Comments on: Are giant spiders on the Aussie Guardian menu?

By: Colleen Murrell

Colleen Murrell — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 05:32:05 +0000

In this week’s “Women’s Weekly” Portia DeGeneres talks of Australian spiders “like dinner plates” (p. 32). Some people think it’s Poms who spread these stories. #justsaying

By: green-orange

green-orange — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 04:24:15 +0000

The Guardian is about to launch an Australian version ; this was simply ordered so they could get a lot of hits from Australia to interest advertisers.

No one has mentioned that the author doesn’t even live in Australia, only western NZ…….

By: Colleen Murrell

Colleen Murrell — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 01:13:28 +0000

G2 must have shrunk if that was a whole page article - but you are there and I am not. I’m afraid I only saw it in Australia where it was grouped under the ‘Comment is Free’ section. Luckily I have developed a thick skin Guy or I would find your comments unnecessarily unpleasant. But then I’ve been on the receiving end of a fair bit of pommy taunting over the years over here in your fair country. The funny thing is by roots I’m actually Irish. Have a nice weekend!

By: floorer

floorer — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 11:09:16 +0000

rundle all I think when you pick on Colleen is why are you so toey.

By: Guy Rundle

Guy Rundle — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 10:16:45 +0000

colleen
the article may have been grouped under ‘comment is free’ online, but it was a full page article in the ‘G2’ section of the print Guardian. i can assure that Earl was paid in full for it.
Are you digging yourself into a hole so deep that you can call it a tunnel and see light at the end of it?

By: floorer

floorer — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:39:49 +0000

Australian msm is largely prosaic, Guardian is largely not. Guardian wins.

By: Hamis Hill

Hamis Hill — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 00:44:03 +0000

Didn’t that famous Pom state: “For every Bash there is an equal and opposite Bash”?
Don’t get too precious, it’s un Australian.

By: Hamis Hill

Hamis Hill — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 00:26:16 +0000

An Australian acquaintance, who as a Merchant Seaman took extended leave in the UK, told me that, in consequence of all the Pommy bashing and “Pommy Bastard” hate he’d been brought up on, thought that he’d have to fight his way out of any pub he revealed his identity in.
Instead, he related that whereever he went outside London he was regaled as a long lost son and never had to buy a drink.
Not what he was brought up to expect.

By: Hamis Hill

Hamis Hill — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 00:06:10 +0000

Chips, surely your opinion is that The Guardian falls over itself to portray a particular version of Australia in a condescending light; in your valid, direct experience as a UK resident.
However the narrative of recent decades revolves around the struggle of Australians to achieve a clear and independent national character.
Pommy Bashing used to be one of those attempts at differentiation.
All and sundry in this state of flux seek to define Australia on their own terms: taking Miranda Devine, a staunch and proud colonial Irish Catholic, who constantly denigrates, in her newspaper articles, the distress felt by New “Pommy Bastards” at finding themselves in a strange land, as evidence that Australia is not “British” anymore.
Devine’s default position that Australia is now, then, a part of that great Irish Catholic Empire.
Australians are constantly being “got at” in this manner by foreign cultural chancers seeking to dictate who Australians are and what Australia is.
All on the negative basis that because Australia is not British no Brits in Australia can be Australian and while Devine can openly celebrate her cultural peculiarities here, Poms have to shut up or go home.
And take all their shared Australian and British history with them?
Gee, that would be very convenient for those intent upon driving us towards a Banana Republic status.
Do Australians, of any cultural heritage, need to countenance this dispossession of any Australian heritage?
No-one here is telling Devine, in particular, to abandon her proud Irish Catholic Empire world view, so why does she deny the same right to others, all attempted under this false, unfinished cloak of Australian nationalism?
Hoefully, Chips, you are not one of those paranoids who hangs out in an Aussie Ghetto in London, and then goes on to pretend that you know all about the British.
That would be like a refugee from Afghanistan, marooned in Rooty Hill for a few years, claiming to then know everything about Australia.

By: Colleen Murrell

Colleen Murrell — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 00:02:04 +0000

Well Chips, all I am saying is the article/blog/commentary by the freelance writer should be put into context rather than being cited as a genuine Guardian paid-for article and used to fan flames against a bit of upcoming competition. But I agree with you that incorrect/snidey coverage of your home country can be very tiresome. Living over here I read quite a lot of it.

By: Chips

Chips — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 22:00:20 +0000

Colleen, Guy’s point remains. The Guardian falls over itself to portray Australia in this condescending light. If you’re not in the UK experiencing this coverage as an Australian (rather than as a Brit in Australia who’s probably produced similar shite in past roles) then it’s difficult to understand how tiresome it is.

By: Colleen Murrell

Colleen Murrell — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:02:23 +0000

Well perhaps you should have been a little more clear - the “article” was actually under on the website under a banner called “Comment is free” which wd suggest it is a piece of writing which probably didn’t even earn the writer any money.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/25/emigrate-australia-be-warned?INTCMP=SRCH

By: Guy Rundle

Guy Rundle — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:26:27 +0000

i didnt say she was a guardian journo, colleen - which was why i put the emphasis on whichever editor thought the piece was worth a run

By: Colleen Murrell

Colleen Murrell — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:36:32 +0000

The article by Rae Earl was a load of nonsense but let’s get the facts right - she is not a Guardian journalist. She appears to be a freelance writer, living in some exotic place called Tasmania.

