Thursday 21 August 2014

Has Tony Abbott finally lost the plot completely?


Unable to govern effectively at home,  Liberal-Nationals Coalition Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbott looks elsewhere to validate his self-importance.

He spends tens of millions hunting the ocean floor for a missing Malaysian commercial aircraft, postures aggressively towards Russian Prime Minister Putin and, tries to invite himself into a civil war.

Not content with alienating various Asian trading partners, traditional allies and the United Nations, now English-born Abbott is inserting himself into the debate concerning Scotland’s independence.

This ill-considered, opinionated move made Page One of The Times on Saturday 16 August 2014:

BBC News  also reported on his interview on 16 August 2014:

He said the nations who would "cheer" the prospect were "not the countries whose company one would like to keep".
A spokesman for Yes Scotland said: "Independence seems to be working well for Australia."…..
Mr Abbott told the Times: "What the Scots do is a matter for the Scots and not for a moment do I presume to tell Scottish voters which way they should vote.
"But as a friend of Britain, as an observer from afar, it's hard to see how the world would be helped by an independent Scotland.
"I think that the people who would like to see the break-up of the United Kingdom are not the friends of justice, the friends of freedom, and the countries that would cheer at the prospect... are not the countries whose company one would like to keep."
A spokesman for Yes Scotland, which is campaigning for independence, said: "These comments have echoes of Lord George Robertson's "forces of darkness" speech in April which was widely ridiculed, even by No supporters, as one of the anti-independence campaign's most outlandish scare stories.
"The decision about Scotland's future is one for the people of Scotland to make - a point that even David Cameron asserts. After a Yes vote, Scotland will take her place as a normal and valued member of the international community - just as Australia did when she gained independence at the turn of the century."
A spokesman for Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said: "Tony Abbott has a reputation for gaffes, but his bewildering comments have all the hallmarks of one of the Westminster government's international briefings against Scotland."
He added: "Scotland's referendum is a model of democracy, which has been cited as such internationally, including by the US Secretary of State. An independent Scotland will be a beacon for fairness, justice and cooperation in the international community - and a great friend of Australia."….

Scotland's First Minister went further in a BBC News report on 17 August 2014:

Scotland's first minister has said the Australian prime minister's comments on Scottish independence were "foolish, hypocritical and offensive".
* Snaphot from animated video Tony Abbott - Wrecking Ball

The next time a News Corp journalist tries to point a finger at someone at a rival media outlet, remember these recent examples of that company's own lapses from grace


The Daily Mail 8 August 2014:

First edition blunder: This is the Daily Telegraph's first edition printed on Thursday, August 7, featuring the photoshopped image of Boston bombing victim, James Costello - who became one of the iconic figures of the terrorist attack tragedy - on the right hand side of Page 11. The image shows the stricken body of Mr Costello as he staggered around dazed in shredded clothing with severe burns to his legs and shrapnel wounds. The paper replaced his face with that of Sydney Morning Herald columnist Mike Carlton's, complete with an Arab headdress

Whoops, take two: The Daily Telegraph removed the photograph of Boston bombing victim James Costello from the photoshopped image, replacing his injured torso with that of a man buttoned up in a brown suit, but keeping Mike Carlton's head and the Yasser Arafat style headdress

Adjudication No. 1614: Third Party Matter 130256/The Daily Telegraph (August 2014)

The Press Council has considered whether its Standards of Practice were breached by material published on The Daily Telegraph's website on 3 February 2014 relating to the death of the actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman. The material was headed “Kids grieve for junkie actor dad” and included a photograph of his children and an assertion about what their response would be to the circumstances in which Mr Hoffman died.
The Council has concluded that the combined impact of the references to the children and their alleged feelings, a photograph of them and the use of the term “junkie”, was highly unfair and offensive, especially as the material was published only a few hours after Mr Hoffman’s death.
The Council also concluded that serious breaches of its Standards of Practice occurred in this case even though the offending aspects were removed from the website within an hour. The Council noted it is entirely foreseeable that, as occurred in this instance, material which has been removed from a website may nevertheless be seen widely before its removal, and remain permanently available from other internet sources

