
Australia's national dictionary updated for first time in 28 years - chesterfield
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/bogans-branch-stacking-and-battered-savs-australias-national-dictionary-updated-for-first-time-in-28-years-20160823-gqywtu.html
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jacques_chester
As an Australian living in NYC, I often repeat the phrases of my distant
Darwin youth and discover that I've dropped another unexpected Australianism
or Commonwealthism into a conversation that was ill-prepared to receive exotic
visitors.

\---------------------

"How'd you handle the interview?"

"I played a straight bat, mostly".

\---------------------

"I like your briefcase".

"Yeah, it's a bloody ripper".

\---------------------

"I'm having relationship trouble". (paraphrased)

"That's awful, I hope it comes good".

\---------------------

On the other hand, I don't know yet how to respond when, on mentioning I have
an upcoming date, someone says "well, I'm rooting for you!"

My employers, Pivotal, are pretty proactive in hiring Australians. There are
usually between 5 and 10 of us in the NYC office at any given time. I'm never
far from a familiar accent, a laconic quip and a charmingly familiar turn of
phrase.

~~~
voltagex_
Why Australians? (I am one, but I'm not sure I could live in NYC).

~~~
ecdavis
The main reason is probably that Australians qualify for the E3 visa, which
makes it substantially easier for US companies to hire us over other foreign
workers.

That said, there are plenty of other reasons Australians make great recruiting
candidates for US companies. There are a lot of good Australian universities,
the language/cultural barrier is minimal, and many Australians are wealthy
enough to move internationally.

For such a small country there sure are a lot of us spread around the globe.

EDIT: Pivotal may have other reasons -- I don't work there, so I wouldn't
know.

~~~
jacques_chester
You pretty much listed them all.

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nitemice
This is rubbish! Surely Australia's National Dictionary should be the
Macquarie Dictionary, i.e. the one actually published by Australians. Why
should we be relying on Oxford when we have a home-grown solution?

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emmelaich
Not sure if I agree with this definition of "Aspirational voter"

    
    
        A voter who is mainly concerned with
        material improvement or gain.
    

I would say the aspirations tend towards many dimensions; social, educational.
Not merely or even mainly material.

[edit] and the full definition does in fact include the phrase "personal
success"

[http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/aspirat...](http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/aspirational-
voter)

    
    
        A voter whose primary concern is the achievement
        of personal success and material gain.

~~~
timv
Even the full definition is a bit off in my mind.

I have always understood "aspirational voters" as those who vote based on how
they wish to see themselves rather than how they presently are. So, for
example, they will vote to retain negative gearing benefits because they hope
to own an investment property in the future, even though they currently don't.

"Aspirational voters" are reasons that policies that benefit the top 30% can
have the support of 50+% of voters, and why middle-class welfare policies get
branded as "family tax benefits" so that those receiving them don't need to
see themselves as being "on welfare".

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contingencies
What a crock of shit, these bloody dabos couldn't nab a legit dicky if they
cruised for five fair dinkum polly terms. Longest bloody smoko in the history
of Aussie academia. Fair play.

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grizzles
That article missed the most interesting one. In 2014, then Aussie prime
minister Tony Abbott promised to "shirt-front" Putin at the G20 summit about
the downing of MH17 over Ukraine which killed 38 Australians (and 250 other
people).

So Putin parked a nuclear sub (and flotilla of other Russian navy ships) off
the coast of Australia during the course of the G20 summit. Possibly a lesson
there about the consequences of loose talk in politics.

~~~
Mao_Zedang
What is the appropriate thing to say when a country kills 38 of your citizens?

~~~
flashman
Abbott's mistake was giving Putin a warning of his feelings, which allowed
Putin time to plan a response. If Abbott wanted to embarrass Putin (because
presumably Putin is beyond feeling shame over the mere deaths of foreign
civilians due to his geopolitical maneuverings), he should have been non-
specific in his condemnation of Russian involvement, then set up a meeting
with Putin at G20, made sure the media was present at a photo opportunity,
then ambushed him with members of the victims' families.

Anything Putin did in response would look like petty revenge for being called
out.

~~~
grizzles
This would have been a great response. It doesn't challenge the dictator's
precious ego. It's human, and generates sympathy from allies & other
countries. It embarrasses Putin without looking like tit for tat.

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andrewstuart
That's because nothing has changed here for 28 years.

~~~
flashman
Not true! We abolished free tertiary education.

~~~
timv
And we've chewed through a whole lot of prime ministers.

