What makes an Australian? Probably not what you think
- molly510
- Oct 22, 2019
- 1 min read
It's very hard to hear, over our habitually raucous national celebration of larrikins. We know what we like, right?
Prime ministers who sink pints and gamble.
Bushrangers. Cricketers who can down 52 tinnies during a single flight. Cultural sacred-cow-tippers.
Soldiers who did things their own way.
Suffragettes who overturned international conventions about who should be allowed to vote.
The indomitable land-rights activists who refused to be written out of the continent's history. And so on.
The Australian story is a loud and unruly one, full of individuals who looked at the world around them, and decided to break the rules.
Which it's why it's so surprising that when asked to nominate the key element of what it means to be Australian, the most widely agreed-upon response was this: "Respecting our institutions and laws".
Forget larrikins. To be Australian — according to the recipe written by more than 50,000 respondents to the Australia Talks National Survey — the big thing is to follow the rules of the place.
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