I’m sick of all the faux-cynical anti-Australian rants each Australia Day. Sure, I used to engage in it too, but acting above it all endlessly gets old.

Instead, I’m going to rattle-off some genuine points of what makes me happy to be an Australian:

• Australian culture is typically down-to-earth and without pretence
• as long as you’re not Pauline Hanson, being “Australian” can include being Russian or Italian or (yes, even) Vietnamese as well, and it’s this blending that has helped to give our culture some real vibrancy while still maintaining its essential character
• we actually appreciate irony and whimsy, but always with an earthiness underpinning it
• we especially appreciate irreverence
• we’re often very inventive and resourceful, resulting in the makeshift solution being a product of a very Australian skill
• we celebrate losers as much as winners (see Burke and Wills)

Yes, these are all broad generalisations. These moments of patriotism are always about a kind of mythologised self-perception. One day a year for this can’t hurt.

I think I’m going to listen to some Cold Chisel now…