A poll of 1,003 Australians released this week found 91 per cent of Australians are proud of their country. Yet you wouldn't know that's how Australians think given the way the new Australian of the Year speaks.
David Morrison, the former head of the army, characterised Australia along the lines of the now all-too-familiar trope, saying, "We hold people back in this country for the most peculiar of reasons — their gender or the god they believe in or the colour of their skin or sexual orientation." It was a theme he has reinforced at every opportunity.
Yes, we have our challenges, but for the 2016 Australian of the Year to make as his central message the claim we're a country plagued by sexism, bigotry, and racism makes Morrison a parody. Most Australians have a better appreciation than David Morrison of how fortunate they are to live in this country.
Eighty-one per cent of Australians believe "the world would be a better place if other countries were more like Australia". The ability to complain about your government and your country is a hallmark of a liberal democracy. Those such as David Morrison and a previous Australian of the Year Adam Goodes should always be allowed to speak their mind. What they shouldn't have is the status accorded to them by a special accolade.
Morrison was declared Australian of the Year by a government-appointed committee. The chair of that committee is Ben Roberts-Smith, a winner of the Victoria Cross. It's disappointing that a person as good as Roberts-Smith presided over a process that pronounced as Australia's pre-eminent citizen someone eager to turn themselves into a political activist.
OUTDATED IDEA
The concept of Australian of the Year might once have had some currency. Now it just serves as a platform for activists to criticise the country they live in. Australian of the Year is an idea whose time has passed and the title should be abolished.
Ninety-two per cent of Australians believe their country is better than most others, but you wouldn't know it from the way the premiers speak. All the state and territory leaders announced this week they want Australia's successful and stable system of government to replaced by a republic.
The Australian Republican Movement says we should change because "we live in Asia, an area of the world that has dispensed with colonialism". That's true. Many Asian countries have replaced colonialism with corruption, cronyism and one-party rule. Whatever the reasons we should be a republic, the attempt to make Australia more like Asia is not one of them.
The state premiers are making it hard for those of us who think federalism is important and who believe state governments should have more power, not less.
Up until this week the sole contribution the premiers had made to the recent public debate was to argue for higher taxes. Now they want a republic.
If all the the state and territory leaders were Labor, such foolishness from them would be understandable. But they're not. Half of them are Liberal. If higher taxes and the republic are what premiers devote their energies to these days, maybe it's time for federalists to admit defeat and do what Bob Hawke wants, which is do away with the states altogether.
Under John Howard and Peter Costello, the Liberal Party could be relied upon to be a bulwark against foolishness. Whether that's still true is an open question. On Wednesday this newspaper's editorial noted perceptively that "gay marriage, Indigenous recognition and the republic will involve a fight for the Liberal soul". That's true. The Liberals seem no less obsessed with these issues than the Labor Party.
If the Liberals had a comprehensive reform agenda for lowering taxes, reducing government spending, restoring freedom of speech as Tony Abbott promised he'd do, and implementing a flexible industrial relations system, then maybe the Liberals could indulge themselves the luxury of debating matters which are a long way from the Liberals' core mission.
Talking endlessly about the republic is easy. Cutting the size of government is hard. At the moment the Liberals are taking the easy way out.
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