By: Hamis Hill

Hamis Hill — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:42:50 +0000

Exceeding strange how, after founding the joint and continuing to export millions of its subjects here, the British somehow know nothing about Australia.
Got a good share of Irish in ya, Rundle?
There’s a fecund stereotype for you to exploit in future insulting articles.
The cultural cringers are far more deadly (to the brain cells) than giant spiders.
The bigger problem is how few Australians appear to know anything at all about the “Mother” country.
Is that inherited “insularity” perhaps?
But if you don’t go (to the UK) you won’t know.
But, why even care? Australia is completely culturally self-sufficient and does not need to cultivate the good regard of foreigners.
And the only authentic Australians are routinely treated like garbage, which tells visitors all they need to know.
And the locals don’t even know that their flag is actually multicultural. Duh?
But it always was a repository for people with no inheritance?
The much touted alternative to the Mudorch monopoly is tainted by ignorant prejudice?
And vice versa?
Rundle the Pommy Basher! How f-cking pathetic.

By: ggm

ggm — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 07:13:58 +0000

A second comment. my partner, who is australian born and bred, said of the UK “I like the sexism of australia better: at least you know they are objectifying you” and I think this goes to the substance of the problem. The guardian probably did want to claim a higher moral ground, and what she says rings true: you get a lot of apparent equality in the UK but under the cover, its the same class of bias as we have here, except here, its sometimes more overt.

better? worse? different.

By: ggm

ggm — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 07:11:50 +0000

As a disclaimer I am a dual UK-Aus citizen of some 25 years residence in each country.

So if I say that there *is* a huge amount of casual racism inherent in Australia, its not because I think the UK is any better: I know its not, its just *different*.

Why do people feel they need to say this? Because some Australian culture is in denyal about the residual racist element in our culture.

Rather than doing a tit-for-tat response “your mother smells” it might pay to try and take a 10,000 ft view, and ask “what is it, about australia, that makes it such a nice place, but yet we still have a certain lack of sensibility around wogboy jokes” or “how come the cronulla riots still happen when everyone is a new arrival” or “why do we love objectifying islam” or a heap of questions. Sure. the Uk does it too. Does it excuse it here? no.

By: Roberto Tedesco

Roberto Tedesco — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 06:52:40 +0000

I don’t think this person’s article is a lot to worry about - the phrase “small business owner” on top of a whole bunch of hoary cliches just about clinches it. I seem to recall there was a series of articles on British expats before Christmas, so it’s all ground that’s been covered recently, and doubtless will be again.

If this person were to be a regular contributor to Guardian Australia I don’t think I’d want to know.

By: Tim nash

Tim nash — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 06:40:15 +0000

It is funny when you read these articles, about Australians.

It’s easy to get frustrated, but you need to be inside the looking glass of a tabloid newspaper.

The Daily Telegraph have been guilty of writing more than one of the old ‘whinging pom’ articles.

It’s really just base drivel for the masses.

By: Patrick Brosnan

Patrick Brosnan — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 05:57:42 +0000

English drama is total rubbish: Midwives, New Tricks, Hustle? The advertisements on the ABC are enough to make you vomit. The comedy is generally better though.

By: mikeb

mikeb — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 04:48:49 +0000

Rae must have the job from heaven. Writing for a UK mag from Hobart. The taxi-driver story might be partly true as you’ll find a much higher % of non-immigrant drivers and “decor” is certainly not a rare word in folksey old Hobart I’d have thought. As for spiders - if I saw one of those down here I’d be packing bags for old blighty quick smart.

By: Mike Flanagan

Mike Flanagan — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 04:46:33 +0000

Guy; Thanks for another well presented article, but I have to say you appear to be overly prescious and perhaps a little cynical about the bloody poms and their press.
We do give ‘em a ‘little’ stick overhere and I cannot imagine the Guardian escaping our cynicism and sarcastic wit.

By: Son of foro

Son of foro — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 04:17:02 +0000

The CiF section of the Guardian is a shocker. It doesn’t matter what the article is within three comments there’ll be some holier than thou liberal revealing their disgust at the racist they saw in a pub in Warracknabeal in 1975. Not to mention their complete ignorance as to the cultural make up of modern day Australia.

Such is their desperation to prove how right on they are even the Black Saturday coverage was taken over by these heartless freaks. People dying? Who cares, I need to prove my political superiority!

Anyway, is Neighbours worse than Mind Your Language?

By: Andybob

Andybob — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 04:05:47 +0000

On the plus side there doesn’t seem to have been any leadership speculation …

By: JacetheAce

JacetheAce — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 03:43:18 +0000

British TV drama is much, much better than Australian TV. But British programs are sold throughout the world and everyone with a TV has to pay a licence fee to pay for the BBC, so it can afford to be a lot better.