Labor’s Future Made In Australia, typically, emphasises manufacturing products. But what about the services sector and areas like cultural exports? The recent on-again-off-again homophobic book banning by Western Sydney’s Cumberland Council is a reminder that, when it comes to culture wars and social activism, Australia for far too long has been reliant on imports when it should be punching, quite literally, above its weight in what is an increasingly lucrative field of cultural conflict.
It’s time for a Fight Made In Australia policy.
Australia has long been an importer of both progressive and reactionary activism and culture warring. Going back to the 1960s, white Australians and Indigenous activists drew inspiration from the Freedom Rides of the civil rights movement in the United States.
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