I am not sure when it happened, it has been a gradual process, but this year Australia has been overrun by flag-waving, “unaustralian”-chanting,1, Aussie-aussie-aussie oie-oie-oie yobs.
I am in Perth for the summer, and yesterday was Australia Day. There was a vast migration of people from all over the city wrapped in flags and dragging eskies2 down to the foreshore. They were going to watch the fireworks that evening in the oppressive heat, while listening to canned music. At regular intervals, someone would start chanting “aussie-aussie-aussie”, and if you did not respond with “oie-oie-oie” they would declaim you as unaustralian or ask which country you were from. All this while wrapped in a flag made in China, drinking Coke-Cola and eating McDonalds.
Australia Day did not used to be like this. It used to be an occasion for meeting up with friends for a BBQ and drinks. It was an excuse for a public holiday, the ilk with the Queen’s Birthday and the Melbourne Cup public holidays. But as with other aspects of the Australian culture it has been subverted by a dangerous nationalist agenda.
I think what scared me about this was the flag-waving was being done by teenagers, and those in the early twenties. Perhaps now I can finally stop asking how John Howard, and the Liberals, is still in power despite a continuous record of misleading the public. They are still in power because the Australian public keep voting them in. The generation, who will vote for the first time in the next federal election, which way will they swing? I hope that this past Australia Day is not representative of their political bias.
- I am not certain if that should be “unaustralian” or “UnAustralian” - either way, I loathe this word [↩]
- coolers [↩]
