The Australians [antikvár]

Meeting the PeopleIn a sense life in Australia is too good to last. On the surface, most people appear well paid, comfortable and free from the class barriers found in Europe or Asia. But perhaps it is more like a game, an addictive game, than the serious business of survival in a ruthless world.Many of us enjoy playing along with the rules. We sign away chunks of our earnings for years to come on hire purchase contracts, spend weekends at the beach and indulge our inclination for living with style; we are reassured by the cliche that ours is a classless society. But is it?Beneath the surface, a sterner truth is waiting. The fact is that the wealthiest five per cent of the population owns more than the remaining ninety per cent. Furthermore, the five per cent is going to make sure things stay like this. In our so-called classless society there are in fact two classes: a large working class which lives by selling its labour (whether a person earns a basic $10 000 or a handsome $40000 a year), and a middle class. Australia has no aristocracy. At the top of the middle class is a small faction of 'owners' they own the mines, the media, the factories and the pastoral properties. The remainder of the middle class is a much more extensive group of people who vote for the Liberal and National Parties and would go down with the ship if it sank rather than admit they are really wage-earners with no power beyond the vote.This broad, indeterminate band in the middle is interesting because it is made up of the people who represent the Australian dream of a fair share in the nation's wealth for everybody. They are the ones who take pride in announcing themselves as swinging voters. The greatest political upheaval since Federation (in 1901) occurred when a government came to power in 1972 with all the appearance of insisting that this illusion should be the reality. The owners were not going to let go without a fight. And to show where real power lay, they made the government's job almost impossible by ensuring that the legislation for change was blocked in the Senate, by withholding investment, and finally by having the government dismissed by the Queen's representative, the Governor-General.To the chorus of 'C'mon Aussie C'mon' the crowds at the Melbourne Cricket Ground urge on their team.