Now, just imagine yourself, wading through the dangerous, harsh and deadly conditions of the Kokoda Trail. You see a silhouetted figure clutching a wretched rifle, ready to shoot at you any moment now. This is it, you think. This is where it all ends. The figure raises his arm and presses the trigger... when all of a sudden, you’re mate lobs himself in front of you protecting your injured body. And then, smiling, he dies in your arms content with the thought of serving his country… and saving his mate. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what mateship looked like. Sure, you may be thinking ‘the use of “mate” in our language is still very much alive, HOWEVER, I must remind you that the ideals of mateship are deeply embedded in our past. Individuals in all layers of society used the idea and the practice of what Australians now call ‘mateship’ unequivocally. In these modern times however, mateship does not exist, the word ‘mate’ does. This noun does not even serve as a reminder to the acts of self-sacrifice and selflessness that was portrayed by diggers and war troops. The fact that mate is used does not mean that the speakers are mates. For eg: Prime Minister John Howard would not consider Saddam Hussein to be his "mate", yet his advice to international media was that: 'mate, the game is up'
Therefore, the word mate in modern times does not uphold what it used to represent – ethics such as equality. As Sergeant Graham Burridge said ‘It would take an awful lot of courage to jump on the back of a crocodile, but I suppose that’s what you’d do for a mate’ which is true - mateship is all about self-sacrifice for another being; the act of giving, the act of utmost selflessness. The notion of ones mates being important was long entrenched in the Australian culture. Not today it isn’t. Nowdays, it’s all about ‘me, me, me, me, me, me’. Henry Lawson once said: True mateship looks for no limelight. They say that self-preservation is the strongest instinct of mankind; it may come with the last gasp, but I think the preservation of the life or liberty of a mate—man or woman—is the first and strongest. It is the instinct that irresistibly impels a thirsty, parched man, out on the burning sands, to pour the last drop of water down the throat of a dying mate, where none save the sun or moon or stars may see. The mateship has sunk.
Don Watson, a column writer rightly said ‘Real mateship is not suited to the times in modern Australia’ A definitive element of mateship is collectivism. It is an ethos of mutual aid and support, and no more compatible with a creed of self-interest or what today is called aspirationalism than liberalism is with fascism.
On Gallipoli was fashioned a special legend which had much to do with courage and sacrifice. The Diggers shared a spirit of independence and mateship, contempt for high authority and an equality, which had nothing to do with class or financial background.
These searing experiences of Australian conflicts eg; with Japan demonstrated some of the most admirable aspects of Australia's national character, however, none more so than the concept of mateship. ‘Regarded as a particularly Australian virtue - a concept that encompasses unconditional acceptance, mutual and self respect, sharing whatever is available no matter how meagre, a concept based on trust and selflessness and absolute interdependence. In combat, men did live and die by its creed. 'Sticking by your mates' was sometimes the only reason for continuing on when all seemed hopeless.’ This was what John Howard said on the topic of mateship.
Hugh Clarke also recounted that in all his years of senseless cruelty as a prisoner of the Japanese, he couldn't recall a single Australian dying alone without someone being there to look after him in some way. Now, that’s mateship.
A lot of the mateship ideal is entwined in with our colonial past because it was a frontier value that was necessary as people of those times lived in remote communities and genuinely relied on each other in the absence of doctors, police and emergency services and so on. Mateship, as an ideal was then lost in the exodus from the bush to the city, and thus, the change in people. Banjo Paterson depicts this in his poem ‘Clancy of the Overflow’. ‘As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste, With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy, For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste’ Another good reflection on how times have changed is the new ideal that ‘Greed is good’, which was well demonstrated in the movie Wall Street. Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right; greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms, greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed.
Come on, get real, you can’t deny that times have changed and with it, the attitudes of individuals. The fact that mateship is a thing of the past may be for better or worse, but that is not what we’re debating here. Ladies and gentlemen my team and I know that the very fact that examples of mateship are so revered attests to its rarity. I have stated mateship in relation to individuals and compared the past with the present. My speech discusses that self-interest is a thing of the present and mateship, well; mateship is a thing of the past. Ladies and gentlemen, the mateship has sunk.
