The Lucky Country

by Donald Horne

  It is in dealings with Asian countries that Australians might regain a sense of confidence and importance. In different ways different kinds of Australians can feel more at home (and more important) in different parts of Asia than they do in their often unsuccessful and sometimes humiliating attempts to keep up the family relationship with Europeans. To take some examples: although Japan is a great industrial power and Australia is not, in Asia they are the two countries that have achieved economic take-off; they are familiar with the world of industrialization and they are both big trading nations; they can distinguish themselves from the rest of Asia. They are in business together. When a party of Japanese arrived in Australia in 1963 after a tour of ‘developing nations’ they said they felt more at home in Australia. Japanese take Australians seriously. In one sense more seriously than Australians take themselves – they see Australia as the ‘great power’ in Oceania, thereby showing more percipience than Australians. Another example: the kind of ‘Asian intellectual’ from a developing country who is lost in rhetoric is lost in a similar kind of rhetoric to that of a certain kind of Australian intellectual; they both have an obsessional usage of the word ‘Asia’ (without much knowledge of the subject); they are both making up their own ‘nationalism’; they both see signs of cultural breakthrough from even the most insignificant art product; they both speak the language of anti-colonialism, under-development and foreign exploitation. For a third example: a Harvard-educated Filipino sitting in his air-conditioned office trying to avoid the rhetoric that stifles Manila, and get on with at least one practical thing in one small field, is likely to appreciate the kind of Australian expert who is not a rhetorician. The pragmatic, sceptical Australian can walk through the rhetoric of Asia like a blind man avoiding bullets. There they are, out there in Asia, advising on pest control, credit policies, irrigation, language teaching, some of the thousand and one little things that help civilizations survive the radiations of their own bombast. They are oblivious to all the generalities. They want to get on with a bit of detail. Their ability not to generalize, simply to get on with the job, can open the hearts of practical-minded Asians.

  Despite distrust caused by the ‘White Australia’ policy, the link with Britain, the great prosperity and the plain fact of being of European origin it should be remembered that there are so many differences and fears between the peoples of Asian countries that Australia is not usually high on most people’s hate lists. Amendment of several traditional policies could even produce a rush of goodwill. When Australia was reclassified as an Asian country by ECAFE in 1963 many Asians were pleased. This was one up for them. What they want is for Australia to get off its high horse, be one of the crowd, express confidence in its own style. They want to cease being insulted. To do this – to be ‘one of the mob’, to accept one’s environment and get on with the job, to be friendly with one’s neighbours – these are notable Australian characteristics, part of the Australian genius. If Australians would ‘be themselves’ nationally tensions with Asian countries not based on power conflicts (which are a different matter) would lessen.

  People in Asia may envy Australian material prosperity when it is poked offensively under their noses; but they can respect it and acknowledge that it was achieved without exploiting a subject people. Many consider it a miracle. (But how did you become so affluent? Why are you so much more successful than us?) Many Asians respect Australia’s relations with the United States. They see this as a ‘special relation’ that means Australia should be taken seriously. (Confidence and respect is not necessarily gained by appearing weak.) The old Commonwealth links still have meaning in Asia; Australians can sometimes get on well with the people of Pakistan, India, and Malaysia because of this. The new anti-Communist links can make Australia respected in the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam. Trading connections can increase esteem everywhere, but particularly in Japan. And to the neglected peoples of Oceania Australia is potentially a great and powerful friend.

  Educated Australians share some problems with those educated in universities in India, Malaysia, Hong Kong, or Manila: they are all getting second-hand products. A greater concentration on Asia might liberate Australian intellectual life from its narrowness and frustration. Australian intellectual life has a potential ‘style’ of its own, but it frequently lacks the confidences to express it and falls back into imitation. Concentration on the many new fields available in Asia and the explosion of new imagination that could come from sensitive cultural interchange could make Australia an important intellectual centre in Asia, and therefore the world.

  Acceptance of the changes of technology, involvement with Asia, the shock (when it comes) of declaring Australia a republic: these possible events could set things moving again in Australia. Something else seems needed: accommodation on top to some of the values of ordinary Australians. It is among the younger Australians, less puritanical and less anxious to compare themselves with Europeans, that this may be developing: a greater acceptance of pleasure; an acceptance of the fact that all that one can see of the world is man and his environment; a concern for extreme ease in human relations; the ability to act without fundamental belief, to give it a go. Australians have for long both understood the inadequacies of action and at the same time enjoyed action. They know how to be heroes without a cause; to suffer ordeal sardonically; to accept rules in which they do not finally believe. Ken Inglis said in a paper to the 1964 ANZAS Conference that, in the commemoration of the dead in the Anzac monuments, the appeals are not to Christianity but to the stoic view of life as an heroic ordeal. In economic planning, for instance, this attitude could carry Australia along the way; a plan imposes morale and pattern; it leads to action; some of the action does not follow the plan; one improvises, changes the dogma; one then proceeds to further action with equal disbelief. One is both sardonic observer and cheerful participant. Nothing finally works but one proceeds with action as if it did. Such is life.

