This is according to a news article over at www.iwon.com. Is this true? Can someone explain this to me? It seems to me that it would symbolize equality not egalitarianism.
The link doesn’t work for me.
Without having read the article, I can’t think of why the greeting would necessarily symbolize anything in particular. I suppose one could argue that if the greeting were used with equal frequency across class lines, it could indicate an egalitarian mindset. It could be argued, but I don’t think I’d buy it. A better indicator of egalitarian thought might be to examine how the greeting is used between classes. For instance, if members of upper classes greet members of lower classes in the same way that they greet each other and vice versa, that might point to some degree of egalitarianism.
You liknk is virtulally useless without a specific URL citation.
Unless there something more specific I always take it as a greeting to friend and stranger alike.
Might he be referring to this? Sorry I can’t find a better link.
I’ve been to Australia three times in the last several months on business. It struck me as very egalitarian. It’s almost impossible to stop yourself from using the word after you’ve been there for a couple of days, which, if you have an American accent, makes you sound like a total tool.
Heh heh. True enough. Australians laugh mercilessly at Americans who attempt to say things like “g’day.”
Mainly because they just can’t seem to do it. It always comes out sounding like “gooday,” which isn’t how it’s meant to sound at all.
There are plenty of Americans who can’t even pronounce “Aussie.” They tend to pronounce the esses with an “s” sound, rather than a “z” sound. Just remember, “Aussie” sounds like “ozzie”; it does NOT rhyme with “glossy.”
As for the egalitarian thing, Australians have always prided themselves on being an egalitarian, “classless” society. Like most places where such pride exists, it is often based more on myth than on actual reality. There is plenty of inequality and plenty of class distinction in Australia, and plenty of people who think they are better than other people.
One thing Australia does seem to have, though, is a surface egalitarianism regarding things like forms of address. Calling someone “mate” is, for example, a rather universal catch-all that transcends class and status boundaries. But not always. You have to be a bit careful.
Another example that i can think of off the top of my head is the tendency to avoid formal modes of address. For example, undergraduates in Australian universities, almost without exception, call their professors by their first names. Such practices are far less common here in the United States.
When i was an undergrad at a university in Sydney, we had quite a few American exchange students, and i noted that they invariably addressed the professors as “Professor,” and some persisted even after being actively discouraged. I worked as a TA for a year after completing my degree, and a couple of my American students even called me “professor” until i expressly forbade it.
One other thing to note about the term “mate” as it’s used in Australia. Among most Australians, it’s a heavily gendered term, one that is used far more frequently when addressing men than when addressing women, and one that tends to be used more often by men than by women. This is not universally true, and some Australians make an attempt to cross gender lines with the term, but it’s still a heavily male term of address.
There was a bit of a kerfuffle about 6 or 7 years ago when the Prime Minister and a few others wanted to include the term “mateship” as one of Australia’s enduring values in some official document or other. A lot of feminists objected, on the grounds that the notion of “mateship” in Australia was historically and culturally connected to men, and that formalising it would, in effect, exclude women from their place in the national heritage.
So what are Australian women called — apart from “sheila”? I’ve never been to Australia, so who am I to say, but I get the impression that “sheila” is one of those condescending terms for women like “chick” in America or “bird” or “bint” in the UK. Is there a female equivalent of “mate”? How do Oz women address one another in a casual way?
Yes, that’s the story to which he’s referring. It’s been a big news item for the last few days here. Lots of pontificating from politicians and columnists that we’re losing our egalitarianism as a result of some faceless bureaucrat’s decision within Parliament House in Canberra. The ban on the use of “mate” has since been rescinded.
Sometimes “mate”. I’ve occasionally heard that used to address a woman. I wouldn’t say it though. I only use “mate” for other men. I generally address women by their first names. As for “sheila”, I think it’s a bit of a myth. I’ve only heard it used rarely, and then always in an obviously mocking way, as a send-up of what is supposedly traditionally Australian.
