Australia is a great place to live probably the best country in the world in which to live but that does not make it perfect or above criticism. Having lived here for 16 years and been an Australian national for 14 years the only thing which really troubles me about Oz is the political and social complacency of most people; the following is an e-mail I wrote to a friend in response to his concerns regarding the banning, by stealth, of the importation of specialist minority interest literature.

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The problem, Eric, is that it's not really the government or the Customs you need to challenge it's the appalling apathy consistently practiced by the majority of the population of this country.

Life, on the whole and for most people, is very good in Australia hence the "she'll be right" attitude and, of course, if life is rosy there is no incentive to lobby government or protest against government transgressions providing they don't impact too much upon Mr and Mrs Aussie and those few troublemakers who do protest can be shrugged off as simply... troublemakers. From the government's perspective it's rather like having a pet hamster; keep it well fed, warm and comfortable, don't let it have too much information and, chances are, it won't want to ditch you and find a new master. The system seems to work well.

Actually, Eric, it gets even better for government because a large proportion of the population are pretty thick (by definition half the population are below the average IQ level) so a few rousing stories about child molesters or global warming or the evils of driving 10kph over the speed limit in the tabloid press and television and, immediately, a substantial body of public opinion is behind whatever the "opinion makers" want to happen.

In 2008 we, in Victoria, passed legislation which tossed away rights secured in the Magna Carta 800 years ago (Family Violence Protection Act 2008). A few days ago we brought into being legislation allowing police to search people in a manner which breaches our own (government inspired and introduced) "Victorian Human Rights Charter" - I mean... what the hell is the point of having a "Human Rights Charter" if whenever it gets in the way of police controlling the populous in an oppressive manner you simply pass legislation which ignores it!? That's exactly what a human rights charter is supposed to stop! Did we see letters of protest in the newspapers? Did we see people marching on the streets? De we see thousands of letters of protest sent to MPs? Did we hell!

The upshot of all this, of course, is an insidious loss of freedoms, often in a small way; eg. making areas "Wilderness Areas" ensures virtually no one (except the "Chosen Few") are allowed into them; insisting people have "Police Checks" before being involved in many ordinary activities etc. And the real sadness is that it seems most people think all of this is a "Good Thing".

I believe the reason for such apathy in Australia is that our freedom has never been tested. Democracy fell out of the sky onto this country in 1901 - it was not fought for, blood was not spilled, husbands and sons were not killed, bombs did not fall, invasion was not imminent: for 25 years following this non-event the talk around family dinner tables was *not* about "The War". Children were not raised to understand how lucky they were to be free and taught that if, God forbid, such threats occurred again then they must fight to ensure the freedom of their children - instead they learned that all was rosy in Australia and "she'll be right mate". There is no "national concept" of loss of freedom in this country - such awareness is still very much a part of the national psyches in Europe. Let us hope nothing, in the future, goes wrong and bursts our Australian bubble.