What's the future for Australian Citizenship?

Bishop George Browning . Photographer: Peter Hislop

by Bishop George Browning

Presented at Manning Clark House Weekend of Ideas "Australian Citizenship - is it really worth having?", 29-30 March 2008

I became an Australian citizen on 22 January 1988.  I had lived in Australia since November 1960, but coming from the UK and having, then, all the rights of a citizen, including the right to vote, it had not occurred to me that I needed to do anything further until the Bi-Centenary approached and I wanted to make an unequivocal statement that Australia is my country, and I am fully committed to its life.

Some five or six years ago, along with the other Anglican Bishops of the Province of NSW, we met the then Premier, Bob Carr to discuss matters of mutual interest and concern.

During the conversation one of the Bishops asked the Premier: “Looking forward, what is your main anxiety for the citizens of NSW and is there someway in which we can work towards the amelioration of the negative outcomes that lie behind your anxiety?”

Without a moment’s hesitation the Premier responded, “My chief anxiety is for the Muslim youth; especially those living in the outer western suburbs who do not feel they belong and are becoming alienated from mainstream Australian society.”

Bob Carr’s words were very insightful.  If Premier Iemma were asked the same question I suspect he would be slower to respond, given the litany of anxieties he must have about his State, but the situation to which Bob Carr alluded is certainly no better, probably a lot worse.

Behind the idea of citizenship lies the reality of community for which all human beings yearn.  Not to be part of the community, worse, to be alienated from it, is one of the worst fates that can befall us.  Human beings are not designed to live alone, we are not individuals first and then members of a community, we are members of community first and our fulfilment (or otherwise) within it, enriches and forms our life as individuals.  I have recently been blessed with another grandchild, Isabella.  For the first few months, perhaps years, of her life, her community will be her immediate family, upon which she is utterly dependent.  As she grows older her sense of, and need for, a larger community will expand, embracing education, work, social engagement and various life interests.  Isabella has inherited a world in which the Nation State has, fairly recently, become the primary expression of community at an international level.  Being a citizen of Australia importantly identifies our place within the international community and provides us with security.  However, in our lifetime we have also created a global community in which the primary objectives of an Australian citizen have become the same as the objectives of a citizen in any other part of the world.

When John Howard was Prime Minister one of his sayings that frustrated me the most was “I will always work for the best interest of Australians”.  While this sounds a fairly harmless motherhood statement, put in the context of the debate on Climate Change, the Millennium Development Goals or simply world peace and security, it is counter productive.  To selfishly pursue Australia’s interests within the context of these challenges is to deny any possibility of a greater good being achieved.  The same could be said in relation to the world’s conflicts, especially Israel/Palestine.  While Israel single mindedly pursues its interests, not least in the construction of the illegal settlements on Palestinian Territory, the greater good will remain elusive.  Bernard Sabella has poignantly stated, that the world in general, and Israel in particular, has become so fixated with security that the greater vision of peace has been lost.

We all need to be part of community: family, local, national and international.  To be excluded from community is to be excluded from meaningful life.  If you will forgive me for saying so, “Community” is God’s great idea!  Indeed, Christians believe God is community and our destiny is to be drawn into the inclusivity of God.  Belonging to community, nurturing community, contributing to community is what citizenship is about at a national level.

What then is the future for Australian citizenship?

First, it must be drawn further into global citizenry, for in the 21st century humankind will flourish together or decline together.  No country or individual can isolate themselves from the effects of a 9+ billion population all trying to eke out a livelihood in a world of finite resources.  Our global citizenship will express itself most clearly in the debates, decisions and targets that will inevitably emerge from the challenge of climate change.  We must try to restrict global warming to 2 degrees Celsius.  The consequences of higher temperatures present us with outcomes that are too disastrous, too threatening of life and lifestyle, too serious for world security, too threatening of food supply, too disruptive of world populations.  If the Greenland ice shelves melt we face the possibility of sea level rises of 6 or 7 metres.  Where will the people of Bangladesh live?  In fact a rise of that magnitude would submerge Manhattan.  Responding to this challenge may in the short term seem to put Australia’s interests at risk.  What if we are no longer able to sell coal?  We would lose between 20,000 – 30,000 jobs.  But we have already done that, and more, with jobs lost through changing technologies.  Think of the jobs that have changed, for example, since the invention of the digital camera with the old films no longer needing to be developed.  We would also lose a substantial export market.  In the long term this is perhaps not a bad thing, for we have become too reliant on selling raw resources without value adding.

There are many other issues that are waiting for responsible global citizenry.  We are now more than half way through the time allocated for the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals. Not surprisingly we are already a long way behind on almost all of them, indeed in some areas we are now in a worse position.  To achieve these goals, people in the developing world need to enjoy some of the privileges we take for granted, such as health and education.  To be crass, for this to occur either the global cake needs to grow, so that the poor have an opportunity to enjoy the simple necessities of life, or those of us who already have more than our fair share of the cake need to share it.  The global cake has doubled in the last twenty years, but there is very little evidence that the world’s poor have benefited; on the other hand the world’s rich have become bloated.  There is therefore no reason to have confidence that growing the cake in the next 20 years will help any more than it has in the last 20.  It is therefore encumbered upon those of us who live in the privileged world to be prepared to contribute something of what we have.   This is not simply a matter of benefaction, although it is that; there is also a fairly strong dose of self interest.  The global areas of intense population and poverty will not put up with inequity, there will either be increasing conflicts, or folk will simply move; this is of course one of the great realities currently challenging Europe.

