I agree. There is something that is creating the most fierce independent journalists and thinkers in Australia and New Zealand. Besides those already mentioned, there is also The Australia Institute, which I have also been following for quite some time, and wondering why similar Canadian institutions don't exist. But I know why. Our msm has been bought and paid for long ago. We just elected an overt Trump supporter right wing premier of our largest province, mostly by vote splitting on the left. We have the same problems as Aussies when it comes to identity. But reading our msm the sense one gets now is that the pursuit of money, wealth, luxury, hedonism and total self indulgence is a 'culture', but really it's just whatever working class values we used to have are being erased in the race to the bottom, the race for the best paying mining and oil jobs for a few while the rest work at multinational corporations, forced to wear idiotic uniforms and serve toxic processed foods, just like their US counterparts who allowed themselves to be sucked into the fantasy of living like the rich and famous. Thinking about it last night, I am pretty sure that much of the working people of the world are traumatized by the last 30 years. But we have to keep going, we can't give in to despair, but it is going to take work in the right direction. Something like the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, but internationally. I hope that Australians check this movement out and start one there. We need to start a Democracy in the Americas movement too. We need international awareness of the issues because the power elites, the 2700 billionaires and their lackeys, are scooping elections because they know how to manipulate the average voter, they know how to operate the First Past The Post system so that parties with 35% of the vote can take a majority of seats, and until the average person understands that apathy is part of the calculations they make in their wins, we are all royally bleeped. It's time for an international democracy movement. Maybe Caitlin you and your husband can look into a Democracy in Australia Movement. And maybe, if Assange survives the next months, he can work for that too. He is already on the Advisory Panel for the Democracy in Europe Movement (Diem25.org). I hope he can return home, but I don't see a lot of light at the end of the tunnel in terms of the fight for real democracy, and I don't trust any governments. He might have to remain in hiding for some time. Like Edward Snowden.
I travelled Australia by thumb in 1986 and I love it. I wish I had never returned to the (emotionally) frozen north. I may just return for another visit to feel the spirit of resistance that is creating such great truth tellers.