South African Buisiness Times Feb 12 Frank Meintjers How the Australians look to a keen eye from SA COMPARISONS with other countries come to mind easily when one travels abroad. And so it has been during my Australian business trip. Are Australians more optimistic, patriotic, unified and connected in their response to challenges, I wanted to know, and do they have more or less going for them than us? In many ways, Australia's current affairs agenda mirrors the key issues facing us. There is strong and divergent public interest in the burning issues. But the country is more positive. Mainstream Australians approach major endeavours with a strong sense of common purpose and, always, exude strong national pride. Australia sits cheek by jowl with the Asian countries - close enough to have caught Asian flu in a big way. But the economy has held its own - Australia showed a 5% growth in GDP in the year to September, with inflation running at a year-on-year 0.8% in the third quarter. Commentators ascribe this "miracle" to tough fiscal decisions, a la Gear, taken by the conservative Liberal government which took the reins from Labour in 1996. Australia boasts other indicators of a more resilient economy than our own. Unemployment is on the up. From an '80s base of 6%, it is now approaching a mere 8.5%. But with pockets of severe poverty among the young, the government is worried: it wants to lower the youth wage to promote jobs. Australia is big on wool (70% of all wool in the world's clothing), beef exports (world's top exporter) and wheat (a leading producer). It's not bad in automobiles (producing the country's two most popular cars and exporting hundreds of thousands of engines a year). Tourism is also huge, with hot city attractions in Sydney and Canberra, burgeoning ecotourism, some marketable animals and a live but threatened indigenous culture. But despite current strength, the economy needs to grow out of its strong reliance on exporting raw commodities. Like us, the future calls for turning talk of "downstream processing" and "value-adding" into co-ordinated state and corporate action. The country faces pressing issues of race and identity. Australians are in what Australian social researcher Hugh Mackay called its "age of redefinition". They often have to ask: "What is an Australian?" They agonise over whether they should remain a monarchy under the English queen. They grapple with immigration issues. They row over what fair treatment to and "reconciliation" with Aborigines means. The clamour to become a republic, once fanned by former Prime Minister Paul Keating's enthusiasm, seems to have died down. And public opinion appears to have turned against immigrants. A few years ago most Australians welcomed Asian immigrant inflow and spoke proudly of multiculturalism, but the push these days is to restrict immigration. Although some still believe the country is underpopulated, the dominant view is that "there are too many of them now", and that Asianisation is threatening the "Australian way of life". The government appears to be frantically managing the Aborigine issue. PM John Howard has public questioned the legitimacy of Aboriginal leaders and introduced legislation to reverse court decisions affirming aboriginal land rights. On the other hand, he stresses the need for practical assistance programmes. He has also agreed - with the Aboriginal Reconciliation Council - to the drafting of an "historic document" on the Aborigine question. Despite the dominant trend to conservatism, a large core hold the opposite view, making for a vociferously divided society. Debates are more fierce than they need be, possibly fuelled by widespread sentiment (the taxi driver view if you like) that things are "deteriorating". A (woman) politician was labelled a "carcass in the wind" and "poisonous" to Australia for crossing the floor to a rival party. Another went into hiding following harassment after winning a seat for the ultra-conservative One Nation party. The country is also fragmented geographically. It sprawls, with a time change east to west. It is virtually "empty", with 80% of its 18-million population city-based. Hinterland people generally view city people as snobs; they say their economic contribution subsidises main urban centres. Rural sentiment was the key in the last election: Labour acknowledges its mistake was that it lost touch with rural areas. The rural people, custodians of real "outback" culture, have reason to be tetchy - they are key producers, but have to pay more and wait longer for services and infrastructure. A hot issue currently turns on the private sector's role in society. This is linked to a general outcry against the banks and what has been termed their "rapacious profiteering". Almost daily, irate letters and cartoons appear in the press about increased bank charges. So much for electronic services bringing about cheaper banking, is the cry. What really irks commentators is that fee increases co-exist with record bank profits. They warn that, through "greed", customers are being alienated. This, they say, is part of a greater problem of standard corporate behaviour which does not balance need for profit with social concern. ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
