We’re lucky – but not serious

This week has given us a bit of a snapshot of Australia in 2023.  And what does that snapshot show?  We might be a lucky country – but we’re not a serious country.

(Although I should qualify the word ‘lucky’.  ‘Luck’ implies we had nothing to do with our success – but that’s wrong.  Australia was built as a serious of choices  – sometimes the choices were forced upon us – but they were choices just the same.  Democracy, freedom of speech and religion, the civic equality of all Australians, and the rule of law were choices we made.  Previous generations didn’t have the choice to live through two world wars and a depression – but they did make choices about the lessons they learned from their experiences.)

This week we learned power bills will increase by another 25% next year; that during Covid the Department of Home Affairs was working with technology companies to censor Australians’ social media posts; and that Ian Harrison, a New South Wales Supreme Court judge sent an email to Pat Conaghan, federal MP accusing him of racism because Conaghan opposes the Voice.