The Idea of Australia - 1 ª Season

We'll have the synopsis for you soon.

We'll have the synopsis for you soon.

We'll have the synopsis for you soon.

For the best part of 20 years Rachel Griffith's career took her overseas1. She was always homesick, but the joy of returning sparked unexpected questions and conversations. Rachel's nostalgic view of Australia was challenged by the place she returned to. She realised that her view was perhaps a bit out of date, and in a rapidly changing world, she wondered, if it was time that we all began to re-imagine - What is the idea of Australia? The idea of who we are as a nation, is still a work in progress. It sparks debate and conflicting views. Many Australians still know little about the nation's history, by delving into the past, there are clues to the present and future. Like every nation, the 'idea' of Australia is one that was imagined and then brought to life by debate, determination and political action. The stories we've chosen to remember and tell ourselves have been shaped by books, films, songs and paintings that explore what it means to live on this ancient island continent. The series distinctive visual style is drawn from these films and art works, as well as iconic Australian television, news reports and historical archive. There is one myth - the land of the fair go - that uniquely defines Australia's self- proclaimed identity. This was an unlikely ideal. As a colonial settlement founded as a penal colony there was little that was fair, either for the First Peoples who had lived here for millennia, or those transported as punishment. As one expert notes, it might have been more accurate to describe Australia as the land of "finders' keepers". "The fair go" was first coined, around 1860, on the sports field, where it lives on to this day. Fairness is an admirable ideal, but is often in the eye of the beholder, a slippery word loved by politicians but rarely defined. The motivating ambition of empire was to claim and exploit this distant land. In the process this paved the way for the formation of other beloved myths - the heroic and pioneering bushman and the mythical bushranger.2 But the reality of life on the land was harsh and violent with lasting consequences and although some bushrangers, like Ned Kelly, became icons of the national imaginary,3 others who challenged established stereotypes just disappeared. By the middle of the 19th century, more radical, democratic ideals became influential, as people with big dreams and high ideals reshaped the colonies. These aspirations lead to the end of transportation, increasingly egalitarian politics and compulsory secular education. Some argued even then that Australia should become "cosmopolitan"- a cultural melting pot. This was short-lived and by 1901 the utopian new nation was increasingly fearful. The first national parliament voted to deport South Sea Islanders and introduce the Immigration Restriction Act,4 which used race, language and nationality to decide who could come to this country, and the circumstances in which they come. It was a defining Australia moment. The White Australia policy prevailed for more than 70 years.5 From the 1860s, tens of thousands of indentured South Sea Islanders were brought to work on cotton and sugar cane plantations.6 Thousands were later deported, but some remained. Memories of the brutal trade live on for their descendants. Brian Courtice, a farmer and former politician is one man who was keen to shed light on this dark past. His grandfather bought the family property near Bundaberg from a man who had made his fortune from indentured workers.7 Brian remembered his grandfather saying, that people had died working on the farm, their bodies left to rot. So, he set out to find and honour them8 When he found their remains, he created an official cemetery, as a memorial to their lives, on his property. Professor Michael Wesley is deputy vice chancellor at Melbourne University.9But he may never have lived or worked in this country or become an Australian citizen. The White Australia policy denied his Australian-born mother, her Indian husband and their two children permission to return to Australia, until newly elected prime minister Gough Whitlam revoked the last of the white Australian regulations in 1972.10 Australians now come from almost every country in the world.11 But the precariousness of the migrant experience continues. Faiza El-Higzi recounts how her daughter Yassmin Abdel-Magied became Queensland Australian of the Year in 2015.12 But Yassmin felt compelled to leave the country after she was pilloried by the media, and subjected to death threats, when she questioned Australia's real commitment to fairness, relating to the treatment of refugees.13 For generations, Australia's unofficial tagline has been 'the lucky country'.14 Although Donald Horne originally used the term with a critical edge it has since been adopted as shorthand to explain the nation's success, as based on luck not hard work. Australians have also been good at making their own luck, finding innovative solutions to vexing problems. One of the first examples occurred in 1812 when the colony was running out of cash. Governor Lachlan Macquarie15 came up with the inspired idea of the 'holey dollar' - to punch a hole in one coin and turn it into two, doubling the number of coins in circulation. The founders of Australia's trailblazing financial services company, Macquarie Bank were inspired by the governor's pragmatic genius and adopted his Holey Dollar as the bank's logo.16 Today the successful banking group is known as the Millionaire's Factory.1718 Over the past three decades the Australian economy has been transformed. It has become less regulated, more connected to international markets and more dependent on mining. This has made some people very rich, but it has also increased economic inequality.19 Australia's richest 20%, are now at least 90 times better off, than the bottom 20% 20 and intergenerational inequity is now becoming a real political problem. As the rich become richer,21 and the poor become poorer,22 even the aspirational idea of the 'fair go' is at risk. But in this episode we ask, if you took the ideal of a fair go and made it a real priority, how would things change. There are lessons to be learnt from the past about how to create a fairer place for all.