Australia's political conservatism is reflected in its sports

Aussie supporters at the Olympics. Photo by Elizabeth Chapman

The political quagmire Australia finds itself in following Saturday’s federal election masks the undisputed result; that Australia is fundamentally a conservative country – and this is evident in its sports as well as its politics.

A nationwide swing to the Liberal Party, led by Tony “Mad Monk” Abbott, in a contest between two parties with mirror conservative policies on key social issues did little to change Australia’s conservative tag.

As political analyst Tom Swtizer wrote on The Drum last week: “On a wide variety of hot-button issues – border protection, economic management, social policy – the political gravity is well to the right of where many Labor partisans and small-l liberal intellectuals might think.”

Even 20 year olds in this country are winning seats for the Liberals! (At that age they should be fire breathing, left-wing greenies that wear Che Guevara t-shirts with a pathological hated of Abbott’s politics.)

Only the emergence of the Greens as a third force in national politics (still only a 3.6 per cent national swing) gave us who sit left of centre some hope.

And Australians don’t seem to care.

The news that parliament was hung for the first time since 1940, with the fate of government in the hands of four Independents most of us have no say in electing, hardly caused a wave of concern in our apolitical society (informal voting now at a record high).

Instead we went back to our footy codes come Sunday (or Saturday night, for those who couldn’t be bothered watching the election coverage). It was the weekend, after all.

But I can’t help but feel Australia’s political conservatism is reflected in our sporting landscape.

I remember attending a lecture by David Marr, journalist and former Media Watch host, who described how the goodwill and social awareness (particularly in relation to reconciliation) that reached its peak during the Sydney Olympics vanished in Australia under John Howard’s rule.

Considering the 10-year anniversary of the Games is only weeks away, its poignant to ask where those social justice issues and the desire to connect with other countries, as reflected through sport, has gone.

Despite ousted PM Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Stolen Generations and Cathie Freeman’s starring role in the Sydney Games, which, we are told, represented the new united Australia, a lot of us remain ignorant to the plight of Aboriginal people.

And despite racial vilification rules, Australian sports, as we have seen countless times over the last decade, still highlight the widespread existence of prejudice – and our failure to pressure politicians to put Indigenous issues on the political agenda (trust the Chaser boys to perfectly summarise this through satire).

As I wrote at the time, the NRL Indigenous All Stars match, while being a positive fundraiser for Indigenous charities and celebrating Aboriginal players’ contribution to the game, still segregates based on racial lines – something that I thought we had moved on from since Sydney 2000. (Incidentally, I was not the only commenter to raise this concern.)

Positive discrimination, as I wrote, is still discrimination.

There are very few Aboriginal sporting greats who go on to assume positions of leadership/power in their various sports, as opposed to ambassadorial roles.

I couldn’t help but think of this when I saw this tweet on election night: “If Abbot wins, rich, heterosexual middle-aged conservative Christian white people might FINALLY get a say in how Australia is run.”

The governance of sport in this country has come to reflect the middle-class malaise of our politics.

And, in some cases, this is typified in how sports are distancing themselves from their true fanbases, through the corporatisation of their leagues and how even the middle-class are being priced out of once traditional working class sporting domains.

Great sporting events, such as the AFL grand final, are beyond the reach of those of us without BMWs.

If you’re a non-AFL/MCC/club member (who have limited chances of landing a grand final seat anyway), one of the few ways you can attend the game’s showpiece event is to fork out a whopping $1,750 per person for the farcical Centre Square package.

The Melbourne Cup has become a glorified celebrity event, with the actual racing taking a backseat.

Corporate facilities have multiplied at our stadiums as the elites increasingly squeeze out true sporting fans.

But more concerning, for me, is Australia’s failure to embrace the spirit of the 2000 Games in its desire to host the World Cup.

Where is the excitement and hunger to win the 2022 World Cup bid to match or outdo the 2000 Games?

It’s been replaced by mass ambivalence with little excitement accompanying the bidding process and December’s announcement.

How in the past decade has Australia built on the legacy of the 2000 Games by embracing international events?

International events such as the Australian Grand Prix and the Australian Open tennis have suffered a knock in popularity, with some even questioning the worth of taxpayers funding the grand prix; the 2006 Commonwealth Games hardly galvanised the country; and there remains so much segmentation in Australian sports, despite clubs such as the Sydney Swans, Brisbane Lions and Melbourne Storm (salary cap breaches aside) enjoying success in “foreign” territory.

It amazes me that Mark Webber currently leads the Formula 1 world championship yet he remains a stranger in his own land (not to mention IndyCar leader Will Power); able to walk with anonymity through our capital cities.

As a friend asked me last week, “Why don’t people seem to care about him?” It’s a good question.

Even the Wallabies and Australian cricket team don’t resonate as they once did (don’t believe me, ask yourself if you watched their Test series with Pakistan). The Socceroos go against this trend, but they started the decade well behind the eight ball.

The A-League not only struggles for significant support, but the Asian Champions League barely raises an eyebrow. Rather than embracing the Asian Cup, we will continue to hold on to the antiquated Commonwealth Games – at a time when we should be looking to our Asian neighbours for further integration, not the Commonwealth.

Our failure to embrace these Asian sporting connections is hardly surprising given the political dogma from both sides of parliament relating to opening Australia’s borders to our neighbours and Australians’ support of these policies.

The failure to embrace “international” or “foreign” sports simply highlights our cultural conservatism.

In past decade we have simply retreated to our backyard, in politics and in sport.

This isn’t a dig at the AFL and NRL (and to a lesser extent Super 14), just a reflection on Australia’s relationship with international sports.

Here’s hoping a successful World Cup bid helps lift Australia out of this conservatism; embracing international awareness, social justice and harmony that sporting events such as the Olympics and World Cup can encourage.

Hopefully the spirit of 2000 is resurrected, in the sporting and political arenas.

You can follow Adrian on twitter @AdrianMusolino