Three Australias Parts 1 and 2

The Three Australias

Part 1

I liked how Noel Pearson described his concept of the ‘Three Australias’ in his speech yesterday.

‘The First Australians’  (A1s) with 50000 years of sustainable occupation of the land

‘ The colonists’ (A2s) from England and Ireland who have developed the country into a successful nation state, but who unfortunately  almost extinguished A1s  during this process.

‘Multicultural Australia’ (A3s) The modern migrants: Greeks,Italians other Europeans and Asians who have arrived since the end of the second world war.

None of the three groups own Australia-but at  the moment the  A2’s currently behave as if they own it. They  assume ownership, hold most of the  political power and insist the other subgroups should be grateful to be accepted into ‘their ‘ country.

Pearson argues that having 26^th January as National day honours only the A2’s. He is right. In fact, the 26^th January ignores  the A3’s and actively  dishonours  the A1’s

This attitude of ‘Ownership’ on the part of  the A2’s needs to change.

We should perhaps learn from  the indigenous people  who say that nobody (not even they themselves)  owns the land of Australia-the land owns the people.

How do we change this attitude?

Education?

Political debate and leadership?

Hmm….

Anyone got a sledgehammer?

No… we should start by changing the date of Australia day

Then we should accept that just as Australia is made up of different  states, modern  Australia is made up of  three different subcultures…

We should stop trying to defeat or absorb each other and  engage in the process of learning about  other’s subcultures.

I have observed that this is what many A2 Australians and some A3 Australians  do not do well. The three subcultures fear each other at present.  They seem to  be competing and many  A2’s seem to think they can somehow  ‘absorb’ the other two. This is never going to happen. They needn’t do this-they need simply acknowledge their differences. Because they are very different.

The following are just a few  things each culture can learn from each other. It is by no means an exhaustive list – they are just a few examples. Of course the categories overlap.

A2s need to realize that they can learn things from A1s such as a sense of identity , connectedness, family, community and generosity of spirit. A1s can learn from A2s about individual rights, personal responsibility, gender equity and efficient administrative and democratic political processes.

A2s can learn from A3s about, communication skills, adventurousness, family and community.. A3s can learn from A2’s the same things A1s can learn: personal responsibility, gender equity, individual rights,  efficient administrative processes and democratic political processes.

A3’s can learn from A1’s the same things A2’s can learn –and about land management and A1s can learn about adaptability and innovation from A3’s

Maybe some of these categories are indeed inaccurate. That is not the point at all. The point is we have to acknowledge, support and learn from each other and stop seeing each other as competitors.

It will not be a short or straightforward process-but it will be an exciting one.

There is nowhere else on this planet with the opportunity to create this unique culture we all call Australia.

Part 2

So... what do we do with this concept of  A1s, A2s and A3s?

Perhaps we can remodel our democracy to equalize the imbalance of power. At the moment the A2 has much more power than the others for many reasons: First,they are more wealthy because they own most of the land. Second, they have more social networks which help them increase their wealth and power. Third, they have access to educational opportunity-and hence power and wealth- because they speak the language and built the educational system. Fourth, they  understand the political processes because they created them. Finally, A2s are more numerous which allows them to dominate the others.

So...I suggest the  "one man one vote '  system is unfair and obsolete. If we really want to share power (and not just votes) it should be replaced with another system. Democracy is about power sharing-which is not the same as vote sharing.

Because of the imbalance of power I suggest that A2s continue to be given one vote in elections but that A3s be given 10 votes each and A1s 20 votes each. (Yes ..this  is arbitrary...it could be some other combination of figures)

Q.E.D.

Surprised?

Hmm...now you perhaps understand what it feels like to be an A1 or an A3!

Maybe ..you understand how it feels to be disempowered.