Reference :- Sky anchor Paul Murray made a very moving Australia Day speech.

Reference :-  It's now 250 years since Australia was visited by Captain Cook.   How time flies . He would hardly recognise the place now .

 You did your man cave proud with that Australia Day speech Paul.   And focusing as you did on nostalgia and the unflagging passage of time was a wise choice . Nostalgia has been around for a long time now , at least since when I was a kid , and it can always be relied upon to tenderise the hardest of hearts .

 Those lovely films of multicultural Australia enjoying a day of celebration under a smoke  free sky were well chosen .  Although Ken junior's mate  Gabbo ( the aborigine ) said he looked , but couldn't see an aborigine or even an individual of non european ethnicity anywhere in the footage you chose .    I told him that it was not intentional , and that sometimes in our enthusiasm for celebrating with our mates we subconsciously forget the folk with whom we are less comfortable .

 All that stuff you said  about time was a bit confusing , but time is like that .  At first you referenced the things from our past you are proud of , since these are what define us .  But then you quickly skipped over a few appalling atrocities from the past and said the past did not define us and the future is unwritten.

Ken junior pointed out that saying the future is unwritten contradicts the block theory of time elaborated by physicists as a natural consequence  of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity , but I told the annoying little bugger to shut up .  And just as well he did , or we would have missed the bit where you explained that not just us , but every country in the world throughout all of history has committed appalling atrocities because that is what humans do.   Brilliant observation Paul , and what a relief to hear .  We will all sleep better tonight  .

Anyway , can I ask a favour ?    Would you be able to post us a copy of your speech ? It is destined to be a classic , and I would like to staple it into the back of my copy of the fourth edition of
 " The Worlds Greatest Speeches "  by Lewis Copeland .   It is a magnificent compendium of 292 speeches , and yours deserves a place as the 293rd .   

  Ours  is a second hand paperback copy that I picked up at the Kooralya school fete for two quid , and most of the pages are dog- eared but to my mind that only adds dignity to the brilliance of it's contents . 

   Happy man caving  .   Your comrade ,  Ken .