This is why those of progressive mind shouldn’t despair, arid as this period is. Because in the end, the vapid and heartless messages of the militant conservatives will fail to make headway. Always confronting them will be these things. Who are we? Can we borrow the monarch of another country perpetually? Can we go to the region and say we’ve turned a new leaf but, by the way, we never got to a proper basis of reconciliation with our indigenes? How do we find our security in the region rather than from the region? How do we make our multiculturalism work better? How do we make everyone feel as though they belong, that the place, truly is, for all of us?

These questions remain on the agenda; unsatisfied perhaps and unattended. But still sitting there.

Paul Keating in 2003 on the Australian identity. Other than one brief, glorious moment almost four years ago, things feel like they’ve gotten far worse since then. Back then we had a bogey man to rally against—now we’re stuck with a feckless government and an even worse opposition.