The shock of yet another Australian election outcome left me stunned and wondering how our nation actually feels about our Indigenous Australians, minimum wage earners, women, housing, public education, the sick, the elderly, the poor, refugees, and our youth and so many others who demand real action on climate change. Selfishness and the rise of climate-deniers, white supremacists, misogynists, homophobes, xenophobes and proud racists is, without a doubt, at the forefront of this election win. I asked myself, am I looking at a nation full of scared, selfish, greedy, nasty little people? Was this how it felt for many Americans in a post-Trump United States?
In the same week that Greta Thunberg, a Swedish schoolgirl who started a global movement for the immediate action on Climate Change, graced the cover of Time Magazine, Australia re-elected Scott Morrison and his right-wing conservative party to another term in government. An avid coal lover, Scott Morrison is famous for taking a lump of coal into parliament to use as a prop when defending the climate-destroying fossil fuel and its so-called benefits for the Australian people. A party that is home to a number of outspoken climate deniers, who lines it’s pockets with large donations from the fossil fuel and mining industries, The Liberal Party of Australia is the major centre-right political party that, in this election, bulked up its votes from a preference deal with Clive Palmer, a mining billionaire who spent $80 million on political advertising, and another preference deal with Pauline Hanson, Australia’s favourite racist and fellow climate denier. The blatant disregard of trusted science and lack of action on climate change from the Australian government beggars belief in world where we have as little as a decade to take direct, fast, meaningful action before it’s too late. Ironically, Greta’s Time Magazine cover reads “Next Generation Leaders”. Sadly, Australia is still living in yesterday.Also in the week that led to this horrifying election result, was the death of former Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke. This was a leader who led the country though vast reforms and social programs that would change Australia forever and help shape it into the nation that it is today, or rather, was. Bob’s achievements include the establishment of Medicare, modernizing the economy, floating the Australian dollar, diversifying Australia’s export base, comprehensive tax reform, the protection of Australia’s environment by stopping the Tasmanian Gordon-below-Franklin dam project, establishing The World Heritage Properties Conservation Act, supported international pressure on South Africa to overturn its Apartheid regime, established APEC - the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, improved social security benefits to the children of low-income families, outlawed sex discrimination in the workforce, established the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), and reformed Australia's education system. By no exaggeration, Bob was the last leader of Australia that showed this kind of boldness for social change. With Bob Hawke’s death, I feel that a piece of Australia has died with him, for that boldness for change and genuine love of the country and its people is nowhere to be seen in today’s leadership. A man who despised racism in any and all its forms would indeed be ashamed that the country’s favourite racist has, again, helped win an Australian election.
Australia owes so much of its success and prosperity to immigration and our diverse multi-cultural family. Immigration does, and always has, played a large role in population growth in our country and today’s leaders like to tell people that we are the most successful multi-cultural nation on Earth – but where is this represented in our national politics or media? Amongst the sea of old white men and a sprinkling of white women, where do you find our vastly diverse population on the political stage or on your television screens? You rarely, if ever, do. Australia is home to the world’s oldest civilisation, yet they are not even represented in our parliament and no substantial treaty has been entered into between the government of Australia and the Indigenous people of Australia and remains the only Commonwealth country that does not have such a treaty. In a nation that owes so much to its diverse society, how can Australia ever be inclusive for all when it excludes representation, recognition and respect of these people from its politics, national discussion and media.
From this government we are thrown constant scare campaigns about terrorism, which largely result in distorted statistics, gross Islamaphobia, and sickening attacks on refugees. Terrorist attacks in Australia have claimed the lives of only three victims in the last two decades, where as one woman is murdered by her current or former partner in Australia every week due to domestic violence. Yes, one woman every week. Or we could look at the 147 Indigenous Australian’s who have died in police custody over the past decade, totaling more than 400 deaths since the end of the Royal Commission into deaths in custody. Australian’s love a drink, and in 2015 approximately 6,000 Australians died from alcohol-attributable causes. That’s 6,000 in a year from drinking, or 3 people in 20 years from terrorism. My point here is, society is choosing to ignore real, alarming statistics about everyday issues threatening the lives of people, some of them our most vulnerable, while overreacting to the alarmist western propaganda about terrorism, fueled by hateful people in our government and right-wing commentators in our media.
In a nation that is so wealthy, it is simply outrageous that our government continues to inject billions of dollars into Australia’s elite private schools and gives only a fraction of that to our public schools, while continually lowering funding for tertiary education and training. Shockingly, one in every six Australian children live in poverty; a statistic that sounds better suited to a developing nation rather than Australia. There are regular television advertisements from Australian charity organisations asking for "Sponsor Child" donors for Australian children – let that sink in for a moment – it’s 2019, it’s Australia, and there are Australian “Sponsor Children” because our government has left them behind. How Australia ever thinks they will break the poverty cycle without massive injections into education and social programs to lift these children out of poverty is simply beyond me. The rich elite continue to rise in Australia, the gap between rich and poor continues to grow, and those less fortunate in society are left behind.
Scott Morrison is a man I’d rather not meet in person, for fear it would just materialise the reality that there are simply so many people like him. In recent years, Scott Morrison refused to vote on same-sex marriage and his right-wing, conservative religious views have geared his approach on social progress. Most people keep trophies for sporting achievements, however Morrison proudly displays a trophy for stopping refugee arrivals to Australia by boat. By all accounts, it appears he sees human suffering, torture and indefinite detention as a competitive sport – he wins by a mile. In addition, Scott Morrison’s focus on looking after the wealthy elite has been clear to see, with him personally voting against the Banking Royal Commission 26 times and strongly defending tax loopholes for big business. In Australia, one in three corporations pay zero tax… while one in six children live in poverty and our Newstart social services payments are so low that vulnerable Australian’s are kept living below the poverty line.
Looking deeper into the current state of the nation, is our political system and the way we govern ourselves and indeed how the world governs itself. This wouldn’t be the first time I have questioned our political system – in fact, it was the topic of my first blog post back in 2014. I don’t know what system would be right – certainly not any that we have now, or have tried in the past. None of the global systems of government have resulted in anything but organized chaos with fractured populations who’re often left divided and lost, yet always seem to cater to corruption and elitism. Beyond men like Scott Morrison, mere cogs in the machine, there is the system itself; our political machine. I believe more and more that it’s the machine that is the problem, for we continually replace the cogs, yet the machine, en large, still produces the same mediocre results, with a few rare exceptions.
I know that not everyone voted for Scott Morrison; in fact not even half of the nation voted for him and his fellow Liberal Party members. Many others voted for a billionaire tycoon who owes more than $7 million in unpaid wages to his workers and whose self-interest drove his political ambition, while others voted for a racist climate denier who can barely string a cognitive sentence together. Together, this shit-fuckery resulted in another win for the conservative block of Australia. Whilst it may not be the case that the entire country is a nation of morons, certainly enough of the population decided to act like morons and worked together to achieve a new low for Australia.
I cannot fathom why people would actually vote for a result like this. I ask myself again, am I, are we, looking at a nation full of scared, selfish, greedy, nasty little people? The answer scares me more than the question.