Adjudication No. 1598: Cameron Byers and others/The Australian (July 2014)The Press Council has upheld complaints arising from a front page article and an editorial in The Australian on 16 September 2013 and a subsequent item headed “clarification” on 21-22 September. The items related to an impending report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), especially about observed rates of global warming of surface air temperature.
The Council concluded that an erroneous claim in the headline of the article about a revised warming rate was very serious, given the importance of the issue and of the need for accuracy (both of which were emphasised in the editorial that repeated the claim without qualification). It considered that there had been a failure to take appropriately rigorous steps before giving such forceful and prominent credence to the claim. Accordingly, the complaint was upheld on that ground. The Council considered that the gravity of the error, and its repetition without qualification in the editorial, required a correction which was more substantial, and much more prominent, than the very brief “clarification” on page 2. It said the heading should have given a brief indication of the subject matter to help attract the attention of readers of the original article and editorial. Accordingly, the complaint was upheld on those grounds.
The Council welcomed the acknowledgement of error and expressions of regret which the publication eventually made to it. But it said they should have been made very much earlier, and made directly to the publication’s readers in a frank and specific manner. It expressed considerable concern that this approach had not been adopted.

Wednesday 20 August 2014

One rule for us and another for those super-entitled Liberal Party politicians


This is Australian Treasurer and millionaire Joe 'I'm the friend of the poor & downtrodden even though I have reduced their incomes' Hockey alighting from his taxpayer subsidised chauffeur-driven car. Please note (lower right hand corner) that this car has stopped on a disabled parking spot. Says it all really......

* Hat tip to Richard Chirgwin for bringing this to my attention

A preview of some of the arguments Tony Abbott might use to take Australia into another war and impose more restrictions on the population of this country


Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has declined to rule out military involvement in northern Iraq.... [The Guardian 12 August 2014]

Tony Abbott fires a Steyr assault rifle during a visit to Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan. Source: Herald Sun

[Opposition Leader] Mr Abbott's request to embed with the troops and go on patrol with them was overruled by Defence for security reasons. However, the Australian command gave Mr Abbott detailed briefings and a heavy-duty firepower display. [Herald-Sun 11 October 2010]

Tony Abbott's most recent chance to play soldier may be slipping like sand through his fingers in Iraq; however in the face of his unpopularity at home his need to recast himself as hero remains and the fear expressed by many that he hankers to be a wartime prime minister is real.

The last time Abbott was part of a government which went to war he offered this window into his thought processes…….


One of the most dramatic incidents in Russell Crowe’s recent film, Master and Commander – the Far Side of the World, involves a choice between saving a life and saving the ship. Crowe hacks away the wreckage of a fallen mast to which one of his sailors is clinging because the alternative to losing a man overboard is losing the entire ship. There’s no sense in the film that Crowe was choosing his life over the sailor’s. Rather, he was making the bitter but necessary decision to put the lives of the ship’s company ahead of the lives of any of its crew.

The tension between a leader’s simultaneous but different responsibilities to corporate and individual interests is further explored when the Commander’s friend requires medical treatment only possible on land just as the frigate’s quarry is at last in sight. This time, there is no unavoidable, either/or choice, so Crowe temporarily abandons the pursuit to save his friend. Again, there’s no sense that Crowe has put his friend before his country. Rather, he has an instinctive yet conscientious appreciation of the circumstances in which an individual’s interests should come first.

The film is a fine exploration of the complexities of command. It’s been widely and justly reviewed as cinema at its best. The film illustrates how traits which might be heroic virtue in an individual can be self-indulgent moral posturing in a leader. The Commander is not just an effective and successful leader but a good and honourable one too. No doubt journalists, academics and activists attended the film and barracked for Crowe in similar proportion to the rest of the population. But if Crowe had played an Australian prime minister handling contemporary challenges in much the same way, it’s all-but-certain the moral guardians would have damned him for having blood on his hands, sacrificing another to save himself and looking after his influential mate rather than everyone else.

