That is why the term has so much currency at the moment. It is fired as a common term of censure across a political no-man's land of social justice, where Indigenous rights, multiculturalism and Asian immigration are both attacked and defended by appeal to the same catchcries of fairness and equality. The real problem in Australia lies in the lack of a commonly understood meaning for these words. Essentially two broad concepts of equality are in dispute in Australia today. Formal equality and substantive equality.
Formal equality is as simple and as obvious as the Earth is flat.
It asserts that everybody should be treated in exactly the same way. Sameness of treatment is equated with fairness of treatment. On the other hand, substantive equality recognizes difference and responds to it. The object of substantive equality is to achieve equity in outcomes. The focus is on fairness in results.