And the cleverness of the metaphor goes further, josephine, in that whenever it happens the achievement of a republic will be described as a 'crown fire'.

Ho hum, and not a word about the most vital attribute we have inherited from our British roots; that is their legal system which is nonpareil.

This legal system is also the reason why, as the author, notes, but in an misunderstanding fashion, why:

"Other than the reports from al Jazeera on SBS News, media coverage of the rest of the world comes to us largely from British and American journalists"

The reason for this is the British legal system has allowed the evolution of the concept of the freedom of the press and general freedom of expression within the wider community.

The other totalitarian social systems, either of the left or religious based, suppress such social advantages. Which explains why this government is in favour of suppressing freedom of the press via the Finkelstein report.

Well I certainly hope you are wrong James O'Neill. From my experience the last thing you want is to have our culture morph into something similar to our Asian neighbours, or to that of some of the more distant places our "refugees" are coming from.

I have not seen much kindness on the streets of Indonesia or India, or the other Asian countries of which I have experience. From recently returned people, Afghanistan does not have much milk of human kindness, & middle eastern cultures seem happy to see the weakest riped off unmercifully.

If you want a kind Oz, you would be best advised to stop all immigration immediately, before our existing culture is swamped by too many from such places.

My European forbears were in the main, Irish and Scots. They lived through a time when speaking your own language was a crime punishable by death or transportation.
Many of them had their property and possessions confiscated by legalised methods.
Foreign Churches and their tithes were imposed on the native populations, and if those tithes weren't met, the very farm animals that made their miserable lives actually possible, were confiscated, leaving them with little other choice but to steal to survive!
Highlanders, were forcibly relocated to much poorer less fertile coastal areas, and their crofts turned into sheep farms.
Many died or were forced into a life of petty crime, poaching etc, in order to simply survive.
An Irish ancestor, was transported for stealing a pair of shoes!
It might be argued that the sense of fair play and completely non partisan, totally independent courts arrived here, via the British colonial service, often populated by Scots, Welsh and Irish personal?
They were the ones, I believe, who invested their morals into those things their English Lords and Masters, merely gave lip service to?
It is a reported fact that around 40% of Australians have Irish ancestry? Add in the Scots and Welsh and our Celtic roots probably outweigh our Anglo-Saxon roots 2 to 1?
Which probably explains our very evident and inherent pleasure, whenever we beat the Poms at cricket, or anything else.
I believe it is time for all the forelock tugging and cultural cringing was put to bed. And we stood up on our hind legs and declared we were a republic, with very little in common, with the English and their Monarchy.
The Queen is not a young person, and it might be argued, has served us and our notion of democracy reasonably well.
So, it probably would do no harm and a mark of respect, to wait until she "retires", before we declare ourselves a republic, and invested our own sense of inherent fair play, into our democracy, proportional representation, bill of rights, rule of law, etc/etc.
Rhrosty

Hear, hear Rrosthy. Isn't it embarrassing when a bunch of Australians wax lyrical about all things British without knowing much of English history, or even their own? And absolutely nothing whatsoever of histories from other nations. Or their legal systems for that matter