Australia: The Unlucky Country?

Australia: The Unlucky Country?
A couple ride along the harbour in Sydney on June 26, 2021, as Australia's largest city entered a two-week lockdown to contain an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant. Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images
Gabriël Moens
Updated:
Commentary

In 1964, Donald Horne published his iconic book “The Lucky Country.” Horne controversially wrote that “Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people’s ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise.”

Gabriël Moens
Gabriël Moens
Author
Gabriël A. Moens AM is an emeritus professor of law at the University of Queensland, and served as pro vice-chancellor and dean at Murdoch University. In 2003, Moens was awarded the Australian Centenary Medal by the prime minister for services to education. He has taught extensively across Australia, Asia, Europe, and the United States.
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