Asking Davos Man to define Australia is intrinsically stupid and, worse, toxic.
Enter the AFR, which has done just that and delivered absolutely nothing.
Albo wouldn’t know an Aussie if he was punched in the face:
“Australia Day is a day for all Australians to reflect, respect and celebrate. It is a day to come together and celebrate the values, beliefs and freedoms we share,” he wrote, when asked what it means to be Australian this year.
Twiggy gave us a quarterly profits statement (literally from Davos):
“We can have all our ups and downs, all our noisy democracy, all our visceral criticisms and praises of anything which moves. But we’re still Australia, we still are delivering result after result after result.
Lydia Thorpe is worse when she pretends to reconciliation over anger:
“To answer the question of who we are as a nation, we need to come together to grapple with this country’s past, and go on a journey of truth-telling and healing together,” she says.
The Sam Mostyn AI needs some work:
“We can draw on one of the most joyful uniting moments of 2023 for inspiration – the Matildas’ remarkable and audacious campaign in the Women’s World Cup showed us what we’re capable of when we are inclusive, ambitious and authentic, and commit to getting difficult things done, engaging everyone along the way.”
And Peter Dougherty was as vibrant as a fax machine:
“My personal view re the timing of Australia Day is that, though it likely won’t be in my lifetime, we should leave any consideration of changing that date until we redraft the relevant clauses in our current Constitution and become a Republic within the British Commonwealth, if that still exists.”
Being Australian is not what it used to be.
Once, it was to be a blessed outsider with a self-effacing quip, a grounded takedown of the world, admirable cynicism for the great and good, and incredible good fortune in reference to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
These days, it is to be a high-moral hypocrite, rorted by the world, patronised by globetrotting elites, as well as homeless and economically marginalised.
In short, asking Davos Man what it is to be Australian is a corporatised exemplar of a gutted symbolism that exists solely to distract from the failure of Davos Man to fix anything while he enriches himself.
