What does being Australian mean post coronavirus? Wayne Flower examines the meaning of ‘True Blue’

UnAustralian. 

It’s a term Australians like to use to describe atrocious behaviour. 

In a world post coronavirus, we can just label that kind of behaviour Australian. 

We can’t realistically sit back in our slouch hats, thongs and VB singlets looking down our noses at others anymore and kid ourselves that that is not who ‘we’ really are as a nation. 

John Williamson performs at The Tamworth Town Hall during the 42nd Tamworth Country Music Festival on January 23, 2014. He wrote an iconic song titled ‘True Blue’ which asked what it was to be Australian 

The great Australian spread: Vegemite. Australians like to compare themselves to the beloved spread, as in, 'I'm as Australian as Vegemite'

The great Australian spread: Vegemite. Australians like to compare themselves to the beloved spread, as in, ‘I’m as Australian as Vegemite’

Brawls over toilet paper in Australian supermarkets have become the new image for Australians

Brawls over toilet paper in Australian supermarkets have become the new image for Australians

We all felt pretty good about ourselves hitting ‘donate’ on a screen and flinging a few bucks to the bushfire appeal last month. 

It was a big effort.

It really was. 

Real Australian effort there.  

No-one really cared much in the days and weeks that followed about how the money was spent. 

And when reports emerged that hardly any of the money helped people actually affected by the fires, well, haters are gonna hate. 

People are still living in tents beside the burnt out wreckage of their lives in remote regions of Australia. 

Anyone who dared speak up about the effort was slapped down. 

In 2015, then Prime Minister Tony Abbott dismissed social media as ‘electronic graffiti’.  

He had been responding to the negative comments on social media sites about his decision to award the Queen’s husband, Prince Phillip, an Australian knighthood. 

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott was back in the good books in January when he helped fight Australia's bushfires. In 2015, he was not so popular when he called out social media as 'electronic graffiti'

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott was back in the good books in January when he helped fight Australia’s bushfires. In 2015, he was not so popular when he called out social media as ‘electronic graffiti’

Mr Abbott equated tweets and updates to Texta scrawls on a bathroom wall.

Think what you want about the way Tony Abbott ran the country, but his thoughts on social media have proven to be mostly right. 

Australians are proud on social media. We’re honest, charitable, caring, hard working and fight for the little guy. 

We’re bloody rippers we are. 

True blue bloody Aussies. 

In reality, John Williamson’s iconic 1982 ballad sharing the same name was written on commission for ad-man John Singleton, who wanted music for a new Australiana TV show which never got up.

In 2014, Williamson told the Sydney Morning Herald the song was about caring for one another. 

‘What it means is old fashioned standards where a handshake means something and you care about your neighbours, no matter who they are. It’s an Australian expression but I reckon there are true blue people all over the world,’ he said. 

Forget that we can’t even shake hands anymore.  

Even back in 1982, in a very different world, Williamson seemed to be questioning what being Australian was all about. 

‘Is it me and you,’ he asked in the song. ‘Is it mum and dad? Is it a cockatoo? Is it standing by your mate when he’s in a fight, or will she be right?’

The world has watched Australia destroy its ‘knock about larrikin’ reputation over the past few weeks. 

Social media has been awash with the high and mighty stroking their beards and publishing their thoughts on what to do with these ‘UnAustralian’ cretins. 

Meanwhile they’ve no doubt been stocking their pantries with rubbish that will be there in a year when the madness has subsided. 

Anyone walking along Melbourne’s normally bustling streets will notice that only the  ‘real’ homeless people remain. 

Police officers watch people line up for toilet paper at a Sydney supermarket

Police officers watch people line up for toilet paper at a Sydney supermarket 

People count themselves lucky to grab a few rolls of toilet paper as selfish Australians continue to hoard basic products

People count themselves lucky to grab a few rolls of toilet paper as selfish Australians continue to hoard basic products 

The fakers have all gone home to wipe their bums.  

Punch-ons over dunny paper. 

Wiping supermarkets clean. 

Hoarding. 

During World War I, authorities, as well as the general public, took such a dim view of anyone engaged in it that naming and shaming them in the press was common. 

It was not surprisingly frowned upon at the beginning of World War II. 

Oh how society has changed since then, Australians have liked to have kidded ourselves. 

Save the whales, save the forests, save the world – save yourself. 

Maybe it’s the old court reporter in me, but I’ve always had a good dose of cynical disregard for mankind. 

Australians should feel proud of our diggers who have fought for our way of life. But our way of life at the moment is not what they fought for

Australians should feel proud of our diggers who have fought for our way of life. But our way of life at the moment is not what they fought for

A Blue Heeler could never be called unAustralian - unless he steals your beer

A Blue Heeler could never be called unAustralian – unless he steals your beer 

When you’ve sat up close to humanity’s most evil, vile and ruthless filth as I have over the years, it’s easy to ponder whether we all deserved to die. 

But then again, those who have walked as close to the definition of evil as I have seem to find the good in humanity. 

It is out there. 

Small shop owners fighting to pay their staff. 

Friends exchanging flour for toilet paper. 

A free beer from a pub that will probably be out of business in a week. 

One charity worker told me on Friday that she had been forced to close-up shop. 

There is no longer any toilet paper or tampons to provide the homeless people on Melbourne’s streets. 

She had to let six employees go. 

‘I literally can’t do anything to help anyone anymore,’ she said. 

The servant of Melbourne’s homeless took a $50 voucher into her staff, a loaf of bread and two litres of milk and let them go. 

In Melbourne, people are beginning to organise themselves into online groups to help those around them. 

CareMongering Melbourne only has a couple of hundred members on Facebook, but it is growing steadily. 

The group aims to ensure vulnerable community members have access to food, housing, healthcare, and other necessities and for the ‘redistribution of resources in the case that stockpiling prevents people from accessing basics’. 

People are hurting. Good people are hurting. 

Yet landlords will kick people and shop owners out onto the street over the coming weeks. 

It’s going to get far worse before it gets any better. 

A personal trainer in Italy carries out an exercise class on her balcony for neighbours across the road

A personal trainer in Italy carries out an exercise class on her balcony for neighbours across the road

Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop was an Australian everyone could be proud of. We have liked to have compared ourselves to great people like him, but times have changed

Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop was an Australian everyone could be proud of. We have liked to have compared ourselves to great people like him, but times have changed 

In Italy, where the corona death toll is catastrophic, children stuck at home have been drawing signs with the words ‘Everything will be fine’ and hanging them from windows all across the country.

One commentator in the United States noted that for a society as communal and physical in its affections as Italy, social distancing had been an extraordinary blow. 

‘And yet even with people locked up in their homes away from family and neighbours, a strong sense of solidarity has emerged. Italians know they’ll get through this because they have each other’s back,’ Alice Speri wrote. 

In 1943, Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop commanded the first Australians sent to work on the Thai segment of the Burma Railway. 

A courageous leader and compassionate doctor, he restored morale in those terrible prison camps and jungle hospitals. 

Dunlop defied his captors, gave hope to the sick and eased the anguish of the dying. 

He became, in the words of one of his men, ‘a lighthouse of sanity in a universe of madness and suffering’. 

Just days ago, video emerged showing a Special Air Service operator shooting an unarmed Afghan man three times in the head and chest while he cowered on the ground. 

And the hoarding continues. 

 

 

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