News Hit

We in Australia are fortunate enough to be fairly well regarded by most other nations, and if not ‘well regarded’ at least treated with a degree of ambivalence. To many we’re a harmless country just out of sight round the back of the planet, filled with dangerous animals and simple but likeable larrikins. We’ve got no sinister grudge against other countries, haven’t really started any wars and, until only recently, we were one of the few nations that hadn't officially pissed off China.

This I fear is changing, and not just because we’ve finally figured out what a foreign policy is, or because certain citizens have developed a propensity for beating up exchange students. No it’s not just because Australia has finally graduated from the kid’s table at the metaphorical planetwide Christmas dinner, but because of some of the distasteful behaviour of our citizens overseas.

I think Australian travellers have gotten a little bit too used to our well received reputation and we’ve taken it for granted. Our heavy drinking but fun and easy going standing is declining to the point where now we’re more like the house guests who’ve long since overstayed their welcome and stolen all of your bar mats… It’s not a case of every Australian overseas giving the country a bad name, but it only takes a few drunken Aussies sprawled across national monuments or spouting culturally insensitive bigotry to do some damage.

At one point these larrikinisms may have been endearing, and anyone who believes we ride kangaroos and are plagued by “drop bears” deserves to be made a fool of. However it’s not these activities I’m opposed too, it's Australians experiencing the “culture” by spending their whole time in Australian bars before tearing up the streets on the way home and alienating all the locals by vomiting on their doorsteps. And I don’t know why some Australians consider it necessary to chant “Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi” EVERYWHERE THEY GO, but it’s starting to get a little bit old. At sporting events I can see the point, but in the streets? Honestly, it’s ridiculous and it’s enough to make any other sober Australians in the area cringe. It is now well and truly testing cultural patiences and makes us come across as arrogant idiots. Now we don’t want that do we?

Perhaps it’s a case of contrast, but being thousands of kilometres from home tends to bring out some bogan-esque behaviour, and it’s not as charming as we seem to think. Now I’m not say we get rid of that quaint rising inflection or anything, but I am saying we’re not as well received as Barry McKenzie once was.

It is almost getting to the point where Australians are being railed against in much the same way as Americans… okay, so not quite that bad, but if this boganry keeps up are we going to have to start saying we’re from New Zealand whenever we travel abroad? I sincerely hope not. After all, that's what Americans do - they claim to be Canadians when they're overseas in order to get a civil response.

So I implore you - when overseas, please think before you speak, respect the locals and don’t make a dick of yourself, because you really are making the rest of us look bad.