The word mate originated from a word convicts (delivered by the British during colonial  invasion of our “sunburnt country”[1] in 1770) used. It denoted a male who was into gay sex. Oh, the modern day irony pleases me so! Though while we may call each other mate without knowing its origins (the boys down at the local pub would surely be horrified), we are still very much a racist, homophobic, gendered and assimilation centred country. Although with K.Rudd (Prime Minister Kevin Rudd) as he’s known, at the helm, we are moving forward, albeit slowly.

Teachers in my home state of Victoria have recently gone from the least paid profession on a starting salary of $46,000 to $51,184; long live civil disobedience and the power of collective action! We are also finally allowing civil unions of “homosexuals” but make no mistake, marriage is still defined under the law as the “union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others”; long live bloody right wing fundamentalist dictator Johnny Howard.

We may be materially well off as a country with the average man earning $1,109 per week, but the average woman earns 19%-25% less per week doing the same job despite the ruling in 1969 by the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission that stated “by 1972 Australian women should receive equal pay to men for equal work.” If you’re in any kind of “minority group” (AKA not a white /middle-class/heterosexual/male) your wage also falls according to how many boxes of in-built disadvantage you tick.

I feel deeply humbled that I was born into a progressive, liberal, democratic country that allows me as a womyn to get an education, go to University, live alone, travel, decide my own destiny and most of all, to have a voice that I can exercise through mediums such as this.

Let’s not even talk about our Indigenous population; it’s unequivocally shameful. They live in relative poverty, and are actually living according to third world standards without access to adequate food, housing, electricity, employment and healthcare. Such is the continuing power of dispossession of land, language, children, culture, identity and pride. However, to his credit, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd did issue an official apology to the Indigenous population on 13th of February 2008, now a national day of recognition of the genocide and ill-intent of my ancestors policy of imperialist invasion.

On the bright side, despite all it faults, and blemishes on its war record, I love Australia and I’m proud to call it home. I feel deeply humbled that I was born into a progressive, liberal, democratic country that allows me as a womyn to get an education, go to University, live alone, travel, decide my own destiny and most of all, to have a voice that I can exercise through mediums such as this. For all this, I am truly grateful and though I do recognise, we still have a long way to go, especially in the face of our conservative, political, backlash that is turning our country into a dictatorship; you can longer say anything against the government or you’re liable for jail time; surveillance is at an all time high; fear mongering terrorism advertisements line the streets and the TV and you can forget your right to privacy in public space.

In fact, just last week University of Melbourne professor Paul Mees was demoted from his Senior lecturer position after pronouncing last year (at a public forum no less!), that the authors of a 2007 report on privatisation were “liars and frauds and should be in jail”. When the voice of a Uni lecturer gets silenced, you know we’re in for trouble, especially when he’s just telling it like it is; privatisation is a greedy money hungry way for the Government to shirk financial responsibility for the running of the country and its vital infrastructure and transport. But I digress.

What I was saying is, Australia is a bloody bewdy mate, and I for one want to make sure she continues in that way. As individual citizens of nation-states we are all responsible, because change always begins at home.

Long Live GenQ! Cheers- Brigitte Lewis 

Tags: australia, gay, politics