If it’s possible to appreciate the strong moral case for Russell Crowe’s Captain Jack Aubrey, why not the moral case for the Howard Government? If it’s possible to accept that, in the stern circumstances of Napoleonic era naval warfare, a captain had to be firm to be fair, why not also accept that, in dealing with rogue states, terrorism, and challenges to the long-term survival of the nation, compassion is a fine thing for individuals but a most uncertain guide for governments? There is a moral case to be made for the policies of the Howard Government such as Work for the Dole, the war in Iraq, the mandatory detention of illegal boat people along with much else which is supposed to indicate its heartlessness. But it’s a much harder and more complex argument than that which holds that the proper role of government is to play the Good Samaritan on an epic scale.

To some, the moral quality of a government which has stood up for Australian values, stood by Australia’s friends and delivered more jobs, higher pay and lower taxes to the Australian people is self-evident. Political conservatives, in particular, have a tendency to think that facts like these speak for themselves; that rhetoric is redundant. On the other hand, in the absence of argument and reassurance, a sceptical public could conclude that the good the Government has done happened by accident or conspiracy – especially given the ferocious public muggings which seem to be the inescapable fate of all conservative leaders.

Understandably, Australians prefer people whose virtue is uncomplicated. Doctors and nurses, for instance, whose life-saving work is unambiguously good, typically rate over 80 per cent in polls judging the ethics and honesty of different occupations. Policeman and judges, whose work is no less necessary in a functioning society but who often have to make the best of a bad lot, typically rank about 60 per cent for ethics and honesty. In a society where “Jack’s as good as his master”, scepticism about politicians is understandable but an ethics and honesty rating of just 17 per cent suggests that most people haven’t thought through the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” nature of the political process.

Of course, more than any other occupation, politicians have a strong vested interest in running each other down. What’s more, in journalists, they have their own natural reputational predators. Not for nothing have journalists been dubbed the “fourth estate”. Even so, the Howard Government attracts far more than the usual political vitriol. To most of its critics, the Howard Government is not just mistaken but morally illegitimate.

In his role as the Sydney Morning Herald’s chief political correspondent, Geoff Kitney would not write a column that he did not believe was professionally detached and politically impartial. He is no David Marr or Anne Summers. Nevertheless, his judgment of the Howard Government (in his January 10 column) is that it has “legitimised” attacks on multiculturalism, black welfare and dole bludgers, “sidelined” the community interest, equity and minority rights and made Australia “more selfish and less tolerant”. He obviously thinks this view is self-evident because counter arguments about national unity, the side-effects of the welfare system, and the importance of a strong civic culture are simply ignored.

Kitney’s conclusion that the thrice-elected Australian Prime Minister is a mean man leading a mean people is actually quite mild by commentariat standards. The former Lord Mayor of Brisbane described the Prime Minister as the “Goebbels of Australia” (quoted by Gerard Henderson in the SMH of December 30). The writer Craig McGregor (in the SMH of December 22) ranked Howard as one of our ten most important people, but only because “whatever you think of him…he brings out the worst in Australians”.

In his farewell column for the Herald (SMH 16/1/04), Kitney returned to the theme: “To those who hate (Howard)”, he said, “it’s the dishonest way they believe he has achieved (his success), more than anything else, that incites their fury…It’s demonstrably true” he declared “that Howard and his Government have, on a number of documented occasions, parted company with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth…Even viewed generously, there is clear evidence of an elasticity with the truth. Viewed from the moral high ground it’s blatant, systematic dishonesty without apology”.

To anyone who has ever sought to have a correction published in a newspaper, this must seem an extraordinary burst of self-righteousness. Interestingly, politicians’ ethics and honesty rating has improved since the time of the Keating Government (which attracted nothing like the journalistic bile) from 9 to 17 per cent. As newspaper journalists’ ethics and honesty rating has increased from 8 to just 12 per cent over the same period, it’s tempting to dismiss Kitney’s indignation as a bad case of the pot calling the kettle black – tempting but mistaken because there’s a pathological side to much of the anti-Howard rage.

To Kitney’s ilk, if any proof of the Government’s dishonesty is needed, there’s always “children overboard”. But government ministers didn’t make up the claim that boat people had thrown their children into the water. It was based on official advice at the time. When doubts emerged about that advice, it was not unreasonable to seek official clarification and, in the meantime, to maintain the status quo. To many people, the distinction between throwing children into the sea and scuttling the ship on which the children were travelling seemed trivial, revealing more about the moralising of the media than the integrity of the Government.

