Warning Australia: wrong way, go back

As we approach year’s end, there is growing fear that Australia is foundering.

Cost of living pressures mount; interest rates remain stubbornly high interest rates; cheap energy little more than a distant memory; and ghoulish antisemitic violence, including the destruction of a synagogue, has erupted in our streets.

Australia seems to be heading in the wrong direction. Yet grief for the loss of our way of life is only compounded by frustration that the government seems to think it’s doing a grand job — and simply offers us more of the same.

But meting out a thumping at the ballot box can only be part of the answer. And that’s because pollies are only part of the problem.  

We might think things are out of our hands, but each of us has an important part to play in shaping our society – by building up our local communities which underpin our wider community:  the nation of Australia. Indeed, it’s an obligation that goes with being a citizen.

Citizenship of Australia is a privilege sought by those wishingto settle here. As citizens, we are bound together in a common enterprise in which we understand that we share both the costs and the benefits of nationhood.

But those bonds of participation and belonging are starting to fray. Whereas citizenship ought to command a sense of trust and mutual regard, it is being undermined by an unwillingness to accept that citizenship entails loyalty.

This fragmentation has been exacerbated as multiculturalism has generated enclaves that maintain cultures that are separate from Australian society. The result is that we are sliding into identity-based enclaves of tribalism.

These enclaves are eroding the capacity for toleration and the mutual recognition that citizenship requires. As such, they are the antithesis of a cohesive society because they gradually erode

It should come as no surprise that the annual Mapping Social Cohesion (MS) report, an authoritative account of our social health, has sounded an early warning.

Most recently, it has found that our sense of pride in Australian culture, our commitment to preserving the Australian way of life, and a willingness to engage in communal activities are all declining.

As commitment to our communities weakens, so the foundations of strong citizenship are also weakened.

Rather than wringing our hands in despair, we need to heed these MSC findings as a wake-up call to attend to profound changes taking place in Australia.

One of those changes is that we appear to be morphing from being a ‘high trust’ society to a ‘low trust’ one where feelings of loyalty and mutual regard are rapidly giving way to feelings of suspicion.

Instead of approaching others with feelings of mutual regard and a willingness to cooperate, distrust has increasingly become our default attitude.

Some blame erosion of trust and mutual support on rising levels of economic inequality that drive people further apart from one another.

While economic liberalism has certainly generated greater prosperity, its critics  warn that ‘the market’ has only inflamed individualism and eroded a culture of cooperation.

Obviously, the state has an interest in building strong foundations for citizenship — think of those citizenship tests intended to ensure new citizens have a thorough understanding of our history and culture.

It also has ultimate responsibility for securing our borders and for regulating flows of new arrivals into Australia.

And to be sure, preserving the health of our democracy, underpinned by the rule of law, as a system for testing competing political views is an essential responsibility of government.

But surrendering our economic and social liberties — handing them over in the hope that any prime minister might do a better job — is no way to build a prosperous and cohesive society.

Indeed, it is individual citizens who bear a principal responsibility for shoring up the foundations of our precious national way of life.

The daily decisions and choices we make about how we liveare crucial in shaping the common life we share.

Think of culture as the dynamic system of customs, norms and habits that shape that life. It is never static but is continually moulded by our shared experiences, and evolves subtly as it is passed from generation to generation.

As such, the individual citizen is not simply a custodian of our social morality. Each has a duty to equip a succeeding generation of Australians to do the same for its children.

As we prepare to bid farewell to one year and to bid welcome to the new, we can recommit to upholding the norms of our way of life — which shine as a beacon to those seeking to share our good fortune.  

Peter Kurti is Director of the Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society program at the Centre for Independent Studies, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame Australia