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Don't Blame the Unemployed Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales, vol. 150, part 1, 2017, pp. 3–8. ISSN 0035-9173/17/010003-06 Don’t Blame the Unemployed Peter Baume AC DistFRSN Distinguished Fellow’s Lecture Annual Dinner of the Royal Society of New South Wales, The Union, University and Schools Club 25 Bent St, Sydney, 3 May, 2017 Professor Baume studied medicine at the University of Sydney, General Hospital, Birmingham, and as a U.S. Public Health Service Fellow in Nashville, Tennessee. He practiced as a gastroenterologist and physician in Australia from 1967 to 1974 and received his M.D. from the University of Sydney during that time. From 1974 to 1991 he served as a Senator for New South Wales. He held a number of portfolios, including Aboriginal Affairs, Health, and Education, and was a member of Cabinet. From 1991 to 2000, Professor Baume was Professor of Community Medicine at the University of N.S.W. He was on the Council of the Australian National University from 1986 to 2006 and was Chancellor of A.N.U. from 1994 to 2006. He has also been Commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission, Deputy Chair of the Australian National Council on AIDS, and Foundation Chair of the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority. id you know that the good food you photography? You are thoughtful and dis- Dhave just eaten demands a quarter of all tinguished and contributing to society. your blood for digestion and absorption, and Let me put one — just one — serious this can lead to anyone becoming somno- proposition to you to start. lent — in spite of anything that is done? That Let me first tell you a story. An Austral- is why the post-prandial speaking slot and ian recently visited Detroit and called a taxi. after-dinner addresses are so dangerous. When it came it was filthy. So he called But what a distinguished audience this another taxi. It too was filthy. Later he was is. If one added all the higher degrees, all told by American friends that people who the titles, all the honorifics, in this room drove taxis in Detroit generally lived in those together with the many accomplishments taxis because they were too poor to live any- of all the partners who mean so much, one where else. is able to count so much talent and so much Against the background of that story, will achievement — it is most impressive. you now consider the unexpected Brexit You, as members of the Royal Society of result in Britain, the election of Donald New South Wales, are enriching the com- Trump as President of the United States of munal debate and communal understanding. America, the election of Pauline Hanson to Your regular lectures raise topics that would the Australian Senate, the rise of Marine Le not otherwise be raised and they provide Pen in France, the movement away from platforms for worthwhile arguments that established political groupings here, and would not otherwise be heard. Your monthly more? meetings are valuable and worth attending. Why has it all happened? Where is it lead- Where else would a mere doctor learn about ing? Why were they elected? And by whom? beer, and botanic gardens, and Antarctic Well, let me try to guess. 3 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Baume — Don’t Blame the Unemployed They were elected properly under systems And we are creating or allowing to be cre- that we have designed. But so was Hitler ated an ever more unequal society that the elected. They were elected by people who young might want to change. There is no were angry, people who had lost faith with justification for CEO salaries that are 300 established political parties, people who were times what someone on the factory floor under threat — as they saw things — people earns, or what someone who delivers the who were nostalgic for some mythical bygone mail is paid. era, people who were alienated, people who If there is no place for the young in this had nothing to lose and people who think society, if there is great inequality, no hope, that politicians do not care and do not under- if there is systemic and systematic disadvan- stand. People who wanted to hear simple tage, then they might try something differ- answers to complex and difficult questions. ent. It might be a fundamentalist society. It They wanted to change the system and might be a totalitarian society. they had votes. They were not happy with Added to that: if automation pro- the arrangements that exist. They did not ceeds — as it will — we are going to have like our values, or our society. They saw in driverless cars to go with the driverless trains those people they voted for some prospect we already have. for real change. And the movement they There go professional drivers. If clever have started is not over. robots can work 24 hours, then we do not More protest votes. More racist and anti- need people in factories. There go manufac- immigration votes. More votes for Pauline turing jobs. We all go to the ATM for money. Hanson and her detestable views. Did you There go bank jobs. You know about climate know that David Marr wrote an essay about change. There go coal mining jobs. We do her recently called “The White Queen”? It not need secretaries, or telephonists, or as was a good title. But returning to my predic- many shop assistants as we did. There they tions: more votes for populists. More votes go. Did you see the segment with Stan Grant for one issue people. It will all continue. last Friday? There went ward clerk jobs. There Given all these things, and, in addition, went many cleaning jobs. And so on. given inequality, given lack of opportunity, Yes, there are going to be new jobs. Lots and given political failure, why should the of new jobs. Lots of sunrise industries. But young — our young (our grandchildren there are probably going to be fewer paid and grand nephews and nieces) — comply? jobs overall, not compensated by new indus- Why should they adopt the form of society tries and the increased need for personal care we have and we have shaped and we have workers. There are not going to be enough asked them to adopt? Why should they go paid jobs to go around: let us accept that to school? Why should they stay out of the this is so. workforce until they are fifteen? Why should Then the questions change. they not die in despair from suicide? Why Let us not blame people if they get no should they not try to change the society paid work. It is not silly for the union move- which cannot deliver to them what are not ment to propose a four-day working week. unreasonable demands for their lives? Why It makes the available paid work go around. should they not be revolutionaries? How much they are paid for those four days 4 Journal & Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales Baume — Don’t Blame the Unemployed is another question. Let us teach people to When I first went there I realised how use leisure productively, because they are little I knew about how politics worked. A going to have increased time and increased word about political parties. A colleague leisure. Let us encourage people to learn once said that members of political parties more. Let us encourage people to be carers: were either: mad, lonely, or ambitious, or a we are going to need so many more of these combination of those things. That is a sad as the grey tsunami bears down. statement, and parties need to be different But let us do something to welcome and again: they used not to be like that. Actually, encourage people instead of blaming them there were — and are — a few people genu- and stereotyping them. Trying to maintain inely interested in the country, But it was the status quo without serious talk is not possible to meet all those types — the mad, enough. the lonely, and the ambitious — through a Now that is the end of serious talk. Let couple of decades or so in Parliament and us be a little lighter and tell you what Par- longer in one major political party. liament was like. Mind you, it is one thing I remember telling some parliamentary to talk about how it was then: it is certainly colleague on the phone that he was mad, different today. and a few minutes later he put his head into You might care to know that in pre-revo- my room and said, “I am not mad.” He was lutionary France some people referred to Ver- the person who announced, when the issue sailles as “ce pays ci” — this special land — and of equal employment opportunity became politicians and their staff regard Canberra as important, that “a woman’s place is in the much the same. They talk about minutiae, kitchen and the other room.” His wife, to about what goes on in Canberra, about the her credit, left him because of that. relationships between certain people, and One time the then young Paul Keating they think that those things matter and they made a strong speech against Sir Reginald think we are interested in those minutiae. Schwarz who was then the Post-Master Of course, they are wrong. We actually care General. It was a really strong speech — and about wider issues.
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