I鈥檝e often heard it asked, 鈥淚s Australia a racist country?鈥 only for the question to be railroaded by a series of semantics: 鈥淲hat does that even mean?鈥; 鈥淗ow can a country have a collective mindset?鈥; and 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 confer a universal attitude onto a population of 24 million, surely?鈥
Politicians and commentators tell us there are such things as Australian values. The same quibbling arguments about whether Australia is collectively racist apply to so-called national values.