Tony Shepherd: We should celebrate a great and successful Australia and what it has achieved

Australian businessman Tony Shepherd explains what he loves about Australia — and why we still have a lot of work to do. See why.

I have lived, worked in and visited many countries all over the world and I am proud and pleased that I am an Australian.

I grew up in a country which was recovering from two terrible world wars initiated by evil megalomaniacs. We lost many young men and, in World War I, a whole generation. Australia in the 1940s and 1950s was also still recovering from the Great Depression.

With the benefit of strong and ambitious post war leaders, Australia developed and implemented policies to make us self-sufficient and to grow quickly – with a focus on innovation, science, education and training, industrialisation and an ambitious immigration program which brought us the skills and workers we so desperately needed.

We were the third country to successfully launch our own satellite. We pioneered WiFi, invented the first drone in the pilotless Jindivik aircraft, and developed the first effective over the horizon radar. We also invented the Hills Hoist and the Victa Rotary Lawn Mower.

In a humanitarian sense, we welcomed refugees fleeing from the horrors of Nazism and communism and subsequently also those escaping from the world’s new and dangerous megalomaniacs.

Tony Shepherd is “proud and pleased” to be an Australian. Picture: Justin Lloyd

My ancestors in coming to Australia were fleeing poverty and looking for opportunity when they tossed the coin and took the risk of moving to this new country in the hope of a better future for their children. Mission accomplished.

On my mother’s side, my great (x4) grandmother Mary Thomas and her husband Robert from Fleet Street in London arrived in Glenelg, SA, in 1836 on the SS Africaine with their three young children. Initially they lived in a tent.

I am very proud of Mary, who was a poet and a writer. Mary was a passionate supporter of the rights and wellbeing of indigenous Australians. She was highly critical of some of the settlers and of the government – both locally and in Great Britain – for the appalling treatment of the indigenous occupants. The Thomas printing business suffered as a result of this criticism of government but Mary did not waiver.

While I am very proud to be an Australian, I believe we must do more to directly assist our indigenous sisters and brothers. That does not mean spending more and more on talkfests. Our focus must be on direct help to the young indigenous in terms of their health, education, wellbeing and opportunity while at all times respecting their culture and history and listening to the elders. That means less talky talky and much more walky walky.

“The things I love about Australia are manifold.” Picture: Jonathan Ng

The things I love about Australia are manifold but those which stand out are:

● Our belief in the fair go for everybody.

● Our Christian-based principle of love thy neighbour.

● A healthy disrespect for elites and authority, coupled with faith in the law.

● A quick and irreverent sense of humour which at times can be cheerfully self deprecating.

● A female population that fearlessly coped with the challenges of settlement in a strange country. My grandmothers were excellent examples – and their traits have been imprinted on my mother, my four strong-willed sisters, my daughters and my granddaughters.

● Our obsession with sport which captures us very early in life in our home backyard and is the foundation of our good health, competitiveness and social structure.

We should celebrate such a great and successful country and what it has achieved and its values. We are not perfect but we are always trying, and we have a lot of work to do in this volatile and at times dangerous world. A country that is not loved by its citizens will fail and leave itself vulnerable to the false prophets and social media.

Originally published as Tony Shepherd: We should celebrate a great and successful Australia and what it has achieved