HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY

Saturday 26^th January 2013

We share the date with India as a day of national celebration and most Australians will be sharing the day with friends and family; a day to contemplate the future; to recall the past; to understand what it is to be Australian.

If you talk to almost any Pom they will try to convince you that we are all convicts; they will explain that the only people who went to Australia were convicts or the people to guard them.

Fortunately we have never listened to them – and most likely never will.

The vast majority of white settlers who came to Australia did so without any manacles; did so without being transported; did so by their choice.

These days Australia is made up less than 40% of people who descended from those who came from England – we have taken into our land people from every country in the rest of the world.

For over 50 years we have actively sought the citizens of the world to come to Australia – we haven’t always been as welcoming as we should but we have learnt; today we do welcome those who wish to come and meet the criteria that we have set for our country; we welcome genuine refugees; we are prepared to set our minds to the things the matter to us – not the rest of the world – but we are mindful of our place in a global community.

What exactly is it to be an Australian?

We are a nation of people with a great deal of confidence in our ability to achieve almost anything in life;

we look forward not backward;

we believe that the circumstances in which we are born do not define us for life;

we are not strangled by our history;

we know how to overcome obstacles in our path

we have been the underdog against nature but never against the world;

we believe in ourselves and in our friends;

we support our mates;

we believe in fair play and each other;

we never give up – ever.


Our history has been punctuated by natural adversity; by cooperation and teamwork; by peace and war; by isolation; by discrimination, acceptance and multiculturalism.

We are happy with who we are; with where we are going; with how we decide our future.

Have a great day !!