Put on those red shoes and dance

We forget that we didn't hear Australian voices on Australian television until the mid-70s. We don’t realise that we hear fewer Australian voices there today than we did ten years ago.

We don't notice words like hooroo and fair dinkum disappearing from our everyday language. They're being replaced, not with new Australian idioms, but with American ones.

I'm not parochial and I'm not nationalistic. Both things terrify me. So does the fact that it's 2004 and we're heading into an election with the collective memory of a 70s acid casualty, and no one's talking big picture outside of the alliance with the US.

What political leader has a vision for a people who are not afraid of exploring new vistas, of poking the stick and causing trouble because they believe in a better future?

Who's inspiring young people, so they can think and dance outside the parameters of PowerPoint presentations and Playstation 2?

Not because it's good for the economy. Just because it's good.