PRIVATE AFFLUENCE AND PUBLIC SQUALOR

The recent death of J K Galbraith reminded me of his comment about "private affluence and public squalor"; this is happening right now with the continuing reduction in and decline of public services in Australia. So long as Liberal governments keep pouring money into the pockets of those that already have it, and choking off support for those that don't, we'll continue to face the degradation of the public realm.

And it doesn't really matter where you slice it, the picture looks bleak. Health services generally, but particularly services for people with mental health issues and with other disabilities are scandalously under-resourced - but then, there are no votes in mental health, are there? Not even when an Australian citizen is locked up in a internment camp in the bizarre belief that she was a non-person (sorry, enemy alien, sorry, illegal, sorry - oh well, add your own label). Nor are there votes in Aboriginal issues, where family violence, housing, health, education are at something like fifth world standards.

You can go on. Huge subsidies to private schools, and the brazen support for private health insurance to the detriment of the public systems in both cases, are two other indicators. The so-called "user pays" philosophy has become grotesquely distorted by the idea that, where users pay, they should also be subsidised.

Another point occurs to me in the light of the recent media frenzy over family violence in indigenous communities. There is no question that this is a dreadful situation which needs action - fast. But, looked at from another viewpoint, it is hardly surprising, given that Aboriginal culture has largely been destroyed by the invasion of a more powerful and more ruthless Anglo culture. This has led, too often, to a sense of hopelessness, despair, misery and withdrawal. And then a sense that, because nobody else cares, why should I? Put slightly differently, when you got nothin', you got nothin' to lose. The response of Howard/Costello, that more money won't help - what is needed is more law enforcement, just shows the total lack of understanding by our so-called "leaders".

But this is not my point, important though it may be. I wonder if this is not, in microcosm, what is waiting for the broader Australian community as the politics of division become more entrenched, and the gulf between the "haves" and "have nots" widens. Poverty, disillusionment, despair and a sense that society has abandoned me/us has the potential to create the sort of violence that we are now seeing in our Indigenous people. What then, John - send in the troops?

We need action to kick-start change. In broad terms, we need a parliamentary opposition with a clear sense of an enlightened direction, driven by people committed to change for the benefit of ALL Australians. We also need an independent media, not dominated by mates of the Liberal party, staffed by journalists who are prepared to do the hard yards and tell it like it really is.

And if more Australians got off their butts and made their concerns clear to their so-called representatives, then maybe (just maybe) we might see the beginnings of some change.