1 - Eureka Street

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EURI:-KA srru:-erA magazine of public affairs, the artsand theologyGeneral managerJoseph HooEditorMorag FraserAssistant editorKate MantonGraphic designerSiobhan JacksonPublisherMichael McGirr SJProduction manager: Sylvana ScannapiegoAdministration manager: Mark DowellEditorial and production assistantsJuliette Hughes, Paul Fyfe SJ,Geraldine Battersby, Chris Jenkins SJCon tri bu ting editorsAdelaide: Greg O'Kelly SJ, Perth: Dean MooreSydney: Edmund Campion, Gerard WindsorQueensland: Peter PierceUnited Kingdom correspondentDenis Minns orSouth East Asia correspondentJon GreenawayJesuit Editorial BoardPeter L'Estrange SJ, Andrew Bullen SJ,Andrew Hamilton SJPeter Steele SJ, Bill Uren SJMarketing manager: Rosanne TurnerAdvertising representative: Ken HeadSubscription manager: Wendy MarloweAdministration and distributionLisa Crow, Mrs Irene HunterPatronsEvrelw Street gratefully acknowledges thesupport of C. and A. Carter; thetrustees of the estate of Miss M. Condon;W.P. & M.W. GurryEureka Street magazine, ISS N 1036-1758,Australia Post Print Post approved pp349181/003 14,is published ten times a yearby Eureka Street Magazine Pty Ltd,300 Victoria Street, Richmond, Vi ctoria 3 121T el: 03 942 7 73 11 Fax: 03 9428 4450em ai l: eure ka@jespub.jesuit.org.auhttp://www .openplanet.com.au/eureka/Responsibility for editorial content is accepted byMichael M cGirr SJ, 300 Vi ctoria Street, Richmond.Printed by Do ran Printing,46 Industrial Drive, Braeside VIC 3 195.© jesuit Publica ti ons 1999Unsolicited manuscripts, including poetry andfi ction, will be returned only if accompanied bya stamped, self-addressed envelope. Requests forpermission to reprint material from th e magazineshould be addressed in writing to:The editor, Eurelw Street magazine,PO Box 553, Ri ch m ond VIC 3 12 1COMMENT: 1M A RK M c KENNARein ember,remeinber the 6thof N oveinberIN MA' 1888, the edi tonal-wdte< of the C andelo and EdenUnion, a small bi-weekly n ewspaper on the far South Coastof NSW, posed the following question to his readers: 'Whenwill the Australian republic come?' His answer was sure andswift.'The Australian republic will come quickly ... As wegrow more important and our population increases we thinkless and less of that old country from which we have come... We like to call ourselves Australian and feel happy thatAustralians can grasp each others' hands in the true bond ofcitizenship ... on the platform of the country's commonwealth.'If it was easy to be optimistic in 1888, it seems muchharder in 1999. Only a lit tle over two m onths out from therepublic referendum on 6 November, the prevailing mood inthe republican camp is hardly one of confidence. After weeksof negotiations in Canberra, it is now clear that Australianswill face two questions in November.The first question will ask voters whether they approveof establishing Australia as a republic 'with the Queen andGovernor-General being replaced by a President appointedby a two-thirds majority' of Federal Parliament. The secondquestion, in the words of John Howard, will present voterswith 'an opportunity to unite the country on an aspirational[sic] issue in a very positive way', by approving the PrimeMinister's revised Constitutional Preamble.The new Preamble is infinitely superior to the PrimeMinister's previous draft, but still fail s on many counts. Thereis an irony in asking the people to approve an 'aspirational'Preamble when the people were not consulted in the processof its drafting. After consulting poet Les Murray, historianG eoffrey Blainey, and others who happened to hold thebalance of power in the Senate at the right time, Mr Howardproduced the final version of his Preamble on 11 August,two days before the legislation was due to be passed byParliament in time for the November referendum. 'ThePreamble can't be changed because w e need to pass thelegislation this week,' said Mr Howard.The Prime Minister's understanding of deliberativedemocracy is novel. When asked why the new Preambleincluded reference to those who defended Australia duringtime of war he replied-'We decided last night to put that in.'The Prime Minister also believes that the Preamble willserve' as a great contribution to reconciliation ' . He describeshis effort as a 'positive, honourable, pro-active, contemporaryreference to indigenous people in our Constitution'. The word' kinship', says Howard, ' doesn ' t carry any particularconnotations of ownership, it speaks of their lands not of4EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1999
