Australian of the Year

Blogger Gavin Atkins provided a short list for Australian of the Year, instead they gave it to someone else:

Six more superior Australians of the Year

Rolf Harris. Give the guy his due – a great ambassador for Australia. Would have been a better choice than John Farnham (1987).

William Robinson. Man, this guy can paint – a modern Australian master. A great artist should occasionally receive recognition in this sphere, and my nomination is this guy.

Bart Cummings.  A horse trainer for Australian of the Year? How many 82-year-olds do you know who are still operating in elite international competition and winning? We could do a lot worse.

Bruce Thompson. Who, I hear you ask? Inventor of the dual flush toilet (stay with me here, folks) Bruce Thompson, has received so little recognition that I am not sure if he is still alive. His invention saves 32,000 litres of water in every household where it is installed every year. Thompson does more for the environment every day than the guy from Planet Ark, who is nominated this year, might expect to achieve in his lifetime. Why shouldn’t a humble plumber be Australian of the Year? Maybe the only other Australian who could claim to have done so much for the environment would be (the late) Lance Hill, inventor of the Hills Hoist.

Angus Young. He is the most prominent survivor of Australia’s most successful rock band and the best example of a working class hero I can think of. Angus getting AOTY will never happen, but it would rock.

Keith Windschuttle. For political reasons, Windschuttle will never receive this award. The most influential historian in contemporary Australia, Windschuttle is a pariah amongst his peers because he dared to check the facts. His demonstration that European settlers were far from the ogres that contemporary historians have made them out to be is truly revolutionary. The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One should be compulsory reading for anyone wishing to understand the viewfinder through which Australian history has been presented to us. Windschuttle is simultaneously the person who I would most like to see receive this award and the person least likely to ever get one.

Crossposted from Asian Correspondent