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In Australia it is now politically incorrect for patriots to celebrate Australia Day, the national holiday which marks the arrival of the First Fleet from England. Progressives want to call it Invasion Day or Survival Day to describe the dispossession of the original inhabitants of the continent. My preference is for more attention to be placed on the fact that January 26 is also General Douglas MacArthur's birthday. Not everyone agrees but to me he was a great man. Belittling the heroes of The West is not for me. There is so much to learn from them.

Happy Australia Day to our readers Down Under. The future shows up so fast in Oz that it's already Post-Australia Day in Australia, but the national holiday takes longer to work its way around to my neck of the woods, and the great merit of our tardy overseas jubilations is that they don't seem to be afflicted by the paroxysms of self-loathing, virtue-signaling and guilt-tripping with which the Aussie media now observe the occasion (which may be why my old chum Julie Bishop is celebrating the day from the safe distance of Earl's Court). Anyway, this is the first Australia...

The Australian government came under mounting pressure on Australia's national day on Tuesday to appoint an Australian head of state to replace the British monarch. Every Australia Day, an eminent Australian citizen is made Australian of the Year in recognition of his or her contribution to Australian society. The 2016 Australian of the Year, former Chief of Army David Morrison, said in his acceptance speech on Monday night that he intended to use his new public profile to campaign for Australia severing its constitutional ties to Britain. ...

Along with traditional Australia Day events, the First Fleet's arrival in 1788 has been marked in typical larrikin fashion with cockroach races, a ute muster and even an underground citizenship ceremony. It may be an odd location but becoming an Australian citizen deep inside Brisbane's first major road tunnel gave 55 new Aussies a good yarn to tell their grandkids. The ceremony was one of 350 welcoming a record 16,500 people from 144 countries, making 2010's celebrations the biggest ever. The National Australia Day Council says about six million people flocked to thousands of formal and fun events across the...

Today is Australia Day, when Australians celebrate that first English landing in 1788. It is a day of celebration of all things Australian, and when some Australians are honoured for the work that they do. I have included a distinctly Australian song, John Williamson's True Blue.

AUSTRALIA Day marks the real start of the year in this country: once tomorrow's holiday is out of the way, the nation gets down to the serious business of work and school after the summer break. This year, the celebratory mood is likely to linger longer thanks to the upswing in the economy and a growing confidence in the future after a year of living anxiously in the shadow of a global downturn. The year begins with real hope that economic stability and strength will nurture the social coherence and health that must be the core goal of any modern...

A RECORD 500,000 workers took a sickie yesterday to celebrate Australia Day and have earned the reputation of "un-Australian bums". The four-day weekend some Australians have given themselves has cost the nation about $250 million. And another 100,000 are expected to take tomorrow off as they wake with Australia Day hangovers. Absenteeism management firm Direct Health Solutions' director Paul Dundon said many workers found themselves in an unfortunate situation this week with the return of school on Thursday and a public holiday mid-week.

HE shot to public prominence in 2001 with a courageous and principled stand on the "children overboard" affair, contradicting the Howard government's claims of children being thrown off a leaky refugee boat wallowing off the northwest coast. Now Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston was characteristically gracious about his latest award, the Companion of the Order of Australia in the military division. .... "We've had a very high level of operational tempo -- close to 20,000 individual deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, East Timor and Solomon Islands; indeed, many other places. We've conducted 35 operations in...

ACTOR Nicole Kidman, TV legend Graham Kennedy and anti-malaria pioneer Charles Blackburn join more than 650 people on the Australia Day honour roll. Lieutenant-Governor Lady Southey AM is the only Victorian to receive the top accolade, the Companion of the Order of Australia (AC). The widow of former federal Liberal president Sir Robert Southey is honoured for her support of charitable organisations, including 30 years of ferrying polio patients to and from hospital. Kidman is among eight awarded the top honour. The gong also went to Emeritus Prof Charles Blackburn, ED, who pioneered the treatment of malaria, helping Australian troops...

Australia Day. Celebrate what's great. Australia Day, January 26, is the biggest day of celebration in the country and is observed as a public holiday in all states and territories. On Australia Day we come together as a nation celebrate what's great about Australia and being Australian. It's the day to reflect on what we have achieved and what we can be proud of in our great nation. It's the day for us to re-commit to making Australia an even better place for the future. What's great about Australia? There are many great things about this country: The people -...

Subject: FW: Happy Australia Day 26th January 2004 WE ARE ONEWe are the people of a free nation of blokes, sheilas and the occasional wanker. We come from many lands (although a few too many of us come from New Zealand), and although we live in the best country in the world, we reserve the right to bitch and moan about it whenever we bloody like.We are One Nation but divided into many States.First, there's Victoria, named after a queen who didn't believe in lesbians. Victoria is the realm of Mossimo turtlenecks, cafe latte, grand final day, and big horse...