Those of you who have spent time with Australians know that we are not given to overstatement. By nature we are laconic speakers and by conviction we are realistic thinkers.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Australians are very provincial in many ways. If they feel that you've used them as a stepping stone to bigger things, they resent it.
It's an Australian thing to be dismissive. We find that endearing. Americans don't. They believe what you say.
Australians are a fantastic bunch of people but the attention can be overwhelming for someone like me.
The idea of having Australians upset at me is just awful.
I talk about being Australian a lot.
If you're Australian, you feel it in your bones because you're at odds with everybody else, except other Australians, in the sense that people always seem to be behaving strangely. People always seem to be behaving the wrong way, in a different way. You say things and there are silences.
I think the Australian people are very conscientious. During the 1980s and 1990s we proved they will respond conscientiously to necessary reforms. They mightn't like them but they'll accept them. But reforms have to be presented in a digestible format.
It's very easy for Australians living in big cities to either romanticise or demonise the situation in Aboriginal places - to kind of look at things through the 'noble innocents' prism or through the 'chronically dysfunctional' prism, and I suspect that is so often the case.
I think stupid people are surprised that I'm Australian. It's a small-minded; we live in a global community, but I suppose some people still are small-minded.
Australians have a free spirit and an ability to think outside the box, and that is why I like Australia so much.