I
don't often think about Australia.
I
was born there, grew up there and, until 15 years ago, I lived there.
It's almost become a (very) foreign country to me but recently it has
crept into my thoughts again.
This
remaining ember of interest in a place, which many people here in
Europe tell me is "very far away," hasn't been prompted by
anything in particular.
I've
just noticed that some of the reasons that made me want to leave it
are still very much alive.
In Australia, there is compulsory
voting in "federal" elections and you are likely to be
fined if you don't go to vote.
Twelve
months ago this island continent of almost 22 million people elected
a new government with a leader named Tony Abbott, who is without any
doubt the most conservative individual to ever take up the office of
Prime Minister in the history of the nation.
The
odd thing about this is that Australians themselves have not
typically been thought of as conservative.
Historically,
the best of the traits that generally marked the average "Aussie"
were tolerance and fair-mindedness with an anti-establishment streak.
If the men and women of any area of the world can accurately be said
to have particular characteristics (and I often doubt that) it is
probably in Australia where it is less likely to be the case, given
that it is a country that has always been populated from immigrants.
Aside
from that, you'd expect that in a nominally democratic country the
national government would reflect both the wishes of the people and
the broad values of its people.
From
a distance, it seems to me that in the last few decades many
Australians have in fact become more money and property obsessed,
more dismissive of the "unproductive" arts industries, more
inward-looking and more easily manipulated by politicians scare
campaigns.
In
other words, they are now more conservative than ever before.
In
this, Australians are not unusual though. The same accusation could
be made against many other societies.
I
think that a big part of the change in Australia is that interest in
social and political causes is now terribly low across the populace.
This partly comes from being a relatively new country with only a
century or so of homegrown history but, even more so, it comes from
the way politics is reported in the mainstream media.
Whenever
I visit Australia I am struck by how much the governing of the
country is portrayed as merely a battle between the two leaders of
the two major parties - a kind of boxing match or two-horse race.
Sport
in almost all its forms is easily the biggest element of culture
across the land.
There
is nothing that comes close to it for prime time attention or public
discussion, so it is probably not surprising that Australians are
drip fed poll-driven, ultra short-term political issues (often
tax-related) that all turn on how they affect the leaders popularity
or approval ratings.
In a former life (for a few months) I
worked for a local Canberra politician - that rare creature, the
principled and independently-minded one - and it was clear to me even
back then that in the months of actual election campaigning the only
figure who really mattered was the party's chief candidate for the
highest office.
When
newspapers, TV, and radio are all in the hands of only two major
companies this problem is made worse.
This
has been the situation in Australia for more than two generations and
the dominant, apathetic attitude towards any public concern that does
not affect the hip-pocket nerve means that minor parties stay minor.
Combine
all this with the fact that, just like the USA and UK for example,
both the two major groupings are as conservative as the majority of
their voters.
We
have ended up with a situation where politics is a game.
The
name of the game is getting your hands on the levers of power and
keeping them there, at any cost.
[This article was first published in Catalonia Today magazine, November 2014.]
