Young money-maker of the year
On invasion day each year we are treated to fireworks and a set of Australia Day Honours. The conferring of these honours is decided by some anonymous committee, and their recipients are usually a politically correct mix of indigenous Australians, artists, medical specialists, tireless community workers and military personnel.
This year the award for Young Australian of the Year went to Poppy King. "Who?", those Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly readers who are not often found in the cosmetics departments of their local department store may well ask. Apparently the committee decided she fitted impeccably the qualities to be striven for in a young-Australian-on-the-move.
Poppy King is the successful '90s entrepreneur who invested $40,000 three years ago in an idea for a new type of lipstick and is now the boss of Poppy Industries, with an annual turnover of $8 million. She tapped into the dark, thick, matt lipstick trend and uses names like Ambition, Lust, Power, Fortune and Glamour for her various moods of money-making ambition. Her market is the urban inner city dweller who prefers to emerge at night. Her niche is lucrative.
So why has this young woman been named Young Australian of the Year? Are we supposed to see her as our mentor? Is she our peer?
Poppy King is certainly very unlike the majority of young Australians today. She is a member of the federal government's Small Business Council of Australia. She went to a conservative Melbourne girls' school from the age of three and now drives a black BMW. One of her ambitions is to own a 1971 Porsche 911 by the time she's 35. She is a staunch republican because she is repelled by the notion that some people are leaders purely by birth.
Presenting King with this award sends the message that entrepreneurship is something to aspire to. Yet this way of making money — glamorous as it may appear — does nothing to solve the real social problems faced by young Australians today. Poppy has become another capitalist, but problems like unemployment, youth wages that are too low to live on, violence in the home, cuts to education funding, fees for tertiary courses, the destruction of the environment and sexual assault continue to plague the rest of Australia's youth.
The invasion day celebrations are meant to make us forget all of that. It's a day for parties and fireworks, and it means a day off work. But the issues will still be there in the morning. It takes more than some awards to deal with them. And for all her bright money-making ideas, Poppy isn't making them go away either.
By Kath Gelber