When my youngest daughter was 14, she travelled to Japan (cultural excusion) with her school.

It was interesting to see her view of Australia change, after having travelled in japan for 3 weeks. She was more critical of Australia, and saw things in Japan that were much better.

In her late teens she went out with an African American man. He preferred living in Australia than in America, he encountered far less racism here. However, i think he did not understand that some Australians reserved their racism for the indigenous people here - for whatever reason, he did not experience it.

For me the Australia I grew up in is a wonderful country, however the current government has spent a lot of time destroying some of the things that made us great.