high-quality, publicly-funded\neducation, healthcare, housing, transport, and other services of a decarbonised\neconomy which is embedded within a thriving natural world as we all live rich, meaningful,\ndignified and fulfilling lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the\nAustralian people, not just for the Australian plutocracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, for whom\ndoes Australia exist?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it turns out, Straya\u2019s not for strayans, but it bloody well should be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DON’T MISS ANYTHING! ONE CLICK TO GET NEW MATILDA DELIVERED DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX, FREE!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post True Blue Australia: For Whom Does It Really Exist?<\/a> appeared first on New Matilda<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on New Matilda<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia is not for its people but for its plutocrats: for the billionaires, for the coal barons, for the media oligarchs, and for the corrupt politicians who represent them. It doesn\u2019t have to be this way, writes Liam McLoughlin. At first, the answer is simple. Straya\u2019s for strayans, and who still says whom anyway? But […]<\/p>\n

The post True Blue Australia: For Whom Does It Really Exist?<\/a> appeared first on New Matilda<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[605,3181],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14082"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1168"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14082"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70719,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14082\/revisions\/70719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}