Are they Anglo-Saxon in appearance, have an English, Scottish or Irish sounding surname, and is the way to reach them through speaking in tongues of rhyming slang? (Cue Kevin Rudd’s ‘sauce bottle’, which he didn’t even get right).

I think not.

I had a, shall I say ‘heated’ conversation with a person I know at a dinner party recently.

The person is second generation Australian. They believe that because their heritage is British, they are more ‘Australian’ than a second generation person with, say, Indonesian, or Lebanese heritage.

I was so disappointed that I just couldn’t get through to the person the fact that really, they are equally Australian. And regardless of what generation you are, you are still Australian if you live, work, and play in this country, and call it home. Especially in my opinion if you do so proudly.

Are ther levels of ‘fair dinkum-ness’ when it comes to being Australian?

I think there are just lots of different types of Australians, who are all as Australian as each other.

Recently I met two lovely families who immigrated to Australia 60 years ago from Austria. They both came out on the same ship but didn’t meet each other until they settled in Liverpool. They have been friends for all these years, and were reflecting on how much the area has changed and what it was like to come out to their new country not speaking English. I thought the story was very romantic.

Although the older members of the families still had fairly thick Austrian accents, I think they are more Australian than me. Well, they have about 37 years of being Australian on me, anyway.

Something I always find amusing is the term, ‘Australian food’. What in the heck is Australian food?

Depending on who you ask, you might get ‘meat pies’, ‘roast dinners’, ‘lamingtons’ or ‘a barbecue’ as your answer.

But think about it. I grew up in what I think is a fairly Anglo-influenced household (I am about sixth or seventh generation ‘Australian’, originally from England, Wales and Scotland on both sides of my family).