THE WITCHDOCTOR

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In truth, the average Australian family is a complete myth. There is no one family in Australia that would exactly match the average on every possible criteria.

So while it is common to hear people talking about ”the average Australian family”, it is more correct to talk about the average for a particular characteristic. And even then, we need to accept that it’s little more than an artificial construct, a guide to if you’re below or above average, and even then an imperfect one.

Which is why I resile against attempts on Australia Day to define something as typically ”Australian”. Statistically, there’s really no such thing.

Indeed, one would expect to see more statistical variance within a country than between similar socio-economic groups across countries.

A family on an average household income of $60,000 with two kids and a dog would likely have more in common with a similar household in Brazil than they would with a millionaire retiree.

The less we focus on some notion of what it means to be Australian, and the more on the things we have in common with people like us overseas, the less hostile we may be to foreigners and more accepting of our own diversity.

Let’s stop trying to be average.
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