Does class still exist in Australia?

CLASS IS NO LONGER RELEVANT IN AUSTRALIA

British ships carrying the early settlers to Australia brought with them the English-style class system. From the landowners to the labourers, Australia’s first days were based on inequality and classes were established.

Class is defined as “…a social position whose incumbents share similar economic circumstances.” (Bulbeck, 1990, pp497)

Theorist Marx associates class with having control over production (capitalist) or no-control (worker), in other words capital equals power. His view is that the classes are a production of each other. The article ‘Wage labour and capital: Introduction’ 1 illustrates the struggle between the capitalist and the worker, including a reference by Marx to May Day which sees protests still occurring today as a symbol of the workers fighting back against capitalism.

Capitalism has had a major influence on classes within Australia, however changes to taxation revenue as shown in Fig 1.1 highlight...