And When I'd Be Reporting In Israel,

What's Wrong With Leading The Way? We've Played That Role Before, After All. We Gave The World The Secret Ballot... That Did So Much To Raise Living Standards And Improve Conditions For Workers Worldwide. We Were A Leader In Extending To Women The Right To Vote. We Were Barely A Nation When We Set The Bar For Bravery And Sacrifice By Common Soldiers In Foreign Wars. We Grew Up Out Of Racism And Misogyny And Homophobia To Become A Mostly Tolerant, Successful Multicultural Society. We Did These Great Things Because We Know We Are In It Together. It Is Our Core Value As Australians.

Does Any Woman Ever Count The Grains Of Her Harvest And Say: Good Enough? Or Does One Always Think Of What More One Might Have Laid In, Had The Labor Been Harder, The Ambition More Vast, The Choices More Sage?

I Do Believe That Our Modern English Usage Has Become Way Too Clipped And Austere. I Have Been Reading Excerpts From The Journals Of 18th-century Seafarers Lately, And Even The Lowliest Press-ganged Deck-swabber Turns A Finer Phrase Than I Do Most Days.

Write What You Know. Every Guide For The Aspiring Author Advises This. Because I Live In A Long-settled Rural Place, I Know Certain Things. I Know The Feel Of A Newborn Lamb's Damp, Tight-curled Fleece And The Sharp Sound A Well-bucket Chain Makes As It Scrapes On Stone. But More Than These Material Things, I Know The Feelings That Flourish In Small Communities. And I Know Other Kinds Of Emotional Truths That I Believe Apply Across The Centuries.

Here We Are, Alive, And You And I Will Have To Make It What We Can.