Examples Of Egalitarianism In Australia

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EGALITARIAN AUSTRALIA – DEATH OF THE FAIR GO? Introduction In our discussions on Australian national identity so far we have seen that the belief that Australia is an egalitarian society, a society that believes in a ‘fair go’ are ideas that are widely held and celebrated. Egalitarianism is a value that became entrenched in the national psyche in the nineteenth century and has had a profound impact on the make-up of Australia’s political institutions, government policies and the nature of social relations. While it is easy, very easy, to find evidence of inequalities and exclusions in Australia egalitarianism lives on. It remains one of the most cherished pillars of Australian society, perhaps the ‘most revered of traditional Australian…show more content…
Firstly the argument is advanced that while there were social classes the barriers between them were fluid – there was fairly free mingling between social groups (especially in comparison to Britain) and there was also fluidity in terms of climbing the ladder - that is that people, through hard work, could move from the working class to the middle and perhaps from the lower middle to the more solidly middle class. And nor in colonial Australia were the ranks of gentlemen firmly closed. This idea took hold pretty early in Australia because of instances of emancipists, former convicts, achieving comfortable lifestyles. The ex-convict who made good helped to foster the idea that people in Australia were judged on their merit rather than birth or past deeds. As a new society, with everything needing to be built from scratch, there was a lot of opportunity in Australia to ‘do well’. Australian workers were in a good position because there was a shortage of…show more content…
In Australia this meant cultural and racial homogeneity. So we are no talking about racial equality. In fact, and although this seems absolutely contradictory to us today, a commitment to egalitarianism in Australia went hand-in-hand with a belief in racial inequality. So on the one hand you had support for the equality of individuals but at the same time the inequality of races was promoted in Australia. As Australia’s first PM said the doctrine of equality of man was never intended to include racial equality and was never intended to apply to the equality of Englishmen and the Chinaman.’ It was not possible at the time to commit to both – only be equal because all were the same – Australia could only be egalitarian if it was homogenous & this meant white and
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