Opinion: Despite our faults, we’re still the lucky country

Those who pull down statues and decry Australia Day only alienate the decent majority whose support they need, writes Mike O’Connor.

There’s a lot to like about this place we call home.

I love its sense of space. Our larger cities may teem, but an escape from the madness of the crowds is never more than an hour’s drive distant.

I love the unique blend of self-deprecation and sarcasm that is the mark of our national sense of humour. It still exists, thank God. It may be threatened by the tendency of some to take themselves far too seriously, but that delightful dismissal of the self-important with a quick “Mate, stop being a wanker!” remains as effective a put-down as ever it was.

We’ve witnessed the rise of victimhood in more recent times, as people craving attention and sympathy attempt to blame everyone but themselves for their lack of achievement.

They are a minority, albeit a noisy one. Let them whine. The great mass of Australians can see through them, and politicians who pay them too much heed risk the wrath of this majority.

There’s an easygoing sense of freedom that exists here despite the nanny state regulations in which our politicians entangle us.

Australia Day revellers in Sydney’s Gordon Bay yesterday. Picture: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images

We have elected some duds over the years, at all levels of government, and it could be argued that we have more than our fair share today, but they come and they go, historical footnotes most of them, forgotten as they breathe their last and life goes on.

“Bloody politicians,” we say as they promise to do all those things they promised to do the last time they wanted our vote, and which remain undone.

Most Australians are good people who believe in doing the right thing by their fellows.

There are those who don’t, and who think that what belongs to others is theirs to take, or that incivility and rudeness can be excused.

They are losers, and always will be, outcasts by their own hand.

When I was very young, I listened to my parents talking and discovered that the population of the nation was divided into racial groups.

All of these groups were viewed with some suspicion by our tribe, with the Poms, despite being whiter than white, getting the thumbs-down because of their treatment of our Irish ancestors.

We’ve come a long way. We’ve become a blend and prospered like few nations on Earth because of it, and I get annoyed when people attempt to play the race card in this country because it insults us all.

There are those who would pull down statues, decry Australia Day, burn the flag and ignore the soaring achievements of our forefathers.

The great sadness is that theatrics like dropping to one knee are seen as the empty tokenism that they are.

They alienate the support that those who indulge in them will ultimately need if they want to democratically effect changes to policies to which they object.

The ethos of the fair go is still strong in this country, but giving the finger to all of us who believe in it, have grown up with it and practise it, is not the way to go.

It’s a strange place, Australia, a faraway land to most of the world’s population, a nation of kangaroos, koalas, shark attacks, the Opera House and Bondi Beach.

We’re surrounded by this large moat which has guaranteed us our unique place in the sun. The clouds of the pandemic may have cast a shadow over our daily lives, but is there anywhere else on Earth that you would rather live?

A villa in Tuscany or Bordeaux or a Greek island retreat would be lovely when the health crisis passes, but only if I’m holding a return ticket, because when you take the broad view, this is the place to be.

I joined up with two mates for a road trip recently – Charleville, Windorah, Betoota, Birdsville, Nockatunga, Hungerford, Cunnamulla, St George and several places in between.

I stood on sand dunes and watched the sun set over desert that seemed to stretch forever, and drank beer with locals whose laconic humour was as dry as a stone.

City folk, bush folk, any folk. We all, to some extent, share in the good fortune to be Australians. Some might seem to have more than their fair share of this fortune. It has ever been thus and always will.

But we’re on a good thing here, you and me, in this place called Australia, so let’s not stuff it up.