Kiwi born Aussie here, but i've lived in Australia most of my life so this is the country I know, although I still don't really consider myself an Australian, at least not exclusively. I still hold a NZ passport and NZ citizenship. Most of this stems from the fact that you can live perfectly well in Australia as a NZ citizen with a NZ passport, but a little of it also stems from the things I don't like about this country. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to love, and although I may not be a proud, flag-waving Australian, I am a powerfully proud Melbournian and will love this city till the day I die, but the things I dislike about Australia are everywhere, even in my beloved Melbourne. The first and most obvious is the racism. I know many countries have problems with racism, but at least in places like the U.S. or the U.K. it's seen as something a bit more abnormal. Groups like the KKK or the BNP are demonised for their ultra-prejudiced views, however, in Australia there is no real, over-the-top racist group to associate these people with, and the side-effect of that is that racism becomes more engrained. This is not helped by our history. The White Australia policy is one of the most grossly unjust actions made by a colonial white government, and has tainted our current generations. The effect of this is that racism is considered much more normal in Australian culture, and it may still be only a small percentage of the population who are truly racist, but this group is less organised, and therefore, can integrate themselves into the mainstream persona more easily, resulting in a culture where there is a sickeningly high incidence of racial slurs and shouts of "Go back where ya came from!" among widespread society.
The other main thing I dislike about Australia is the truly idiotic, reactionary attitude of the government, and society as a whole, and I know, for a fact, that New Zealand, at least, does in fact do this better. Whenever a problem comes along, or some kind of hot-bed issue, everyone in government whether they be the right-wing, left-wing, center or whatever, all seem to go for the quickest knee-jerk reaction. And everyone seems to think that more technology=better. No one even stops to think that maybe putting human conductors or guards back onto trams would stop fare evasion, no instead, let's think up an even more expensive and complicated electronic system using the very latest in modern technology, because it's new and modern.
Having said all this, there really is a lot to like about living here, and I genuinely am working on that citizenship application. Australia is a great nation, but it is by no means the best in the world, not by a long shot, but the good thing is, most of the problems are probably not that hard to fix if we simply put more emphasis onto educating people in the right way to do things, instead of passing around stupid political correctness pamphlets that only work to further alienate people. Also I reserve the right as a properly patriotic person to punch in the face any flag-wearing, VB-swilling bogan who gives Aussie patriotism a bad name.