Politicians shouldn’t tell lies. But some information (about private conversations and private lives, national security and Cabinet discussions, for instance) is necessarily confidential no matter how much journalists (and possibly their readers) might like to know. Governments shouldn’t break promises but if circumstances change in ways that make keeping a commitment wrong, a full explanation should be given to the electorate. In a perfect world, governments would not make promises which are overtaken by events – but no-one inhabits that world except Kitney’s sanctimonious moral guardians.

To his credit, Kitney briefly considers the paradox of a systematically dishonest government led by a prime minister with a strong reputation for trustworthiness – before concluding that ordinary voters don’t mind being misled in a good cause. Perhaps the gulf Kitney senses is that between professional fault-finders and those for whom good intentions and good outcomes are more important than a good story.

Moral courage is not doing what’s right when everyone else agrees. Moral courage is doing what’s right when people who should know better declare you’re wrong. By this test, the Howard Government has repeatedly demonstrated that it’s worthy of the Australian people’s trust. To those accustomed to pass political judgment, tax reform was impossible, the incorporation of East Timor in Indonesia irreversible, Work for the Dole immoral and the flow of refugee boats unstoppable – and many haven’t forgiven the Government for showing them up. It’s hard for any eight-year-old government to seem original but, in this Government’s case, the resentment of the moral guardians whose orthodoxies have been debunked and whose values have been usurped poses as big a threat to its re-election as the it’s time factor.

Everything that the politically correct establishment most dislikes about the Howard Government – its reluctance to see equivalent right and wrong on all sides, its preference for action over dialogue alone, and its readiness to support traditional allies – was present in the decision to wage war against Saddam Hussein.

Sending troops into battle is by far the weightiest decision that a government can make. As the critics constantly point out, war means that innocent people die. Unfortunately, any peace which leaves tyrants in charge also means that innocent people die. Pacifism is an honourable course of action for an individual prepared to suffer the consequences of turning the other cheek. But requiring collective non-resistance is complicity in evil. It’s an odd moral universe where the accidental killing of Iraqis by soldiers of the Western alliance is worse than the deliberate killing of Iraqis by Saddam Hussein or where it’s immoral to risk hundreds of Western lives to save hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives – unless, of course, it’s only the West’s actions which matter and only Western lives which count.

By any standards, Saddam Hussein ran an evil regime. He had invaded his neighbours, used poison gas on his own people, funded terrorists and harboured Abu Nidal. As the secret burial grounds now reveal, he is the world’s biggest mass murderer since Pol Pot (and who complained when the Vietnamese army removed him?).

Weapons of mass destruction were never the only justification for Australia’s participation in the Iraq war. Even so, if they had all been destroyed, as the critics now allege, why couldn’t Saddam explain the fate of the poison gas stores the UN had discovered as recently as 1998? As Kevin Rudd declared to the Zionist Association of Victoria 15 months ago, “Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. That is a matter of empirical fact” – and there’s no reason to think that the Iraqi desert has yet yielded up all its secrets. Again, it’s an odd moral universe where a government is condemned for “going to war on a lie” when no one (including the critics) thought it was a lie at the time.

The Government is often accused of being poll-driven. For good reasons, there is no such thing as a popular war. The Government sent Australian forces into action in the teeth of public opinion and without a final Security Council resolution because it would have been morally contemptible to leave the struggle for freedom to others. Serious governments don’t shirk their responsibilities. By shouldering previously inconceivable burdens in East Timor, Afghanistan, the Solomon Islands and now PNG as well as Iraq, the Government has demonstrated (unlike the contemporary Labor Party) that it takes to heart Ben Chifley’s “light on the hill” injunction to work for the betterment of mankind not just here but wherever we can lend a helping hand.

People don’t demand miracles from governments but they do expect them to be “fair dinkum” about solving urgent problems. For years, governments had been trying to stem the flow of illegal boat people into Australia. The former Labor Government introduced mandatory detention but it didn’t work because it wasn’t rigorously applied.

