It's about decency

Presented by:

Hon Dr Carmen Lawrence
Federal Member for Fremantle and Australian Labor Party president

Federal Member for Fremantle, who recently became the first female Australian Labor Party president, Dr Carmen Lawrence, spoke at the University in October as part of the 2003 series of Public Policy Lectures organised by the Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE).

In her presentation, entitled Inequality: are we losing our identity?, Dr Lawrence said that growing inequality could see Australia lose its character as a great egalitarian nation. There is a widening gap between Australia's richest and poorest and while it makes many of us uneasy, Dr Lawrence believes that a lot of people seem to accept the boast made by our political leaders that says Australia is a nation that gives everyone a fair go.

"There's a great deal of evidence now to challenge this very comfortable assertion," she said, "and while researchers may argue about the extent of the problem, they all agree that inequality amongst Australians is increasing and indeed that egalitarianism itself may be under threat as a defining social objective."

Australia reflected global trends, which show that while the Gross World Product has increased from 10 trillion in 1960 to over 43 trillion today, more than 2.8 billion people around the world - nearly half the total population - live on less than $2 a day. While in 1960, 20 percent of the world's population, who live in the rich industrialised countries, had 30 times the incomes of the poorest 20 percent, today it's 74 times. The richest one percent receives as much income as the poorest 57 percent and the richest 10 percent in the USA have a combined income greater than the poorest two million on the planet.

"Inequality is not new but globalisation and the rigid prescriptions of the free market have massively accelerated the trends," Dr Lawrence said. "I think the data I've just mentioned and many more like them should precipitate global action to redistribute wealth and power."

While Australia's problems paled into insignificance compared to many of the world's poorer nations, Dr Lawrence says that indicators show Australian society is less equal today than it has been in its entire history. She said our egalitarianism has historically been founded on a pragmatic commitment to sharing the wealth of the country and the benefits of productivity, particularly through the award and wage fixing system.

"One of the features of that is that government could be, and indeed should be, a major player in achieving equality," she said.

Dr Lawrence, who holds a doctorate in psychology, began her parliamentary career in State politics in 1986 when she was elected to the West Australian seat of Subiaco. In 1990, she made history by becoming Premier of Western Australia, the nation's first woman Premier. She entered Federal politics in 1994, being elected in the seat of Fremantle, and was appointed Minister for Human Services and Health and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women until March 1996. She has since held Shadow Ministry posts in various areas including the Environment; the Arts; Industry, Innovation and Technology; Status of Women; and Reconciliation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs.

Dr Lawrence said she is convinced that education is the single most important element in the maintenance of a democratic system.

"Highly sophisticated elites are the easiest and least original things that a society can produce," she said during the CofFEE lecture. "The most difficult and the most valuable is a well educated populace."

She concluded her speech by suggesting that trends towards inequality in Australian schools and in our society are not inevitable and can be modified by sound public policy.

"Measures which improve the economic status of the least well off, increase employment, reduce inequality and civilise the workplace are likely to produce significant improvements in community outcomes for all of us."

When asked during question time following the lecture why opposition leader Simon Crean was having difficulty getting the ALP's message across, Dr Lawrence said that he is being held responsible for a deep malaise in the Party.

"It's not that he doesn't know what he stands for but that the Labor party itself has come to be uncertain about what it stands for," she said. "And it's not a characteristic that's unique to the Australian Labor Party. It's actually similar to what's happening to a lot of centre left parties around the world. They've become frightened of ideas and ideology."

Dr Lawrence said that 20 years of preaching by economic rationalists that privatisation and market forces were the only way to distribute resources, and that government was a hindrance, had taken its toll on politicians. She said the ALP needed to turn back the tide and to strongly assert their values and policies.

"You can't just say education and health, you've got to say what it is about education - it's about reducing inequality, it's about increasing opportunities for people to participate fully in society, it's about fulfilling every capacity that they have, it's about decency."

Left to Right: CofFEE Director Bill Mitchell with Dr Lawrence.

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