This time Terry Lane, in The Age, shares his thoughts about Germaine’s loving Oz-knock:
Where would we be without Germaine Greer? Who else would keep us on our toes and at the same time keep us humble?
There she is, part Cassandra, part Gorgon, spoiling our Australia Day barbie by reminding us of our lack of couth out here in our Ramsay Streets, spreading “as rapidly as oil stains on water”.
Except that it is not quite Ramsay Street, she says, because in the real thing we don’t even know who our neighbours are, let alone live in each others’ pockets.
It’s enough to make one ache for the true camaraderie, community and intellectual stimulation of Coronation Street, where films and books are the constant topic of conversation.
Well, we haven’t got time for films and books. And if she lived here instead of piddling on us from a great height, she would know that we have other things on our minds.
Does she have any idea what it is like to live in a nation where there is so much sport going on that, with the best will in the world, there are not enough hours in the day to watch it, listen to it and read about it?
Where are we going to fit a movie or book into this crowded schedule, never mind find time to talk to what’s-her-name next door?
She makes a big song and dance about the brain drain from the antipodes to the civilised world. She reckons that 1 million of our best and brightest have left to work in foreign laboratories and universities.
It’s a matter of priorities. First things first. We have the best sporting stadiums in the world and we have more of them than anyone else. We have domes and arenas and parks and grounds and God knows what. We have Olympic games and Commonwealth games and grands prix, world championships, Ashes, one-dayers and opens and at least eight institutes of sport, state and federal.
Where does she think we are going to find the money for schools, universities and laboratories and research and development or even to make movies after we’ve paid for all this world-class sports stuff?