http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/gary-humphries/ Gary Humphries is the Liberal Senator for the ACT, elected in 2003 after a long career in the ACT Legislative Assembly where he held various Ministerial and Shadow Ministerial posts including that of Chief Minister. In 2009 he was appointed to the Federal Liberal Party’s frontbench as Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families, Housing & Human Services and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/national-pride-should-not-preclude-hard-conversations/ Pride in Australia comes easily to Australians.  There’s nothing forced or contrived about the positive feelings we all have for our sun-drenched land or its egalitarian values when thoughts turn to Australia Day every January. Perhaps it comes a little too easily.  Australia Day produces an almost Pavlovian reaction in most of us: instinctive, familiar, warm, but also static and unchanging.  It’s an emotional response, rather like our feelings toward Christmas – we feel before we think. But the things we celebrate on Australia Day are very unlike those we celebrate at Christmas: the national values we celebrate are dynamic, changing, and sometimes confronting.  feedback@thepunch.com.au (Gary Humphries) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/national-pride-should-not-preclude-hard-conversations/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/national-pride-should-not-preclude-hard-conversations/#item2228 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:52:24 +0000 Gary Humphries | Author bios | The Punch