Ok, Fooles... 'Hutt River Province" ...nope, I had not heard of it. I guess I have missed a lot... I'll go read.
I expect that your last line.."there are far fewer groups here trying to play the 'nationalist/statist' card against all the others, so I suppose we SEEM more united..." makes a lot of sense.

Thanks,Rowan...that analysis helps a lot, and even with the ..umm... 'differences' that fooles mentions, I suspect it is pretty accurate.

We DO have those who identify their regional or state...or even city identity as primary and they have this notion that the 'states rights' bit in the Constitution was somehow ordained by God to relieve them of any obligation to obey national rules....it's an interesting attitude.
I often wonder if there's not some gene that tells some folks to proclaim "I don't like being told what to do!!"... so they interpret all laws in that light.