2. Australians drink Fosters and consume a lot of beer.
Contrary to the popular commercial for Fosters beer on American T.V. baring the slogan: “Fosters, Australian for beer,” Fosters is rarely consumed in Oz and largely unpopular compared with most other beers. The advertisements imply the beverage is quintessentially Australian when actually it is owned by British brewing group SAB Miller and manufactured in Europe. Moreover, while binge drinking does occur among our young ******, compared with other countries, Australia is actually ranked 44th on the global alcohol consumption ladder, with American not too far behind. Australia also has an extensive wine culture, home to some of the most prestigious wineries around the world.
3. Australia has a Bill of Rights and a pristine human rights record.
Unlike most other liberal democracies, Australia does not have a Bill of Rightsin a single document protecting human rights. Instead, a limited number of civil liberty protections are found in the Constitution (including the right to trial by jury and the right to freedom of religion) as well as protection in legislation and common law. What’s more, our human rights record is far from perfect. Just ask the thousands of refugees and asylum seekers arbitrarily subject to mandatory immigration detention, some held indefinitely, in prison-like conditions without any right to due process. Dubbed as a flagrant disregard for human rights, Australia has been found guilty of 150 international law violations over refugee detentions. Our treatment of indigenous Australians isn’t much better. The Australian government only issued an official apology in 2008 for the past wrongs that the government inflicted upon the indigenous Aboriginal population, particularly the “Stolen Generations” comprising of thousands of ******** forcibly removed from their families from 1907-1970. Today, our prison rate is a national shame with 97 percent of prison populations in the Northern Territory comprising of indigenous juveniles.
4. A koala is a bear and kangaroos literally roam the streets.
One of the greatest misconceptions about Oz is when people refer to koalas as koala bears. While a koala may look like a bear, it is in fact a marsupial mammal and related to kangaroos and wombats. So how did this fable begin? When European settlers set foot in Australia, they thought koalas looked like cute bears so they labeled them accordingly. As for kangaroos, they most certainly do not wander city sidewalks in Australia, nor save people’s lives or guide them through the bush to safety, as portrayed in the popular 1960s television show Skippy. In fact, the recent worldwide news of a kangaroo entering the Melbourne Airport chemist only went viral because such an occurrence is so unusual. In reality, the only place a tourist is likely to run into a kangaroo is at the zoo or in a trek across the desert.
5. Australians live in the outback
Thanks to Hollywood blockbusters like the movie Australia, most Americans think Aussies live in the arid wasteland and are rugged bushmen who hunt crocodiles and argue over the size of a knife. That’s not a knife!However, the majority of Aussies are actually urban dwellers. Despite the fact that the “outback” spans over a million square miles, 90 percent of the population lives on the coastline. Over half of Australia’s 23 million population live in the <a href="https://en.wiki