Australia is in danger of tearing itself apart

In her new book, Liz Truss says she likes Australia and Australians. The country is, she says, ‘like Britain without the hand-wringing and declinism’. But had Truss cared to scratch beneath the surface on her visits Down Under, she might have realised that Australians today are anything but the laid-back, easygoing, and ‘she’ll be right’ society of our national mythology.

Far from it. Australians are struggling to keep a lid on social, political, ethnic and religious tensions reflected in their society. Far from being a united nation, Australia is increasingly a nation of tribes, each sticking with their own, each finding enemies in those different to them, and each unwilling, even refusing, to find common ground with other Australians.

Since the covid years, when Australian governments imposed some of the most authoritarian restrictions in the Western world and were more than willing to play Australians off against each other – denouncing those who didn’t accept their hardline restrictions on personal liberties – Australian society has become more fragmented, intolerant and angry.