Image by Webdiary artist Martin Davies. www.daviesart.com

This is getting scary. I agree with Carmen Lawrence!

As she writes in A fair go education system: the advantages for all of us, education is the passport to equality. If we want justice for all, we have to educate all. Equally.

It really does seem that core Australian values are egalitarianism and the so-called “fair-go”. This sounds a lot like social justice to me, and if we are to live up to our Australian “creed” then we need to satisfy ourselves that we are not designing systems that magnify inequality.

This is not about punishing excellence. It is about raising the target for ALL.

We excel on a global basis at sport but we don’t say our broad-based sporting programs punish excellence. Not for a second. Excellence is encouraged at every turn and opportunity begs for excellence at every second turn.

Perhaps elitist schools based on religion should go back to their creed. I seem to remember something in the Bible that went along these lines: “Whatsoever you do to the least of your brothers, that you do unto me”. This is a very clear instruction that everyone, no matter what their circumstances, needs to be raised up by their fellow human being.

That’s raised up, not pushed down. Earlier religious figures, at least in the Catholic Church, realised that in geographies where they were discriminated against (eg early Australia) one of the most powerful ways to overcome sectarian disadvantage was by a focus on EDUCATION. Catholics then systematically set about to educate their young.

Paul Keating left a Marist Brothers school at 15 but he could certainly read and write. Some of these poorer schools did exceptionally well.

This is 2003 however, and we’re a secular state. At least I hope we are. We should be proud of that fact. We don’t need to resort to a religious creed to find our collective feeling. The secular spiritual roots of Australia (now there is a potential contradiction in terms) are most certainly toward egalitarianism. It goes much further than convicts and 1788.

It is why the Prime Minister sits in the front seat with his driver. It is why he wanted “mateship” in a preamble to the Constitution.

My fear is that these empty gestures will become the last remaining symbols of our shared belief in egalitarianism. Yes, we pull together in disasters. We put out fires together. We have much to be proud of. When times are good though, do we look out for each other?

Beyond the heroics and the undoubted strength of the national character, there needs to be a daily dedication to the original creed. Do we live it or do we just say it?

It’s time to decide. We are at the cross roads and now we can decide whether the original creed was crap or whether we should stick with it.

We were more civilised than our colonial masters because we were ultimately better at finding ways to “tame the savage beast of man”. We need to hold onto our roots. The good parts that said beneath our distinctive accent was a deep enlightenment that we had found a better way. We had turned our backs on class and the Old World. The Aborigines were excluded, but if you were white you would be judged in our new society not on who your father was, what your religion was or what school you went to. It became more about what you did. A kind of enlightened egalitarian meritocracy. Really. That is what it was (or is).

Advance Australia Fair.

This spirit is still there and the people who can nurture it will be the heroes of generations to come. Our society is human and as flawed as any other, but if we can energise those special original feelings we can become something even more special. We just need to turn our backs on despair and become what we always were.

In his own way, Slim Dusty reminded us of that last week. We can’t meet our impossible creed, but let’s shoot for it again.

One hundred years ago, Australia was one of the richest, most socially progressive societies on the planet. Let’s not stuff it up 100 years later.

PS: I might add that any decent rational economist not appealing to sentiment as I often do would tell you that high quality education delivered to the broadest range of citizens is a feature of successful economies. Tie it in with Knowledge Nation. We will fall behind if we don’t focus on it. There is a VERY practical need to raise the educational bar.

And another thought. The PM talks about “practical reconciliation” – we should consider “practical egalitarianism”, something beyond using the word mate a lot and sitting in the front seat.