Number one, Australian citizenship must be global in vision and local in action.

Second, Australian citizens must move from rank individualism to a more cooperative culture or mindset.

Rugged individuals have been one of the hallmarks of Australian life, and in many respects history tells of the rich contribution such a pioneering spirit has made.  One only needs to look at the farming community to realise how much such dogged, determined individualism has produced.  However there is a time and season for everything and the time has come for a less individualistic, more cooperative approach.

Some simple illustrations:

• Traffic problems are choking all our major metropolitan areas, Sydney in particular.  We cannot keep going in the same direction.  Sooner or later it will become as antisocial as cigarette smoking to drive a private vehicle to work, let alone a gas guzzling 4WD.
• It has become unfortunately fashionable for people to live in gated communities; (community does not have much meaning in this context; what is meant is a way of life that is protected from the wider community).  The only time a human face is observed is when the darkened car window is fleetingly lowered.  What is it about the wider community of which we are afraid?
• It is said that many young people may now never own their own home.  Apparently the cost of home ownership as a percentage of the average weekly wage is now more out of reach for the average Australian than it is for a citizen of almost any other country.  If these circumstances are interpreted solely as loss, a very sad future is painted.  Perhaps the reality can be turned into gain if as a result, those who rent can do so in a far more co-operative fashion.
• Australian political life:  Few would disagree that we are over-governed with considerable waste through duplication, let alone incompetence – or worse.  Much of this occurs because of the “inviolable rights” of individual States.  Will there be a preparedness to “let go”.  We will have to wait and see.  In the meantime we continue to endure the stupidity of complex webs of responsibility that allows local, State, and Federal responsibility to be passed to each other, while Australian citizens who move from State to State put up with different education systems, different licensing procedures, different health schemes, etc.

In the new chapter of life into which Margaret and I have just entered, Margaret very thoughtfully insisted we live in a cul-de-sac.  This has already proved to be a master stroke.  The cul-de-sac is its own little community in which people care for one another.  Much is shared.  I can see a future in which each household consciously decides not to own an item which another already provides, but to bring to the community something that is not already there.  (I borrow tools from a very generous neighbour; while we have created quite a large veggie patch and compost area fed by two large water storage tanks which neighbours are beginning to use).  The present level of consumption cannot be sustained.  If the entire world wished to enjoy the consumption driven lifestyle of the average suburban Australian we would need seven or more planets.  A more cooperative lifestyle is in almost all respects a healthier and happier one.  One of the strange pieces of illogic in the individualistic, work focused, mortgage burdened, time poor, lifestyle we have created is that we are all striving for something.  For what?  It does not yet seem to have occurred to us that the thing for which we strive is made illusory by the manner of our striving.  I was interested to recently read that indigenous Australians in the Kimberley who have been able to retain or return to a more traditional lifestyle have a healthier life expectancy than their cousins who have tried to adopt a western style of life.  There is absolutely no evidence that more wealth equals more happiness, in fact there may well be evidence for the opposite correlation.

Secondly therefore Australian citizenship must be headed for a more cooperative, less individualistic life style.

Thirdly there must be an understanding that there is no right that is not accompanied by responsibility.

I have long been a critic of the move towards a Bill of Rights.  In one sense it sounds as unacceptable as bringing a case against your mother!   My argument is that the preface to the Bill of Rights states that the only entity at law which has rights is the individual.  I do not accept this proposition.  I believe communities have rights.  (I also believe that future communities have rights, this is one of the reasons why I am a passionate advocate for action that avoids large scale human-induced climate change.)  The indigenous communities of the Northern Territory clearly have the right to freedom from violence.  If in the process individuals lose the right to unlimited alcohol – so be it.  Children have the right to the best possible education, and experiences that are free from molestation or neglect.  If in the process of achieving this goal, individuals within families are required to change their behaviour and governments are required to re-allocate funds, again, so be it.  Abuse of women and children in the home has become endemic, it should be unthinkable for such behaviour to be tolerated, even if it does mean some intrusion into the privacy of others' lives.

Every chapter of life opens up a new phase of opportunity and challenge.  I have recently retired form my main life’s work.  In my present circumstances I can reasonably be expected to devote a considerable number of hours to volunteer activity.  It is further not unreasonable that I should not expect some of the privileges of being a senior Australian citizen unless I make a contribution.

I began this address with a reference to the young Australian Muslims.  Community life is nearly impossible without listening and respect.  In multi-cultural Australia all citizens have a growing responsibility to listen to one another.  There is so much that we assume when we know very little.  Such assumptions are nearly always wrong,.  All Australians, but religious groups in particular, have a huge responsibility to listen to those who are different to themselves.  In the listening we almost certainly will find our own lives enriched.

Thirdly therefore we must move towards a culture in which privilege or right is always known to be accompanied by responsibility as its partner.

Time does not allow me further reflection, but I am in the company of those who most strongly and passionately believe that Australian citizens must soon be members of a Republic.

Australian citizenship, like global citizenship, is headed towards a more cooperative less individualistic, more inclusive, less prejudiced and a more healthy life in the midst of the challenges of the 21st century.