What is an Australian?

Why the Answer Matters Now More Than Ever.

Australia has reached a moment where the question “What is an Australian?” is no longer a throwaway cultural trivia point. It’s a live grenade. It divides families. It fractures the online right. It sends teenagers into ideological trench warfare. It stains every debate about housing, borders, crime, identity and the future.

And the truth is simple. Most of us never had to think about it this deeply before. I know I didn’t.

I was like most Australians. I just wanted to work hard, be left alone, and live in a country that made sense. Citizenship, bloodlines, identity theory, nationalism labels, none of that mattered to me. I was a builder running a business while Canberra made a mess. Then everything changed.

Twelve weeks ago when I asked to participate in the August 31 March for Australia event, I got dropped, headfirst, into a crash course on modern nationalism. Civic nationalism. Ethno nationalism. Cuckservative. Wignat. Identity theory. Stuff I had never heard of before. Stuff most normies have never heard of either.

Now here I am, watching Australians tear each other apart over questions we never thought we’d have to ask.

So let me break it down as honestly as I can.

Australians Are a Unique Breed

We’re not like anyone else. We were shaped by a specific culture, a specific history, a specific way of life that can’t be downloaded or bought or simulated. We aren’t an abstract idea. We aren’t a set of words on a citizenship form. We aren’t a vibe.

And here’s where the argument gets messy.

There are two big frameworks people seem to be fighting over:

1. Ethno nationalism

This says Australians are a bloodline. A legacy people. A specific ethnic base.

2. Civic nationalism

This says anyone can become an Australian if they sign the paperwork, say the oath, and promise to “value democracy.”

Thinking on them I now understand that both of these are incomplete answers for me.

If you say Australians are purely a bloodline, you erase millions of citizens who are here, who we said (or at least our governments said) belong here, and who aren’t going anywhere. They’ve got the ticket.

If you say Australians are purely a civic idea, you open the door to exactly what happened: mass immigration, demographic chaos, social fragmentation, and a population that no longer knows who it is.

Hard NO from most of us now.

Civic nationalism broke this country. It’s true and admitting it isn’t hard.

But ethno nationalism doesn’t solve the modern reality either.

The Awkward Middle Truth

I can’t move to Japan and become Japanese.

I can’t move to Thailand and become Thai.

If I moved to the United States, became a citizen and paid taxes, I wouldn’t be American. I would be an Australian expat with paperwork.

So why are we the only country on earth pretending nationality is a costume you can buy at check-in? Yet at the same time, we have millions of citizens, born here, raised here, who didn’t choose how they arrived in the Australian story. They’re here. They speak like us. They live like us. They only know this country. And they’re as confused as everyone else about what Australia even is anymore.

That’s the problem no one wants to touch.

The Kids of the “Imported Australia”

What happens to the children of the mass migration experiment?

What happens to the kids who were born here, grew up here, lived Australian lives, but now get told online that they can never be Australian?

This is the emotional depth charge no one wants to step on in normie world.

What Happened to our Kids? Identity politics has raised a generation on tribal labels and then poured acid on every definition that used to hold society together. These kids grew up with cultural soup. They’ve lived their whole lives inside it. And some of them genuinely crave more identity, more belonging, more clarity. Because that’s all they understand. Identity.

Meanwhile, normie Australia (most of us Gen X’ers) doesn’t understand any of that. We weren’t raised on identity theory. They just want peace, order, fair prices and a future.

“Don’t be a shit c&unt”

But I recognizing now that we need both groups on board if we want to fix this country.

The Starting Point: Shut the Borders

Here’s where I land right now, based on what I know, what I’ve learned since August and what is possible in the real world, emphasis on possible.

No more new citizens.

No more immigration tidal wave.

No more selling this country to foreign buyers.

No more pretending that becoming “Australian” is something that happens by application form.

Lock the gates for five years.

Deport millions of temporary visa holders.

Catch our breath.

Thrash this out as a country.

Define who we are, what we value, and how we protect it.

Every serious nation on earth does this.

Japan does it.

South Korea does it.

Thailand does it.

The UAE does it.

You don’t get to become one of them. And they reserve the right to tell you goodbye. At their discretion.

We need that level of national confidence more than ever.

We’ve earned it.

We deserve it.

A New Nationalism

Where do we end up? I don’t know yet and I’m not pretending to have all the answers.

But I’m not afraid to say I’m learning. I have to learn.

Somewhere between the failures of civic nationalism and the rigidity of ethno nationalism is the identity we’re building right now.

Australia First.

A patriotism that recognises:

• the validity of the ethno nationalist concern

• the reality of modern Australia

• the urgency of stopping the demographic freefall

• the need for cultural continuity

• the impossibility of continuing as we are

Australia First says clearly:

We protect the people already here and we protect our culture.

We don’t hand out our identity to the world and we stop the inflow.

We take back control immediately.

And we rebuild something strong enough that every Australian can stand without tearing each other apart.

This is the only path forward that doesn’t require destroying half the country to save the other half.

This is the beginning of a new conversation about who we are and I’m not afraid to learn as I go.

We all know it’s long overdue and every day we delay it gets harder to implement.

What’s your thoughts?