This little phrase from their song, and lots of others, has been floating on the airwaves as we have celebrated Australia Day 2016.                                                     

We can see it as a nice little tune, or we can look underneath the words and explore what it really means.

Aboriginal elder Noel Pearson has said: “Australia Day should be a day to celebrate our indigenous heritage, our British inheritance and our multicultural achievement.” 

 We are still waiting for recognition in the constitution of our indigenous first people who were here long before the first fleet arrived.

Those early boat arrivals were certainly British, but we can’t lose sight of the hundreds of Irish convicts consigned to Australia often for trivial breaches of the law, who advanced to become Australian citizens and married and raised their families here.

Probably the greatest influx of overseas migrants would have been after WW II when large numbers of Europeans came here seeking a better life.

Later, there were migrants from Vietnam and various parts of Asia, and ever since, a continuous and steady stream of people seeking to become Australian. Some of these arrive as migrants, while others are refugees and asylum seekers risking their lives to escape the horrors of war and oppression in their homelands. 

Why it takes so long to process their applications, and the need to keep them incarcerated in punitive and horrific places is beyond my understanding.

No matter their colour, race or creed, all these people are firstly human beings and as such are entitled to respectful and humane treatment.                              Orange is certainly a multicultural city, and we need to maintain our public and private stance without singling out any particular race, colour or creed as anathema. 

So  - let us get on with the task of being Australian in its best and most challenging ways,  not just for one day in the year - but every day.