A different Australia.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)

SIR: In "Towards an Enterprise Society" (January-February 2005) John McDonnell adroitly expounds a view of John Howard's fourth-term agenda covering education, health, human services, the economy, international relations and the public service. He argues that Howard won the last election by forging a "new contract with the Australian electorate" leading to the furthering of his vision of an "enterprise society" where the focus is on "the individual--small enterprises of one". McDonnell notes that the Labor Party is left with the choice of "becoming a party to it or risking being isolated from the political mainstream".

He is entirely uncritical of the potential lack of a cogent opposition to such a radical shift in Australia's parliamentary democracy: that there could be external pressures beyond the control of the present government undermining this "contract" are not discussed at all, nor are issues related to the functioning of our democracy which have been, overshadowed in recent years by a preoccupation with those surrounding tradition and authority and the role of the governor-general.

Many Australians are very concerned about the representation of a collective national identity (evidenced by the monarchist versus republican debate) and this should be a point of departure for a discussion of the state of our democratic institutions. McDonnell naively notes that "The movement of English-speaking countries (USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand) towards enterprise societies has been one of the important features of the last decade." That claim is clearly misleading; nevertheless, he would benefit greatly from taking stock of a previous era in a democratically distinct Australia.

Neither the monarchists nor the republicans in their recent debates have canvassed manifold issues like those that were raised and debated in the years immediately after Federation. Writing in the Independent in 1913 the well-known American commentator and critic Elwood Mead noted:

 
   In dealing with questions 
   involving the general welfare, 
   in holding the scales even 
   between the rights of men and 
   money and in forecasting the 
   requirements of future 
   generations, Australia has 
   shown a distinct superiority 
   over America. ...