The Egalitarian Principle

1414: 

In Australia there’s fertile ground for egalitarianism.  Ever since the beginning of Western occupation, our treatment of indigenous people notwithstanding, there’s developed a strong unifying thread of equality amongst new arrivals.  As émigrés and refugees, often from harsh regimes, most of us or our forebears have pulled together to develop a national identity that is, at its heart, egalitarian.  We’ve developed attitudes of giving one another a ‘fair go’, of tolerating minorities and being interested and not hostile to differences in culture.

         

In Australia we’re in a prime position to show the rest of the world how equality can work.  It could be multicultural toleration of differences, it could even be a general humanitarianism that starts out as a respect for each other.  Throughout Australia, there’s very little class system or intellectual hierarchy.  So we might be in a good position to extend that ‘fair-go’ - to animals.  Why should we continue to imprison and kill them, and eat them?  Why would we arbitrarily exclude other sentient species from that equality we apply amongst ourselves?  It is, after all, based on a principle of showing goodwill towards the disadvantaged and standing up for the oppressed.  And no more oppressed than farmed animals.