01
A fair go
Everyone gets a genuine chance, and the chance is not rationed by who your parents were.
Australian people & the values they shareTwenty-seven million
Twenty-seven million
people, one idea
worth keeping.
A fair go is the phrase Australians reach for when asked what holds this country together. Here is that idea and the ones beside it — where they came from, how they show up in ordinary life, and what the numbers say about the people who hold them.
The country, countedSee the full picture
27.6%
Born overseas
300+
Ancestries counted
250+
Languages at home
65,000
Years of culture
The core values
Six ideas Australians tend to agree on
02
Mateship
Loyalty shown by turning up, asking very little in words.
03
Freedom of speech
Say what you think, including about the people in charge, and be argued with in return.
04
Equality before the law
The same rules for the powerful and the unknown.
05
Respect for difference
More than a quarter of people here were born somewhere else, and that is unremarkable.
06
Care for Country
The oldest continuing cultures on earth have managed this land for tens of thousands of years.
“We are not a nation of tribes. We are a nation of neighbours who mostly get it right.”
— Placeholder quotation. Swap in a real, attributed voice before publishing.
Recent writing
All postsWhat people actually mean by a fair go
The phrase survives because it is vague enough to argue with. Six Australians in different jobs explain where they think the line sits.
The census, read as a portrait
Ancestry, language and household size, plotted the way a photographer would frame them rather than the way a spreadsheet does.
Volunteers, in the week the wind changed
Three brigade members on why they still put the yellow gear on, and what mateship costs when it is billed in hours.