As one of the few countries in the world with a formal refugee resettlement programme, Australia is entitled to pose the question: why should those illegally trying the back door take the places of those who apply to come in the correct way? If arriving in Australia and claiming refugee status all-but-guarantees permanent residency, boat people will continue to come. The Government’s policies are not about stopping refugees entering Australia but stopping people-smugglers putting lives at risk in unseaworthy boats. Indeed, the surest way to prevent dreadful tragedies at sea (such as that which befell the occupants of SIEV X) is to remove the incentive for people smuggling.

Invariably, boat people have moving stories – but so do nearly all the world’s “poor, huddled masses, yearning to be free” and how many of them can Australia realistically take? The problem for critics of the existing policy is that they demand an end to mandatory detention and want temporary protection visa holders allowed in permanently but won’t admit that this amounts to a declaration that if you can get here you can stay here – something an independent country can never accept.

Provided they are fed, housed, clothed, protected and dealt with as swiftly as an appeals process will allow, there is nothing inherently immoral in the mandatory detention of illegal entrants. People in Australian detention centres are safe from the violence and persecution they may have been subject to in their homelands. They receive the best possible health care even when they inflict harm on themselves. Even while in detention, their children are educated, usually at normal Australian schools. The Government has implemented alternative detention options for women and children but there are limits to how far this can be taken without breaking up families or effectively abandoning the detention of illegal arrivals. The Australian Government is no more to blame for the plight of people in immigration detention centres than it is for the plight of anyone else facing the consequences of failing to obey the law.
Of course, people living in the Middle East (especially as members of minority groups) can hardly be blamed for wanting to migrate to countries which are prosperous and safe. But the ultimate difference between Australia and the countries from which boat people flee is the rule of law – to which unauthorised arrivals are a constant challenge. Australian law does not give everyone who arrives here the right to stay here and it’s inconceivable that it ever will. Due process has to be followed. Asylum seekers have to demonstrate that they have a well founded fear of persecution or, after normal channels have been exhausted, that it would be inhumane not to let them stay. It’s human nature to prefer the strictures of the law when they apply to someone else. Still, a government which respects due process is being responsible rather than heartless.

The same tendency to will the end but not the means – to want the result but to shrink from what’s necessary to make it happen – characterises most criticism of the Government’s Work for the Dole programme. Everyone thinks unemployment is too high but many commentators support policies which would actually make it worse. For most unemployed people, lack of training is not the problem because training is nearly always available (albeit at a price). Lack of jobs is not always the key problem either, because new jobs are mostly filled by people who are already employed. Unemployment becomes intractable when, for all sorts of reasons (among them, the cost of getting to work, anti-social hours, interference with other commitments and comparatively low returns), working can seem more trouble than it’s worth.

The only way to tackle structural unemployment is to make work more attractive than the alternative. The Howard Government has increased wages and increased the returns from working but it has also expected unemployed people to take their obligations seriously. Work for the Dole embodies the view that government’s duties to the unemployed haven’t displaced unemployed people’s obligations to the community. Even the “victims” of a market economy retain significant capacity to help themselves. The Labor Party initially attacked Work for the Dole as “almost evil” and still wants to “reform” it out of existence but it has been overwhelmingly popular with everyone who understands that paying people to do nothing is not the best way to get them back to work.

It’s to Australian society’s credit that people agonise over armed conflict (even in a just cause) and fret over the side-effects of policies (even when they plainly work). Still, not everything which troubles people’s consciences is intrinsically wrong and much that is right has fearsome cost. It’s not really surprising that, in rich and comfortable societies, moral vanity should be more common than moral commitment but the “not in my name” brigade don’t understand that avoiding hard choices is a luxury governments don’t have.

There’s little point arguing with people theologically convinced that the Howard Government is evil but it’s still important to challenge their critique lest more fair-minded people conclude that the Government is effective but dishonourable. De Tocqueville once commented that America is great because America is good and that, if America ever ceased being good, it would also cease being great. Although there’s not the same self-conscious high-mindedness in Australia’s political culture, we much prefer our leaders to be decent human beings rather than political fixers.

The Prime Minister once said that he wanted the Government to under promise and over deliver. This is entirely in keeping with the character of the Australian electorate but not its political class. Awareness of the limitations of government and the imperfectability of man, consciousness of the shades of grey which are part and parcel of the human condition, respect for values and institutions which have stood the test of time, a sense of the importance of family and cultural bonds, a belief in the value of ritual and tradition, but above all else conviction of the responsibilities that everyone has to others (however flawed our understandings might be): these are the instincts which drive the Howard Government but not, by and large, the people who pass judgment on public life.

