Australian politics, society & culture    Cover: March 2012March
2012Medium length read  A decade ago, as I waited for my order
outside a Maroochydore fish and chip shop, a tall, barefoot
young man strolled past wearing a T-shirt that read: ‘Greed is
good. Trample the weak. Hurdle the dead.’ Those brutal lines
seemed to encapsulate what was then a growing sense of unease in
Australia. The world of my Queensland childhood, governed by its
implicit assumptions of equality and mutual care, was being
driven from sight by a combination of ruthless individualism and
unquestioning materialism. Looking out for number one was not
only tolerated but encouraged by a government whose agenda,
particularly in industrial relations, seemed very far from the
social contract, based on a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work
with a decent social safety net for the vulnerable, that had
served our nation so well for so long.  Today, when a would-be
US president, Mitt Romney, is wealthier than 99.9975% of his
fellow Americans, and