Chris Pearce (Aston, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As a parliamentarian, I regard it as a great privilege to have the opportunity to meet a whole range of different groups in the community, particularly in my electorate of Aston. I especially value and enjoy the occasions when I can spend time with senior Australians, because it enables me to gain much valuable knowledge—knowledge that derives directly from their great depth of experience. Seniors are the ones who have seen Australia grow up. They are our nation’s living history, and it is important that their stories be heard. I, and many others in this chamber, can only imagine what it would have been like to have lived through the great moments in our history that have brought us to where we as a nation are today.

In the few minutes available to me in this debate today, I would like to reflect on just how far we have come as a nation. And I would like to ask the question: what kind of country have we become?

Looking back, the world emerged from the twin cauldrons of the Great Depression and World War II, the first truly global war, and entered the brave new world of the 1940s. Think about just a few of the things that happened in that decade. In 1942 the atom was split. In 1944 the world’s first electronic and digital computer, called Colossus, was built. In 1945 the United Nations was established. And while all that was going on, mums and dads were enjoying Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby.

Moving forward, the 1950s saw the discovery of the helical structure of DNA in 1953. The first polio vaccine was announced in 1955 and the first organ transplants were performed in Boston and Paris in 1954. As science transformed society, the Cold War became central to global relationships and the process of decolonisation unfolded in Africa and Asia. In 1957, Elvis Presley, Bill Haley and Buddy Holly were leading the way in the popular music revolution. But the 1960s was the pivotal decade in defining the path that we would travel to arrive at where we are today.

The sixties have been referred to as being a period of ‘complex, interrelated cultural and political events’ which are viewed ‘nostalgically by those who participated in those events, and pejoratively by those who regard the time as a period whose harmful effects are still being felt today’. Or, as a pair of one-time American leftists, Peter Collier and David Horowitz, noted in their 1989 critique of the period, the sixties was a time when the ‘collection of values that provide guidelines for societies as well as individuals was assaulted and mauled’.

So how far have we come today? Just a few weeks ago we celebrated Australia Day—and I think that special day provides an interesting insight into where we are right now. True to the Australian character, many would have celebrated Australia Day by enjoying a barbecue with friends and family in the backyard or at a park or on the beach. I think this says something about life in Australia. When compared with global standards, life is pretty comfortable. We are generally a relaxed bunch and we do not have a lot of time for pomp and ceremony. However, perhaps sometimes our easy-going, relaxed kind of temperament dulls our awareness of how far we have actually come.

Each year there seem to be, at least to me, more and more changes that happen faster and faster. Many of the changes are positive, but there are reasons to believe that in some very important areas of life we appear to be going backwards. A philosopher once observed that life may be lived forward but can only be understood by looking backward. So, with this in mind, let us consider briefly how much better life is in Australia today than it was 30 years ago. Without doubt, Australia is most definitely a prosperous country. In terms of GDP per capita, we are ranked in the top 10 nations. Our people are amongst the best educated and we enjoy some of highest life expectancy rates in the world. However, it is all fine to be healthy and well educated—that in itself is a great achievement—but, from a labour market perspective, access to paid employment is critical.

Australia’s labour force participation rates have increased over the last 30 years. Unemployment has dropped from over six per cent in the late seventies down to a historic low of 4.5 per cent. In the early 1990s it was over 10 per cent. The real value of wages—that is, wages discounted for inflation—has increased from about $800 in 1985 to around $1,000 today. Our real GDP overall has almost tripled, while on a per capita basis it has nearly doubled. Productivity has nearly doubled in the last 30 years as well. In 1975, the CPI was over 16 per cent and now it is just over three per cent. Real private sector wealth has increased from about $86,000 per person to just under $300,000. I also think it is interesting to understand how we compare with the rest of the world. The UN Development Program has produced the Human Development Index. In recent years, Australia has finished in the top three countries for this indicator. It is a vast improvement from 11th in 1975 and 14th in 1985.

So, with all of these significant and positive improvements, one has to ask the question: how did we arrive at this point? Without doubt, this prosperity is due in no small part to the endeavours and hard work of our senior Australians who have all selflessly contributed over many years. Yet, with all the hard work and all the resulting prosperity, and all that we have going for us as a nation these days, one can detect a certain malaise pervading our proud country. More often than not, the daily evening news is little more than a catalogue of failures that have resulted from the social revolution of the 1960s. The daily media abounds with reports about the divorce rate, domestic violence, mental illness and suicide.

While I realise that, sadly, these problems are a tragic reality for many people, there is a silver lining to this cloud. The positive thing is that most of us now feel that we may more freely discuss these issues. Perhaps a good example of what I mean here is the social stigma that used to surround suicide. There was a time, not long ago, when these tragic events were described as ‘hunting accidents’, even when they happened in the lounge room. Similarly, the reporting of social problems, such as domestic violence, is far better than it was in the past. Today, people who are victims thankfully have more opportunities to change their lives for the better.

In some instances, I worry whether some of these thorny problems nevertheless stem from the mauling of traditional values that I referred to earlier. We have less cohesive family structures and a new generation of Australians struggling to find their way precisely at a time when a multitude of paths and options are perceived to be opening up for most people. I am reminded of an apt verse from 1 Corinthians:

Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible, but not everything is constructive.

Perhaps many of the younger generations of modern Australians—and I include my own—have become anaesthetised by our own comfort and the cult of unrestrained individualism. Perhaps, at its most fundamental level, we have forgotten what the diggers went out and fought for more than twice last century. Where is the celebration in the fact that an average Australian baby has every opportunity to live a long, happy and comfortable life? What is it that we really celebrate on special occasions like Australia Day? Is it that we just enjoy another day off work?

Despite the gloomy cloud that sometimes hovers over our abundant lives, my strong conviction is that the future is bright as long as we return to those essential values that bind and secure a society. There is a lot of talk about values. There has been a lot of hand-wringing about the nature of values. I do not think it is hard to identify the values that we need to cultivate and return to if we are to truly enjoy the results of the economic progress. But the idea of returning to values that were mauled and assaulted in the sixties and seventies is anathema to the sections of society that were actually responsible for the assaulting and the mauling. They are still around. They are the hand-wringers that just cannot seem to acknowledge the social failure of the counter-cultural revolution.

I believe we need to instil in the body of our nation values such as: freedom and responsibility—personal freedom and choice; reward for effort; free enterprise and social equality—balanced with responsibility for personal actions and supporting the needy; the family—the most important band of threads in the social fabric of life; marriage—the core or centre of the family; children—our future—as it is important to praise, uplift and invest in them; education—investing in our children; community—living out the fruits of the spirit, caring for each other and those less fortunate, mateship and volunteerism; and, of course, faith—remembering how small we are in the universe, contrasted with the innate value of every human on earth.

I believe we live in a time when each day should be a time of thanksgiving—when we remember the tough times and what our forebears fought for; when we remember the good fortune and the bounty available to us; when we remember our responsibilities and our debt to others. I think it is vital that we always ensure that we never take our fortune for granted and that we all strive to maintain it. We must always recognise who helped achieve this great result: senior Australians. And we must remember that Australia must always be the most renowned of all the lands.