LIKE THE MEMBERS of every nation, Australians have fairly stable ideas about the kind of people we are, to the point of there being a clichéd sense of national identity. It goes something like this: we are fair and egalitarian; we are friendly and generous; we entertain a larrikin, irreverent streak.

We frequently draw upon this national self-image to explain our success as a multicultural society. Australia has only been able to absorb waves of immigrants from around the world because its people are fair, egalitarian, friendly and generous. And that irreverence towards authority, the story goes, helps make Australian society open and dynamic in ways that others could only dream of emulating.