Inevitably, the people who talk about politics are more interested in this month’s promise than last year’s performance. A new Labor leader is much better copy than a government now eight years old. But it’s the Government’s participation in the “culture wars” which has most put out its habitual critics. Especially in an election year, the moral case for the Howard Government ought to be made, not because it never makes mistakes or never has an unworthy thought, but because the best government since Bob Menzies’ deserves a fair trial.
Success is not its own justification but does weigh in the balance of moral judgment. The end does not justify the means but there is a moral quality to success in a good cause. Moralists will continue to question how the fall of Saddam, the liberation of East Timor, effective border protection and the sustained reduction in unemployment have been brought about – but they can’t deny the moral seriousness of the government which helped to make them happen.

Tuesday 19 August 2014

The precautionary principle


The old dog, Arnie the bull and I have been having some in depth discussions. 

Arnie is still upset that most of his cow friends left the property at the beginning of autumn. 

He does not appreciate that the lack of rain and the approach of winter was a problem. He has had feed grass all winter, something he would have been lacking if all his friends had stayed.

There is still an accusation in his eye when he looks at me. 

I am very lucky, I don’t have a mortgage or bank loans hanging over my head. I don’t need a lot of money to survive, I can’t be forced to overstock by financial pressure, and I am not a greedy person. 

When I drive into town to do the shopping I see the land brown from the lack of rain and burnt by frost or fire, the stock thin, dams and waterholes dried up, people hand feeding their herds. 

I know these people many are my friends. They care deeply about the land and animals, so they struggle to make mortgage payments, to keep their stock alive and look to the sky for rain. 

The old dog hates having a bath, and the flea wash after the bath is a trauma for both of us, but if it is not done he is miserable and spends his day scratching and biting fleas. 

I have been trying to explain the precautionary principle to both the dog and Arnie. 

I have had no success as yet, the dog has not grasped the concept: 
no bath = the misery of fleas.
Or Arnie:
more friends = less food.

I have had limited success with the human neighbours: that more CO2 = a greater degree of climate change. 

More severe droughts, bigger storms, higher intensity fires etc.

Yet many still doubt that humans are affecting the planet’s climate, and that it is up to us to stop using fossil fuels and move to renewables. 

We do not have much time to do this and I’m not hopeful we will do enough to stop the oncoming disaster. 

We as a species have to change our ways, redefine our society. 

We are not an economy-based society as we are told, we are a society based in an ecological environment - and if we stuff that up it is time to go extinct.

So was it Clarence Valley local government councillors voting in the chamber or management acting under delegated authority who decided to overrule the NSW Land & Environment Court and council's own LEP?


This interesting snippet found in NSW court records for July 2014 alerted me to a puzzling situation:



The puzzle is of course how 18.32 ha of mortgaged RU1-Primary agricultural land (or a little over 45 acres) in the Clarence Valley with only one permanent building entitlement on record and, with apparently no council consent for a temporary rural worker’s dwelling as late as 2001-2, should suddenly acquire two habitable dwellings on the lot?

How was consent acquired?

Google Earth snapshot 2013

One has to suspect that someone at Clarence Valley Council did not refer to the complex legal history of this lot, given that a condition of consent for the riverfront house was the demolition of the original dwelling, on three occasions council had refused consent for a second dwelling, the NSW Land & Environment Court had upheld refusal and ruled against the establishment of a rural worker's dwelling on the lot, council’s own subsequent legal advice of September 2000 was that it would be acting unlawfully if it gave consent for such a rural worker’s dwelling, the NSW Dept. of Local Government conducted a preliminary investigation into council’s handling of a development application/consent on this lot which left it seriously unimpressed and, the conditions council later placed on this lot did not allow a rural worker's dwelling unless the property legitimately became a profitable commercial enterprise and supplied council with verifiable documentation to that effect.

Or am I mistaken and council did not give its consent?

