Australia day

As we approach Australia Day, it's that time again to see the usual jingoistic articles and photos of drunken blond haired cultureless teenagers draped in the Australian flag chanting oi oi oi telling us how "proud" they are to be Australian.
Well I'll tell what I'm proud of this Australia Day, I'm proud of;
universal health insurance
quality public schools
compulsory voting
having a national broadcaster
While I'm certainly NOT proud that we invaded a peaceful peoples and virtually made them extinct,
that we have (or are) fighting others colonial wars
that we have a head of state who is hereditary (and not even Australian)
that we have a "Queen's birthday" public holiday (which is not even on her birthday)
that we demonise the less fortunate (ie refugees) while espouting the Aussie fair go.
Australia is a country with alot going for it, but constitutional maturity is not our strongest virtue. Perhaps when (or if?) we become a Republic that has acknowledged our ancestor's mistakes, I'll have something to be proud of on Australia Day.

absurdity of being a Constitutional Monarchy

While it appears that Australians are completely comfortable with Australia remaining a Constitutional Monarchy and not becoming a Republic, what really riles me up is the insidious practice of creating a fiction to show that we're already an independent country with no legal ties (in reality) to the old country. Oh really? Well without rehashing the whole Republic debate here (the for and against arguments have been done to death over the last 15-20 years), I will just say that the Governor-General is NOT our Head of State, he is the Queen's Viceroy (as I call him), or if you prefer the correct description (as stated on my passport) "the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, being the representative in Australia of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second". The G-G does NOT receive the full class A diplomatic recognition as the Head of State, indeed he/she gets the B treatment as a mere "representative" of the TRUE  Head of State, our glorious benevolent Queen.
But if you think this is no big deal (in reality), what would happen then should the US ask us to be part of a "coalition of the willing" to invade a Commonwealth Country? Sound fanciful? It may've been airbrushed from the public consciousness, but the US invaded Grenada in 1983 (to the public disgust of the Thatcher Govt). The Queen is the "Commander and Chief" of the Australian armed forces, yet we would be invading ourselves under this scenario.
There's so many of these types of scenarios I could point to which show how ridiculous Australia being a Constitutional Monarchy truly is, but is there anything more absurd than invading yourself?

who are we, and where are we headed?

On the 110th anniversary of Australian Federation, I got to thinking.......
What does it say about us as a country that we have few real constitutional rights, they we're reigned over by the descendants of a long dead German aristocrat, that the British Govt has special powers to enact racist laws, but no settlement with descendants of those who have lived here for 50,000 years?
What does it say when (unlike most civilized democracies) the federal govt offers no legal guarantee to it's citizens of rights to live free from torture or inhumane treatment?
So I ask the question, how can any educated thinking person oppose a Republic, or a Bill of Rights?
Some argue, if it aint broke, don't fix it! But I would argue that it is very much broken and needs fixing!....