Australia: a nation at risk

... given the reality that globalisation and wealth creation have ensured that society's focus is increasingly in the short term, it is essential - if Australian society is indeed to prosper as a unified nation-state until 2050 and beyond - that Australians understand how they will sustain their societal spiritual values in an environment of enormous secular pressure ... History has shown, for example, a withering of spiritual values in times of great secular distraction: rising wealth, short term focus on material gain, etc. But will society be ready to return to (or have the core memory and structures) a recognisable spiritual set of values and hierarchy when times become less easy and more challenging?

It goes on to say:

... Identity may be one of the most complex aspects of the Australian equation, yet one of the most important in determining the success of the nation. It is the driver for productivity, educational discipline, the creation of goals, and the determinant of harmony and happiness. It is the intangible which determines the tangible.

Australia clearly must consider its future beyond the “natural resources boom” and work towards supporting itself through the export of elaborately transformed manufactures, services and culture. But to export culture we have to develop it, and Australia, perhaps like America in 1983, is a nation at risk.

Developing culture takes time and requires support; it is not something that can be manufactured by governments. At least the enduring benefits of culture to Australia, both as a vital ingredient to our internal vitality and as a sustainable export, are becoming more clear and better documented. The Rudd Government should be off to a good start if it holds true to the pre-election promises it outlined in Federal Labor Arts Policy Discussion Paper. Its forthcoming Ideas Summit also holds promise, as does the recent announcement of the “Prime Minister’s Literary Award”.

But it does seem that the Rudd Government faces a significant challenge in many areas - from film, to literature, to theatre, linguistics, music, and dance - to encourage both public and private investment on the one hand and to preserve our culture and independent thought on the other.