News
What makes an Aussie?
According to a recent online poll, immigrants who love the country’s values and love living there are the ones Aussies deem to be most genuinely Australian
The survey, which was conducted on news.com in the wake of comments made by Treasurer Peter Costello – who stated that new arrivals to Australia should be forced to live by the country's existing values, found that 45 per cent agreed with a statement which read "people who love Australia and love being in Australia best describes an Australian". Twenty per cent said "People who have gained citizenship in Australia" are best classed as 'True Blue' Aussies, while 12 per cent said that those who hold Australian values were closest to 'real Aussies'.
Costello's comments drew widespread support from the survey's 2,550 respondents, with 79 per cent agreeing that newcomers should adopt Australian values. However, many disagreed with a statement made earlier in the year by prime minister John Howard who said there was no underlying racism problem Down Under.
Four in ten people believed the country could be described as a 'racist nation', with one in four respondents actively disagreeing that multiculturalism was an Australian value.
Read another Australian news story:
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15 December 2006