Kevin Rudd was re-elected leader of the Australian Labor Party and subsequently Prime Minister of Australia one month ago.

During this month we have seen a Labor resurgence in the polls, a Coalition struggling to retain a reduced lead and a public debate driven by the major parties and by the media that ignores fundamental issues for the future of Australians.

The important issue of asylum seekers dominates yet another election period, public debate and public space. ETS, ALP rule changes, the running costs of the National Broadband Network, the determination of an election date and the polls are all taking up precious pre-election time that needs to be spent differently if we really care about the future of this country and the future of its people.

When will a discussion take place on the state of public health in Australia if not now? When are we going to talk about the creation of a better social safety net that includes services and provisions for the less fortunate? When are we going to talk about the present and future directions of our education system, directions that go far beyond the implementation of the necessary Gonski reforms? When are we going to raise the issue of affordable child care? When will our silence cease such that the ascendancy of inequality in this land of plenty is elevated to an election issue?

If we are to engage in serious public debate about the future of Australia during this pre-election period, the Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) and other similar bodies cannot attempt on their own to change the terms of the public discourse.

According to the 2012 Poverty Report by ACOSS, approximately 13 per cent of Australians, or 2,265,000 people live below the poverty line. Approximately 17.5 per cent, or 575.000 children in this continent of plenty live below the poverty line.

Unemployed, lone parent households and social security income earners, they all harvest poverty not only for themselves but also for their children and their children’s children. Studies all over the globe have indicated that poverty and marginalisation are vicious cycles that cannot be easily escaped if the State remains indifferent.

Given that inequality is back and affecting more and more people, it is surprising to say the least that individuals and groups affected by it or their advocates cannot be heard by more in the wider community in this pre-election period.

Andrew Leigh, a Labor MP and a former economics professor at the Australian National University, has recently published a book Battlers and Billionaires: The Story of Inequality in Australia, that can become a ‘flag’ in the hands of all people concerned with social justice in Australia.

This book is readable, properly researched, footnoted and concise. It overviews the history of inequality in Australia, from Dreamtime to the present and makes the case that from egalitarian beginnings, Australian inequality rose through the nineteenth century.

Then the country became more equal again, with inequality falling substantially from the 1920s to the 1970s before its return nowadays to the heights of the 1920s, the economist argues.
The haves and the have-nots have always existed in Australia or in any other country throughout human history.

The point is, the point has always been, leaving a growing social divide unchecked can only hasten the demise of a nation’s social order.

If Australia is to retain its social cohesion, and to remain true to herself and to her history, if the country is to remain a wealthy and competitive nation, then the issue of inequality has to be addressed sooner rather than later.

This has to be addressed not only by the underprivileged and their advocates. Politicians, media, unions, employers, the entire community need to be alert and need to be addressing the issue of inequality if we wish to continue living together and sharing this great continent of the south.