  Everywhere one goes in Australia among sensitive, intelligent people of the middle generation – once the conversation reaches a certain depth – one meets a sense of desperation: what is going to happen next? In the younger generation it reaches a sense of outrage that public images of life should remain so freakishly irrelevant. Those who love their country, or (in the more restrained Australian idiom) are worried about the life their children will lead, or are simply wondering what is going to happen next … none of these can imagine the future. It is usually seen as a political problem: in the form of Menzies and Calwell the images of obsolescence stood there, improbable but apparently immovable; succession was seen simply as replacement by the same kind of thing. Among those who are frightened by this perpetual state of Stand Easy – and it is an emotion breaking through political party loyalties – there is a feeling of distrust for their own nation; a fear that responsible, clever people will just not be found; that there will be no breakthrough of new men; things will just go on; no one will do the job. This sense of hopelessness may prove to be an accurate forecast. The conventionalism of Australian elites may prove so strong that it breaks men who have new views of the possible; the desire to preserve certain beliefs and ways of going on may conquer all attempts to react to new demands or define reality anew. There are plenty of good people around but the conventions of the institutions by which power is reached stifle them or repel them. The nation that saw itself in terms of unique hope for a better way of life is becoming reactionary – or its masters are – addicted to the old, conformist.

  All the same something is going to happen. The demands of the age will destroy the present conventions – sometime. As Bagehot said of a sudden change in generations, things are not going to stay as they are; the results may be good or evil, success or ruin. It is time in Australia not for consideration of minor change, but for broad, general views of change. These must be based on some sense of reality, but not merely on the practicalism of what is possible for the moment. Very little is possible for the moment. But th
e time might come when broad views of change that now seem impractical will seem sensible and to the point. A reformer must forget the present occupants of power; they are unteachable. In the irrelevance of the present, he has to look to the future, perhaps produce ideas that may prompt action at some later time. In this situation, to be impractical may be the only way of being practical.

  One can hope that events will liberate what is good and progressive in Australians, not perpetuate what is bad; that the relaxation and ease of life and the prosperity will grow; that the ideal of fraternalism will gradually extend to include the Asian races (as it appears to be doing among the young) so that ultimately – but perhaps not for some years – Australia’s population problem will be solved in what may be the only way it can finally be solved – by large-scale Asian migration. Then, assuming huge advances in science that will make development possible where it now is not, Australia might really claim the name of continent, a continent in which for a second time, but more successfully than in the USA, a new nation will be created with values that have some relation to ordinary human aspiration.

  For the present one sees only the impossible. But here again there are Australian qualities that can be liberated. The change in generations may meet some of the demands of technology and already there have been the beginnings of a breakthrough for the intellect and, more successfully, the arts. The talent in empiricism might add a new and practical dimension to economic planning, and save it from the doctrinaire. The laconicism and courage of Australians are waiting to be drawn on to face the world outside Australia: this reserve of Australian stoicism has not been summoned for many years but it still seems a feature of the existential young as it was of their fathers and grandfathers. The good qualities of Australians should be described and admired and brought into play. Their non-doctrinaire tolerance, their sense of pleasure, their sense of fair play, their interest in material things, their sense of family, their identity with nature and their sense of reserve, their adaptability when a way is shown, their fraternalism, their scepticism, their talent for improvisation, their courage and stoicism. These are great qualities that could constitute the beginnings of a great nation. This nation should be impelled to display its talents in a sense of reality. Many problems threaten the future of Australia. But we might have good luck. It’s worth giving it a go.

  INDEX

  Aborigines 3, 22, 53, 85, 115, 126–9

  academics 216–19

  Adelaide 46

  Adler, Professor Dan L. 78

  aged, the 86–7

  agriculture 143–8

  aid, to Asia 117

  air force 203

  alcohol, consumption of 5, 27–8

  Alice Springs 51

  Americans 24, 80, 90, 96–100

  Anderson, Professor John 231

  Anglicans 57

  anti-Americanism 99–100

  anti-British feeling 93, 103

  anti-Catholicism 59–61, 63–4

  anti-intellectualism 227

  Anzac 9, 22, 52, 57, 159

  Anzus treaty 131–2

  apprenticeship system 211

  arbitration, system of 20, 151–6, 182

  architecture 69–70

  armaments industry 201–2

  army 203–5

  art 68, 69, 74, 76

  Asia: attitude to British link 105; attitudes to 117–22, 205;

  Communism in 121–2;

  definition of 109–10;

  events in 235–6;

  people of 111–12;

  population 116;

  power situation in 113–14, 205;

  racialism in 110–11;

  relation to 242–4;

  White Australia policy 115, 122–6

  Asian students 123

  Auden, W.H., quoted 101

  Australian 224

  Australian Accent 198

  Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) 70

  Australian Civilization 26, 33, 63, 217

  Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) 154–6, 169, 170, 173, 182–3