The C word cannot remain unspoken if a legitimate assessment of Abbott Government economic and social policy is to be undertaken


Tim Winton on the C word that matters in The Monthly in December 2013:

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that citizens in contemporary Australia are now implicitly divided into those who bother and those who don’t. It seems poverty and wealth can no longer be attributed – even in part – to social origins; they are apparently manifestations of character. In the space of two decades, with the gap between rich and poor growing wider, Australians have been trained to remain uncharacteristically silent about the origins of social disparity. This inequity is regularly measured and often reported.

In October, John Martin, the OECD’s former director for employment, labour and social affairs, cited figures that estimated 22% of growth in Australia’s household income between 1980 and 2008 went to the richest 1% of the population. The nation’s new prosperity was unevenly spread in those years. To borrow the former Morgan Stanley global equity analyst Gerard Minack’s phrasing about the situation in the United States, “the rising tide did not lift all boats; it floated a few yachts”. And yet there is a curious reluctance to examine the systemic causes of this inequity. The political economist Frank Stilwell has puzzled over what he calls contemporary “beliefs” around social inequality. Australians’ views range, he says, from outright denial of any disparity to Darwinian acceptance. Many now believe “people get what they deserve”, and to my mind such a response is startling and alien. Structural factors have become too awkward to discuss.

As the nation’s former treasurer Wayne Swan learnt in 2012 when he published an essay in this magazine about the disproportionate influence of the nation’s super-rich, anybody reckless enough to declare class a live issue is likely to be met with howls of derision. According to the new mores, any mention of structural social inequality is tantamount to a declaration of class warfare. Concerns about the distribution of wealth, education and health are difficult to raise in a public forum without needing to beat off the ghost of Stalin. The only form of political correctness that the right will tolerate is the careful elision of class from public discourse, and this troubling discretion has become mainstream. It constitutes an ideological triumph for conservatives that even they must marvel at. Having uttered the c-word in polite company, I felt, for a moment, as if I’d shat in the municipal pool.

The nation of my childhood was not classless. The social distinctions were palpable and the subject of constant discussion Australia’s long tradition of egalitarianism was something people my age learnt about at school. I recall teachers, dowdy folk of indeterminate politics, who spoke of “the fair go” with a reverence they usually only applied to Don Bradman or the myth of Anzac. Australia’s fairness was a source of pride, an article of faith. The nation of my childhood was not classless, however. The social distinctions were palpable and the subject of constant discussion. Where I came from – the raw state-housing suburbs of Perth in the early ’60s – there were definite boundaries and behaviours, many imposed and some internalised. The people I knew identified as working class. Proud and resentful, we were alert to difference, amazed whenever we came upon it. Difference was both provocative and exotic, and one generally cancelled out the negative power of the other. We expressed the casual racism of our time. We played sport with blackfellas but didn’t really socialise. We laughed at the ten-pound Poms with their Coronation Street accents but felt slightly cowed by their stories of great cities and imperial grandeur. The street was full of migrants who’d fled war-ravaged Eastern Europe. Like most of the locals, they worked in factories and on road gangs. They told us kids we were free, and we thought they were telling us something we already knew. As a boy, I believed that Jack was as good as his master. But I understood that Jacks like me always had masters.

I watched my grandfather work until he was in his 70s. Sometimes I carried his Gladstone bag for him. It seemed to signify his dignified position as an ordinary worker who did a decent day’s work for a decent day’s union-won pay. He’d started on the wharves in Geraldton, in Western Australia’s Mid West region, and spent decades as a labourer at the Perth Mint, and though the meekest of men he reserved a sly defiance for his “betters”. He was a union man, but his allegiance was more tribal than ideological. The most memorable thing he ever said to me came when I was 14 or so. Rolling one of his slapdash fags on the verandah of his rented house in sunstruck Belmont, he announced that I should press on with my “eddication”, because “that’s yours for life, and whatever else the bosses can get offa ya, they can’t take what’s there between yer ears”. This was the same man who’d pulled my mother out of school at 15 because there seemed no point in her staying on, the bloke whose sons were sent into apprenticeships without a second thought. Twenty years earlier, his world had been narrower, more constrained, and I’m not sure whether he encouraged me out of regret for curtailing my mother’s dreams or whether he was infected by the new sense of promise that was in the air with the rise of Gough Whitlam.