What Australian issues might be of particular interest to people in your host country?

Another of the questions we have been asked to consider for our HUM107 unit for Uni: What Australian issues might be of particular interest to people in your host country? Here is my answer:

The similarities between Argentina, Chile and Australia

I was in Argentina and Chile once before, way back in 1970. Many of our conversations then were about the similarities between those countries and Australia and New Zealand (my husband's country of birth). The fact that all four had an agriculture based on sheep and cattle; discussions about the numbers of sheep; and size of farms. I had better bring myself up to date on these numbers in Australia!

Discussions comparing these four cultures to "Los Estados Unidos de Norte America" (USA) also came up often. The USA was generally not considered friendly by the Latin Americans in 1970; and people often trusted us only after we explained we were not Americans, had never visted USA, and did not consider them our friends.

Politics was very much on the agenda in 1970 in Chile, as were were there when Salvadore Allende was elected President; but for the same reason it was off the agenda in Argentina, people were terrified by the election of a Socialist in Chile, and even we were under suspicion, having entered Argentina by a rarely used pass across the Andes from Chilean Patagonia. Discussions about migration to Australia, and working visas in Australia came up several times as people looked at their options. Both countries had the, mostly hidden, problems of the 'disappearance' of persons who expressed opposition to the government, although these problems seemed to escalate a few years later when Chile came under the rule of President Pinochet; and Argentina under Eva Peron.

All four countries share a historical heritage of having been colonised and settled by Europeans, with much of the population today reflecting that heritage racially. And, at least in 1970, all four countries had standards of living higher than their close neighbours. 

I will be interested to see how different I find Argentina and Chile from my experiences of 1970 travels. Certainly Australia has become way more multicultural than it was in the 1970 heyday of the 'White Australia Policy'; and I will be interested to see if southern South America has changed likewise or not. Tourism infrastructure has boomed in Australia in the last four decades too; and I suspect also in Patagonia.