  Australian Financial Review 223

  Australian Ugliness, The 69

  Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) 154, 170

  authority, distrust of 8–9, 34, 41

  Bagehot, Walter, quoted 239, 246

  Barrier Industrial Council 50

  Barwick, Sir Garfield 188, 205

  basic wage 85, 152

  bauxite 134, 147

  Beazley, Kim 171

  Beddie, Professor B.D., quoted 204

  beef roads 147

  beer 5, 29, 49, 77

  Bennett, Arnold, quoted 101

  books, banned 209–10

  Boyd, Robin 70; quoted 139–40

  Brisbane 45–6

  Britain, attitude to 91–6; investment from 104; trade with 104

  Broken Hill 50

  Broken Hill Proprietary Company (BHP) 189

  Buckley, Vincent, quoted 217–18

  Bulletin 122, 223

  Burma 119

  Burnet, Sir Macfarlane 231

  Burns, Robert, quoted 18

  bush, the 51–5

  bush ballads 103

  business management 138–41

  businessmen 133–43

  Calwell, Arthur 170, 172, 175, 193, 245

  Cambodia 89

  Campion Society 61–2

  Canberra 13, 48–9, 160, 179–81

  Canberra Times 224

  Casey, R.G. 205

  Catholicism 56–64, 168–70

  cement industry 134

  censorship 27, 188, 209–10

  charity organization 68

  Chifley, J.B. 182, 196, 202

  China 60, 89, 114, 117–20

  China Lobby 119–20

  Churchill, Sir Winston 90

  Clark, Manning 99; quoted 63

  clubs 5, 53, 93

  coal 134, 142

  Coleman, Peter, quoted 10, 127–8, 227

  Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR) 187, 189

  Commerce, Chamber of 190

  Common Market see European Economic Community

  Commonwealth, concept of 106

  Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) 85

  Commonwealth Trading Bank 183

  Communism: in Asia 120–1; in trade unions 154–6, 168, 169, 173

  Communist Party 7, 60, 95

  companies, foreign-owned 137

  company directors 138–9

  company ownership 137

  Constitution, Australian 160

  consumer goods 134

  contraceptives, oral 54

  conversation 24

  copper 147

  Country Party 61, 166, 178–9

  country towns 51–5

  Crawford, Professor Max 231

  cremation 56

  crime rate, migrant 84

  critics, Australian 73–4

  culture 69–76, 219–31

  Curtin, John 201; quoted 90

  dairy farmers 146, 187

  Darwin 49–50

  defence 104, 202–5

  Dekyvere, Marcel 68

  democracy, political 7

  Democratic Labour Party (DLP) 174, 218

  Dennis, C.J., quoted 18

  deserted wives 86

  development, industrial 133–43

  diplomacy 205

  diplomatic service 90

  displaced persons 81

  doctors 64

  Drysdale, Russell 76

  Dutch 83

  Dutton, Geoffrey, quoted 240

  Eastern Europeans 82

  ECAFE 243

  Eccles, Sir John 225

  economic aid, American 96–7

  economic growth 202

  economic policy 135

  education 64, 162, 210–13

  egalitarianism 5–6, 28, 41, 99, 103; see also mateship

  elections 7

  elites: Asian 127; Australian 34, 104

  Elizabeth II 83, 92, 101, 10
6, 176

  Elizabethan Theatre Trust 71

  Empire, loyalists 102

  engineers 141, 210

  England, Church of 30, 55

  European Economic Community 96, 131

  European power, in Asia 109

  Evatt, Dr Herbert 172, 184

  exports 106, 143

  External Affairs, Department of 184

  fair go, concept of 20–6

  family life 17

  farmers 146

  Federal Government 7, 159–62

  federalism 159–62

  festivals, national 9–10

  Fiji 129

  film industry 71–2, 209

  Fitzroy River 53

  food production 143

  foreign policy 29, 98, 113, 120–3, 129, 186, 236

  free enterprise, policy of 175

  freedom, political 21

  Froude, J.A., quoted 10

  Galbraith, J.K. 137

  Gallipoli 159

  gambling 19, 235

  Germans 90

  glass industry 134

  Governor-General 107

  Greeks 83

  Groupers, the see industrial groups

  happiness, concept of 5–10, 228

  Harris, Max, quoted 27, 32, 76

  Hartnett, L.J. 202

  Hasluck, Sir Paul, quoted 115

  health scheme 87

  High Court 160

  hire purchase 16

  historic buildings 69–70

  Hobart 48

  Holt, H. 206–7

  home, the 18, 78–80

  home ownership 6, 17, 18

  Hope, A.D. 72

  housewife, the 77–80

  humanism 75

  Hungarians 83

  immigration 80–85; non-European 242–3

  immigration policy, White Australia 122–6

  Immigration Reform Groups 124–5

  imperialism, European 109

  imports 104

  income, national per capita 6, 117; export 143–8