Vanilla @ 12:10pm - good grief, but you are HILARIOUS! That comment made me laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh! It made me think of Bob Vance Refrigeration in The Office (US edition). You, dear lady, are a commedienne!

Please email me. audreyandthebadapples@gmail.com - I must be friends with you!

The other Australia!!,
I am migrant, Australian citizen, victim of race discrimination and of cause I will write for the other Australia!!
In theory there are not first and second class citizens, there are not first and second class employees.
Any discrimination against the migrants, is illegal and creates huge problems not only for the victims of race discrimination but for the whole Australia!!
Every one should understand that racist behavior is not only unfair, and illegal but over all it is very dangerous for a country with so many non Anglo Saxon.
It is very bad that Australian political parties, Australian Federal and State Governments do not care enough for our(migrants) rights. The law for the protection of the race discrimination is extremely weak.
For example the banks can claim $10.00 within 7 years, an employee can claim his rights within 6 years, the victims of race discrimination, the weakest part of our society can claim their rights ONLY WITH IN 6 MONTHS. This kind of law do not support the victims of race discrimination and usually the victims avoid to use it.
It is seemed that the victims of race discrimination, sooner or later, have to create their own organizations to promote their basic rights and block the race victimization for the next generations.
I understand that this kind of fight will divide even more (I remind you the Cronula beach, only in 2-3 countries worldwide appeared this kind of racial riots, and the thousands of Australian Lebanese who returned to Lebanon)the Australian society but I do not know if there is any other way.
I heard that if we(migrants) do not like Australia to return back to our countries!!
These racists ignore that we have the same rights with them, that it is our basic right to have and express our personal opinion, to agree or disagree with them.
Every one must understand that we do not intend to abandon our basic rights.
It is very encouraged for us that at least 75% of Australians recognize that we (Australians) are racists.
Antonis Symeonakis
Adelaide

Such a shame that there is discussion on what is "Australian." There is no way to define it, it simply IS or it ISN'T. It is a sad commentary on navel gazing that people, bloggers and Shiraz snobs are desperately seeking to define "Australianism" and lay it out in dot point form, manufacturing arbitrary guidelines. "Australianism" has no definition and, in fact, defies definition.
P'raps to add to the discussion, one could say that "Australianism" doesn't exist at all. All we ever seem to do is import other round-eyed, white-faced fashions, customs, music, gestures and language and accept them as OK.
Think about Christmas when Santa Dressed in arctic style clothing throws lollies to kids from the local fire truck in 30 degree heat as the abominable "White Chrtistmas" booms out for the millionth time. What about the currency we've had for over 40 years - the best we can come up with is to call them "Bucks". Better then Royals, but hardly Australian-ish. Who remembers fivers, quids, zacs. My favourite is the flag, can anyone else cite a country that designed its flag by a newspaper competition?
There are many, many other examples of our aping abilities and dinner table discussion will not make any of them unique. Lets face it, for the first hundred years we aped the Brits, now it's the turn of the Yanks to deliver out customs and language to us.

Personally, on this Australia Day, we should remember the four basic principles of Australian Democracy, as they are the underpinnings for what makes us great.

They are:

1. The government is the ENEMY of the PEOPLE, and can never be trusted.

2. No taxation with or without representation, with any deficiency in government accounts being made up from the sale of politician’s assets.

3. The main problem with elections is that no matter whom you vote for, a POLITICIAN is ALWAYS elected.

4. ALWAYS vote NO at referendums.

If we can remain true to these bastions of our heritage, all will be well.

A nation’s identity is greatly dependent on what is included in its official narrative and what is excluded. This process doesn’t happen automatically. While geography, psychology and archetypes play their part, national identities are mostly manipulated by those who wield power over the shaping of our myths – usually the rich male members of the predominant ethnic, religious or racial group.

Australia’s most powerful myth – the Anzacs – is probably the best example of this manipulation. In reality, Australia in WWI was deeply divided over the war, largely anti-conscription, suffocated by draconian war censorship, and brutalised by laws that treated all war criticism as sedition (even in parliament). Public anti-war rallies routinely drew 5- and 6-figure crowds (in a nation of 4 million). Internments, jailings, home raids and deportations were commonplace.

The true ‘larrikins’ in all of this were the Women’s Peace Army, the Wobblies (International Workers of the World), the trade unions, the (mostly Irish) Catholics, the pacifists (particularly the Quakers) and ordinary people of principle who could see that the war was a sleazy endgame between rival imperialisms to determine who would control the world for the next 50 years. But these heroes have all been surgically removed from the official Australian narrative, in favour of a more sanitised, sacred version – of plucky lads enlisting and dying along with millions of others who answered the call so that we could be free, and a nation who stood united behind them. (Nothing wrong with this version – It’s just that it’s not the full story.)

Similar stories from our history – the indigenous dispossession and struggle for justice, the plight of migrants and refugees, women’s fight for equality, the history of workers’ rights, to name a few – have received the same sanitising treatment whenever they threatened the conservative order. With the increasing centralisation and corporate control of the nation’s media, entertainment and publishing industries, it’s unlikely that this fake national-identity process is going to be reversed any time soon.

Cronulla Beach update. Sat. 10.29 am. Pleasant onshore breeze,warm. Body surfing fanbloodytastic. Beach crowded with bathers,'bakers and boardies; teens and families. Carnival spirit in the air. Really recommend the coffee at Grind, opposite Northies- Richard has few peers in Sydney.

And yes, plenty of navel gazing here too.