My 12-year-old son Harrison had his 23rd surgical procedure last week, a biopsy that revealed the kidney he received from me just under four years ago is in rejection. “It’s not fair” is a phrase that is heard quite a lot around our household. His various conditions that impact his life in a range of ways have no specific hereditary or external cause – his disadvantage is an unfair random occurrence.
There’s also a lot that’s “unfair” in our favour because we’re Australians. Without our excellent medical system and practitioners Harrison wouldn’t have survived beyond birth. If my wife and I weren’t born into the privilege we possess he wouldn’t have had many of the experiences that have made his 12 years memorable, enjoyable and fulfilling for him, our family and friends. Without universal healthcare much of that privilege would’ve been swiftly eroded by the astronomic costs of regular hospitalisation, surgery and medication that have been largely covered by Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme.
This is the standard that deep in Australia’s psyche we believe to be fair for our citizens. When disadvantage is caused by a medical condition we practice a universal principle of fairness – that is, to the utmost extent of all available medical equipment and expertise we will remove the barriers to a person’s ability to contribute and thrive, regardless of their social status or wealth, funded by the public purse.
Yet when it comes to other causes of disadvantage experienced by Australians we practice an opposing principle – we routinely add further barriers to be overcome in the pursuit of a flourishing life. To that which a citizen has experienced as unfairness we will add our disdain, our ignorance and amplify that unfairness through legislation and regulation.
For millions of working Australians without jobs we refuse to increase an already inadequate income support payment for 25 years, pretending that the punishment of choosing between heating and eating and being unable to afford to buy new clothes or renew your wifi contract is going to lead to employment and engaging in public ridicule and private prejudice when it does not.
For children in the criminal justice system – who are approximately 15 times more likely to be Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander – we lock them in adult jails, or isolate them in police watch houses, shoot tear gas into their cells and restrain them with spit hoods. We hold children to be criminally responsible from the age of 10 and throw them in a detention centre that a royal commission demanded be shut down.
For women fleeing family and domestic violence we defund women’s shelters, legal aid centres and oppose domestic violence leave for fear it will be taken advantage of. We allow upwards of 40,000 people to live without a roof over their head and hundreds of thousands more to experience housing insecurity while we elect a federal government with no social and affordable housing plan that will address the scale of the need. We outsource aged care and disability services to for-profit companies that have returns to shareholders as their primary concern. For communities disadvantaged by racism or homophobia we amplify the voices of fearmongers and sensationalists.
We pull out all stops to give my son the best possible opportunity to enjoy life and contribute to our society - and we consider that fairness. Yet our politics is dominated by debate about the worthiness of other humans to receive similar consideration. There is no question Australia can afford the next kidney transplant Harrison will need in order to thrive – but there is a question whether people on Newstart deserve the same dignity as an aged pensioner, or indeed whether Australia’s working poor deserve a living wage.
Could it be that because Harrison can’t be blamed for his medical situation that we are happy to spend our tax dollars on his wellbeing? After all, our prime minister asserted this week that people who earn over $200,000 a year work harder than low-income earners and therefore deserve the billions in tax cuts they’ve been granted. If we can find a way to blame someone for their own hardship – the victim of domestic violence who won’t leave, the child in the spit hood who brought it on themselves with their behaviour, the bludger who won’t get a job – then we suspend the law of fairness and allay its accompanying cost.
Today, Harrison adds his encyclopedic knowledge of internet memes, his optimism in the face of adversity and his pre-teen stand-up comedy to the world – but I am eternally grateful that our current concept of fairness means he will be granted every possible chance to reach his potential.
What would it take for our collective aspiration to be the removing of barriers for all people to contribute and thrive to the fullness of their unique capacity? We can only imagine how all of society would benefit from such an interpretation of Australia’s famous “fair go” – and reflect on how far from this we are today.
• Brad Chilcott is a pastor at Activate Church and founder of Welcoming Australia
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