Should Australia Join the EU

Three key problems challenge the long term growth of the Australian economy: First, a shortage of skilled blue collar workers, particularly in construction and mining. Second, ever increasing interest rates, exacerbated by increasing inflation. Third, declining growth in the long-term productivity of the overall economy.

 

Prima facie, it seems impossible to solve these three problems with any speed. If the skills shortage, the most pressing of our three major economic issues, is not fixed, the long term growth of the economy is jeopardised. Yet, there is one simple way to fix these three problem that will have long term benefits for Australia's culture and pocketbooks: Join the European Union and adopt the Euro.

 

One may think the idea of Australia joining the EU is farcical. It is no less improbable than the former Warsaw Pact countries joining the club of western European nations. Australia has is more closely aligned, in terms of demographics, with 'old' Europe than the EU's newest member-state, Turkey. We may be far away geographically, but culturally Australia is aligned with the values of liberal democratic values and exhibits strong ancestral ties to Europe.

 

Post-communist states like East Germany and Poland have high-skill populations with staggering levels of unemployment; hence the phenomenon of the 'Polish plumber' in the UK. If Australia were to join the EU, with its open borders policy, the mines of WA and the construction sites of Perth would be attractive employers of skilled western Europeans. Australia's mining boom could offer them higher salaries, whilst they could help sustain the industry's overall growth.

 

If Australia joined the EU and adopted the Euro, we could join a powerful and efficiently managed monetary system that would insulate the Australian economy from short-term calamities. Using the Euro, Australia's exports would be cheaper to other EU member states; our current account could actually become a surplus. Our interest rates would be controlled by the European central bank, which, over its history, has managed lower lending rates than the Reserve Bank of Australia whilst encouraging a low inflation environment. Being a member of the EU free trade zone, Australia's wine, mineral and other export industries could find new markets and be truly competitive on a global level. 

 

Finally, the long-term productivity of the domestic economy would grow under EU membership. Australian students would be able to attend European universities at 'home' rates, and vis-versa. A great education revolution could take place; allowing Australia to shed the shackles of an industrial based economy and move into an intellectual one. Sowing the seeds of a knowledge economy today is the only way to ensure the long-term growth of the country, we cannot rely on mineral wealth forever.

 

Resting on the status quo, Australia will never become a global leader. The Prime Minister speaks of a courageous new era of government founded on innovative ideas. If we are truly committed to ensuring the our children have a plentiful country to live in, we must be radical about our future. Joining the EU is one such measure, but one that certainly should be considered in the corridors of power and around the dinner table.... One question remains, would the EU take us?  

"White Flight" in NSW's public schools

I've written a reply to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald about 'white flight' from NSW's public schools. 

The suggestion that public schools across New South Wales are experiencing 'white flight,' that is an exodus of Caucasian students from schools which are dominated by Muslim, Asian or Aboriginal populations ignores the primary reason underpinning such a trend: Economics.

 

Race is the most obvious social factor that one can perceive. It is easy for individuals to identify a student's race, because it is something that everyone can see with their own eyes. However, to identify the socio-economic status of a student takes reason, depth and analysis. Fundamentally, it easy to observe trends which appear racist or racially-motivated, but in fact are economically driven, because of the longstanding economic inequity between cultural groups.

 

Since the landmark Brown v Board of Education (1954) case in the United States, which forced the integration of America's public school, generations of black school children have endured long bus rides to white neighbourhoods, and vice versa, to facilitate a racial balance. The Brown case did not endeavour, or even consider, the economic situation of the students being bussed. Today, one can observe many American schools with racial diversity, but economic homogeneity. Wealthier schools invariable become more successful, and poorer ones declined. Hence, the 'ghettoisation' and increasing disparity between social classes in America.

 

The dynamic suggested by the report can be summarised as: White students are fleeing schools dominated by Asians, but Asians are fleeing from Muslims and they all are fleeing from Aboriginals, roughly speaking. Why has the trend appeared in this order, that being White-Asian-Muslim-Aboriginal? It is simple to realise that, in terms of average income, the economic hierarchy has evolved in this way, mostly due to historic rates of immigration and the disenfranchisement of our indigenous population.

 

For example, an Asian family becomes more affluent over a generation or two: They would hence demand a higher quality of education for their children. This perceived higher quality education is afforded by private schools. The perception that private education provided upward mobility is not a result of the 'whiteness' of a school, but rather the higher income levels of the families of that attend Catholic or independent schools. Conversely, if a rural school became populated by lower-income familles, regardless of race, their middle-income counterparts often move to a education environment that is economically homogeneous.

 

Only by analysing the underlying economic rationale for what is apparently 'white flight' can explain why our most elite schools, like Sydney's Shore or Kings or Melborne's Scotch or Grammar, are racially diverse with White and Asian students but economically homogeneous. White families are not fleeing these elite schools as more Asians enter their ranks, as the Asian students entering come from an equally affluent background, therefore, have largely congruent resources, goals and expectations as their White classmates. It when there is a large income gap that families begin moving schools which, because of broader inequity between cultural groups, appears to be racial.

 

Broadly speaking, parents that force a long commute upon their children are not doing so because they are racist. They are seeking an environment that their children could be educated in that is consistent with their financial standing – with the mannerisms, cultural and language there attached. This trend is not new and has existed since the bifurcation of our education system.

 

Aron Ping D'Souza is a Tutor in Political Economy at the University of Melbourne. He come from a multicultural background and was educated in one of America's 'model' secondary schools for racial integration.