Yeah, mostly true. Close male friends who use the word ‘mate’ for all their friends will call me ‘mate’ without hesitation, however in say, a shop situation, I find where my SO will recieve ‘Help you there, mate?’ I will usually get the same greeting sans ‘mate’ and no other word replacing it. Which is fine.
I use it both for men and occasionally other women - there are some women I know who would prefer not be addressed as such, not because of any gender attachment but I think because they simply don’t like the ‘feel’ of it, if that makes sense.
I only ever hear sheila when we’re making fun of ourselves, or being made fun of 
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I suspect it just is g’day mate lack any sense of egalitarianism. It just implies friendliness.
“Mate” is used over here in NZ but not all that frequently. In some places, it replaces the English “luv”.
BTW a term even more heavily male-gender weighted is “cobber”. There’s a dear man who keeps referring to everyone he meets as “cobber”, including women. Always makes me blink twice t’ be addressed as “cobber”. 
It can be very much used in an aggressive situation. “Mate” certainly (like the US “buddy” between annoyed motorists, for example), but even “g’day” can be used with people you don’t much like.
For the rest of it, I have nothing much to add that hasn’t been already covered in mhendo’s fine post, particularly the fact that Australia is not an egalitarian nation, and class is alive and well here. Nonetheless, it remains a relatively egalitarian nation. An average Joe can call the Prime Minister ‘mate’ in certain situations, and even if we aren’t really egalitarian, then it’s nice to be able to aspire to that, and saying “g’day mate” is a small way of doing just that.
Of course, ‘mate’ is also in use in NZ, the UK (where it no doubt originated), and probably elsewhere.
Those two words mean the same thing.
(To be more specific, they are synonymous in the political and philosophical realm. The term ‘equality’ as related to ‘equal rights’ is a synonym for egalitarianism.)
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Really? I am Australian, I don’t think I’ve ever used it.
And on the ‘mate’ thing, just the other day, my future brother-in-law was complaining that he doesn’t like addressed in that way by strangers, as it he also deems it overfamiliar.
Yes, I know people who don’t like to be called mate by strangers. I would tend to use it for friends only.
On a tenuously related note, when watching Finding Nemo most Australians thought the seagulls were repeating “mate” all the time, because it’s how a stranger here might ingratiate themselves to you in an attempt to scrounge something (money) off you. In that sense, it was much cleverer than the actual word, “mine,” that they were really saying.
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I’m not sure how many such people there are, but if there are a lot, then i’ve probably offended a lot of people in my time, as i use mate with strangers all the time.
Of course, there were times when it wasn’t appropriate. For example, before and during my university degree i worked as a waiter, and i never referred to a customer as “mate.” There are certain levels of fomality that should generally be observed by service workers, unless they know the customer very well and have a more informal relationship with him.
But plenty of my customers used the term when talking to me, and it never worried me in the slightest. And when the shoe was on the other foot, and i was the customer—in a store or a bar or a restaurant—i would frequently use the term when talking to the employees.
I also use it in general conversation when i had to talk with a stranger for any reason. For example, in trying to push through the crowd in a crowded bar, i would say “Excuse me please, mate” to someone who was in my way. Or if i was out without my watch, i’d ask a stranger, “Excuse me mate, do you have the time?” Or in the cinema, it might be, “Hey mate, are those seats taken?”
As Cunctator says, Australians refer to women as “sheilas” far less frequently than many foreigners seem to believe. To the extent that the term is still used, it is often done ironically, or sometimes by those of the older generation. I’m 35 and i don’t think a single Australian in my peer group uses the term seriously.
Also, when it is used, it is not generally used in the same way at “mate.” One the infrequent occasions that “sheila” is used, it is virtually always employed in a third-person context, rather than in a direct, second-person manner. So, while you might say, “Excuse me, mate,” you would never say, “Excuse me, sheila.” If you use the term, though, you might say something like “She’s a nice-looking sheila,” or “She’s gone out with the other sheilas.”
One more thing: the term “sheila” is occasionally employed in Australia in a similar way to the term “pussy” in America, to indicate a lack of masculinity. So, for example, if a man drinking with friends declines another drink, his friends might say “Don’t be such a sheila,” or “What are you, a sheila?”