Class and inequality in Australia

If Horne described Australian society by its "climate so professedly egalitarian" and its "Fair go, mate", McGregor points out that "it is impossible to live in australia without coming to realize that the different social classes [...] experience crucial differences in privilege and inequality, indeed live different lives." Since the middle of the nineteenth century and the gold rushes, the principle of equality has become fundamental in australia as far as each person (even prisoners) used to be equal by the gold he found. It is common place to hear that australia is an egalitarian and classless society where everyone is born with the same and equal chances to access power, income and wealth. This is paradoxical in the sense that when analyzing the current opinion polls, it is obvious that Australians are conscious of class and they even identify themselves as belonging to a particular social class (McGregor, 2001). australia as an 'egalitarian society' is more an "illusion" (Kuhn, 2005) than reality in today's capitalist and globalised world where inequalities are increasing. In this essay my purpose will be to explore and explain this paradox about Australian society.