The last few paragraphs of The National Press Club Address yesterday by Richard Flanagan, one of the greatest Australians living.
I didn't listen but have just read the full transcript, it is a cracker.
Full transcript here, from Today's Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/austral...-press-club-speech-full-politics-black-comedy
"Definitions belong to the definer not the defined. For 20 years Australians lived with the definition that they were selfish, xenophobic, self-interested and incapable of being roused on larger issues.
But the marriage equality debate proved it was not so. Since the marriage equality vote it’s clear that Australians are not the mean and pinched people we had been persuaded and bluffed for so many years that we were.
We are not small-minded bigots. We are, as it turns out, people who care. We are people who feel and who think. Australia is not a fixed entity, a collection of outdated bigotries and reactionary credos, but rather the invitation to dream, and this country – our country – belongs to its dreamers.
And if after more than 20 years of groundhog day we are finally ready to once more go forward as a people it’s time our dreamers were brought in from the cold, and with them Galarrwuy Yunupingu’s great gift of the Australian dreaming."
Flanagan has the breadth and depth of knowledge of history, people and, Australia to speak precisely and with authority on these subjects.
I have long admired him (And his brother) for his ability to put into words, exactly how I think and feel, particularly as a proud Australian.