the landi therefore, by definition it is something thatrelates to land that is owned by indigenous people.'In other words, the white man can relax. Aboriginesdon't own 'the land', they own 'their land'. These arethe words Howard thinks are 'generous'.But where is the generosity in failing to negotiatewith Aboriginal people? The truth is that Mr Howard'sPreamble is, as he says, 'a reference to indigenouspeople' (my emphasis), rather than a document whichbelongs to indigenous people. Does this mean thewhitefella should feel'honourable' simplybecause Mr Howard h as decided tomention indigenous people in a Preamble '. ' ·which is designed to have no legal effect ? .·;,:·_::Perhaps there is a more important 'question to be answered on 6 November:'When will the Australian republiccome?'The outcome of the question on the republic willhinge largely on the ability of republicans who supportthe bipartisan appointment model to convince thosewho are sympathetic to direct election to vote Yes.To win, republicans must find cause for commonground. But there is another, and perhaps even moredifficult, task ahead-a successful defence of theproposed model against scaremongers who willmislead in an effort to defeat the republic.This campaign has already begun. In the interestsof informed debate, those who call for a more'participatory democracy'-Pet er Reith and TedMack-endeavour to frighten the electorate bychanting 'Sixty-nine changes to the Constitution I' andaccusing the Australian Republican Movement of'ethnic cleansing'. Add the old favourites such as'more power to Canberra' and the high fence that isSection 128 (which requires at least four states and anational majority if the referendum is to pass), and itis easy to appreciate the difficulty of the challengewhich faces republicans in November.The referendum will ask voters to continue thetradition of Australia's gradual evolution to independence.The proposed bipartisan appointmentmodel is entirely consistent with themaintenance of our existing politicalinstitutions. It offers no radical break withthe past. The m odel's flaws are all presentin the current system. Australians willeither approve this last conservative step\:7 \J in the process of decolonisation or continuewith the British monarch as their h ead of state.For this writer at least, the thought of voting toretain the monarchy as the symbol of modernAustralian democracy is n either ' positive' nor'honourable'. Nor does it make sense. The 'historicachievem ent'-in-waiting is n ot the insertion of amonarchist's Preamble in our Constitution, butthe declaration of an Australian republic on1 January 2001. •Mark McKenna is a post -doctoral fellow in thePolitical Science Program at the Research School ofthe Social Sciences, Australian National University.C oMMENT: 2F RANCJS SULLIVANThere's nothing surer• • •S TATe AND Tc.moRY mom w•nted 'notion•!health inquiry. The Prime Minister didn't. They gota Senate committee. The inquiry comes as the broaderissue of welfare reform challenges m ost Westerndemocracies.Whether it's in health care, pension support, aged,disability or unemployment services, reform iscomplex. On the one hand, the bleak forecast is forageing populations and diminishing numbers oftaxpayers. The community's capacity to sustainsafety-net services, pension levels and e n~itl ementschem es (like M edicare) becomes questionable. Onthe other hand, the gap between the fortunate andthe rest is gradually widening. Prosperity for manyfamilies is transitory, if not elusive. Many are solelyreliant on safety-n et services, like public health careand income support, just to get by. In this context,universal health cover is a social good-wage supplement and family assistance package rolled into one.The latest income distribution figures are stark.The top 20 per cent of households receive nearly SOper cent of all incom e. Social security dependency hasrisen. Over 60 per cent of sole-parent families havewelfare as their principal source of income. Over 40per cent of single people between 15 and 44 have nowork or are underemployed.The group of Australians existing above theselevels, without any welfare assistance, are likewisevulnerable to the potentially enorm ous financialdamage that sickness and chronic illness can do tohousehold budgets. Their capacity to purchase privateh ealth insurance as a safety n et is limited. Theinflationary rate of h ealth insurance h as averagedaround 8 per cent. Real wage growth has not kept pace.In this context, the economic value of Medicareis that it spreads the financial risk of sickness across theentire community. It ensures that access to essentialcare is not restricted by one's capacity to pay. ThisVOLUME 9 N UMBER 7 • EUREKA STREET 5
Page 1 and 2: The Vatic-Edmund Campion on the Aus
Page 3: A magazine of public affairs, the a
Page 7: I 1! I 1Defence losing itsr~uARY Mi
Page 10 and 11: H """" -"'""' " tho mouth of 'side-
Page 12 and 13: esolution to the conflicts that pro
Page 14 and 15: of migration but to control it with
Page 17 and 18: negotiate with Sinn Fein over power
Page 19 and 20: Of fertility, Inotility and ability
Page 21 and 22: Employee Relations Commission, andd
Page 23 and 24: Burnet became pathology registrar a
Page 25 and 26: material as self. Burnet attempted
Page 27 and 28: This implicit assertion of purpose
Page 29 and 30: for a festival, and from being able
Page 31: physical confidence into art. The p
Page 34 and 35: TH E REGION : 2P ETER MARESIndonesi
Page 36 and 37: Ibu Sulami says that a lot of girls
Page 38 and 39: all the more remarkable. Walker sho
Page 40 and 41: BooKs: lIMacLehose of Harvill has b
Page 42 and 43: speaks of his 'Becoming', wherein h
Page 44 and 45: accents almost entirely, and the ef
Page 46 and 47: THEATRE: 2Grand toursI. SvoNev, I o
Page 48 and 49: English infusionsTea With Mussolini
Page 50 and 51: Homage to catatoniaL "' w" A GRMT c
Page 52: HERMAN PRESSN S I 0 EASp >I I 0 ~ l

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