"Down-under" Australians are hypersensitive to any suggestion of uppishness from those who live at the top of the world, especially "Pommies" (the English). The defensive truculence carries over to domestic affairs. With fierce local pride and last-ditch tenacity they hang on to whatever they have won from othersbe it battle positions, jobs, or their underpopulated country which they keep that way by restrictive immigration laws. Australian labor disputes, in particular, have long been notable for the stubbornness of the participants and the pettiness of the issues. Most Australian unions will strike for two pins, but would rather strike for one.
Unhappily,...