I watched the Rugby Union last night between Argentina and Australia. The National Anthems sounded fantastic. The children that came on to the grounds with the players sang the anthems lustily and you could see how proud they were to be there. 

More from Peter FitzSimon, SMH:

“Meantime, on the subject of the national anthem, I put out a TFF Twitter poll on Wednesday asking people’s preferences for what it should be, and I am delighted to report I received nearly 10,000 respondents in 24 hours. The results were interesting:

Advance Australia Fair. 19 per cent.

I am, you Are, We are Australian. 43 per cent.

Waltzing Matilda 12 per cent.

Another anthem. 26 per cent.

Amazing, yes, that no fewer than 81 per cent in that large sample of Australians should be less than happy with the anthem?”

Nation Surprised To Discover Anyone Even Knows National AnthemBy The Shovel on September 14, 2018

While Pauline Hanson loses her shit over a 9 year-old refusing to stand for the national anthem, the rest of Australia is staggered that there are people who actually know the song at all.

“People know the words?” dumbfounded Sydney man Paul Tegan said. “Like, all of them? That’s a little un-Australian isn’t it?”

Mia Lucas from Brisbane said the story of nine year-old Harper Nielsen opting out of singing the anthem made her ashamed to be Australian. “It means that other kids must be standing up and belting out the shitty tune word for word. That’s not the Australia I know.

“Sing along for the first five words, fine. But if you’re a true patriot you’ll look down at your feet for the rest and mumble along until it gets to the last line, when you can amp up again”.

While most people interviewed could indeed recite the first five words of the anthem, most struggled to get further. “For we are limousines?” one person offered.

Does anybody really give a s**t about his tweets???

I think the point perhaps some are missing is that yes in the 1960s primary school children were told Captain Cook discovered Australia in 1770 and not much was made of indigenous people being here for thousands of years prior to  1770....and basically it was a white male narrow history taught to kids.

These days in social studies primary school children have access to the indigenous history of Australia from an indigenous perspective... Hence kids have even a basic understanding of events like 'sorry day' which don't seem to align with a phrase like 'young and ftee' 

So no surprise that a child of even average intelligence would question the phrase 'young and free' and be puzzled as to why indigenous people who have been here for thousands of years dont even rate a mention in Australia's national anthem...

I am sick to death of these "do gooders". I have dual citizenship. Italian/Australian. I stand with pride when either anthem is played. I have great respect for Aboriginals, their language, culture and understand how they feel about many things. But, let's face it, you will never be able to please everyone all the time. Yes, change some of the words to include indigenous,  but bear in mind, further down the track, other cultures who now live in this land, may also decide they need to be mentioned as well. Hey, when the Chinese take over, it will all be in Mandarin anyway (tongue in cheek).

Let's take one of the so called controversial lines "for we are young and free." Got news for you people, we are all young and free including the Aboriginals. This planet is 4.500 billion years old, and life began 3.8 billion years ago. So, we are all young and free.

I must say I do t like the National Anthem we have and I will never stand for the God save the Queen and never have

On a lighter note, years ago, when I was teaching, I used to get the younger students (7-9) to write the words to Advance Australia Fair so we could discuss them.

:) Some were very "interesting transcripts" as per the verse below.

Orst aliens all let us reduce
For we are young and three.
Weev gold n soil and welf for oil
Our home is girls by sea
Our land Ab owns in Nate yours gift
Of bewdy rich and air
In histry's page let evry stage
Ad vans Australia square
In joy full Stralian then let us sing
Ad vans Australia square

Firstly, I'm not too fussed either way about changing our anthem or not. I can live with it and I find it pleasant enough to listen to at sporting ceremonies and the like. The lyrics perhaps , with the passage of time, may not reflect our modern day views and I can understand that some people and especially the younger ones may not relate to it. However that being said, I think that as it is our current national anthem then it deserves some respect! Call me old fashioned if you will but that is only common courtesy in my book, and to make a public protest about it could be looked at as being unAustralian in the extreme. This aside, I can relate that while staying in Thailand I was walking through a major commercial district when suddenly the Thai national anthem was played through loudspeakers and every pedestrian stood stock still and there was complete silence until it finished. I too did the same and I noticed approving looks from nearby Thais, who obviously revered their anthem and appreciated that a 'farang' would too. My point being to those agitating for change is that there could be other ways of doing it rather than boorish disrespect.

:) Interesting when you read the lyrics of national anthems. Many make ours look tame by comparison IMO. Just three examples below from the full list.

France … La Marseillaise ... 1792

• Only the first verse, and sometimes the fifth and sixth, and the first chorus are sung today in France.

Arise, children of the Fatherland,
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us, tyranny's
Bloody standard is raised, (repeat)
Do you hear, in the countryside,
The roar of those ferocious soldiers?
They're coming right into your arms
To cut the throats of your sons, your women!
CHORUS
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions,
Let's march, let's march!
Let an impure blood
Water our furrows!

United States … The Star-Spangled Banner 1814

• Although the poem has four stanzas, only the first is commonly sung today.

O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

New Zealand … God Defend New Zealand 1876

• Until the 1990s, only the first verse of the English version was commonly sung. A public debate emerged after only the first Maori verse was sung at the 1999 Rugby World Cup match against England, and it then became conventional to sing both the Maori and English first verses one after the other.

God of Nations at Thy feet,
In the bonds of love we meet,
Hear our voices, we entreat,
God defend our free land.
Guard Pacific's triple star
From the shafts of strife and war,
Make her praises heard afar,
God defend New Zealand.

Seems to be lots about war and God. Makes me appreciate ...

Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free;
We've golden soil and wealth for toil;
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare;
In history's page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.

RnR, HOLA, It seems that other nations are not too bothered about singing their extremely old national anthems which were written at a time to reflect their struggles to overcome adversities and the like. I would imagine that many a patrotic singer in those countries would not know all the words either! Do they care that they don't know them? In most cases probably not! Do they care that some of the lyrics are no longer relevant? Doubt it ! You see, many people believe that there is a high value in tradition and feel uplifted and even comforted by hearing their own recognisable anthem which they have grown up with and would most likely think why change it?

As for Peter FitzSimon and his "Amazing poll" ? Well, hardly convincing I would say! There is an old saying that is, "There are three kind of lies :  Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics " ! His so called large poll of nearly 10.000 Australians out of a population of around 25 million ( 21 million over 14 yrs of age by the way) would reflect the views of his respondents, approximately 0.000477 of us, after excluding the younger ones. Then if you consider that these respondents were to a large degree were FitzSimon followers ( and all that implies!!)A lot of twitters there !!and probably influenced by him (poor souls!), as well as that you would get a fair few with extreme views and might tend to have an axe to grind so to speak! This then I suggest would likely put his figures askew, and not likely to be representative of the larger population as a whole. Even if you considered his statistics you might notice that 57% of respondents did not agree  with the most popular selection. I think Peter should leave polling to the professional statisticians and stick to his day job.

RnR, Your suggested revised line could possibly suit some of us but there again , as you say, there could be underlying notes in that too and  to paraphrase an old saying "you can't please all of the people all of the time ". While many things can be improved on in life, it would be difficult to find universal agreement on any suggestions to possibly change our anthem for the better.  I'm going to let sleeping dogs lie on this one and accept what we have while we still have it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7cbkxn4G8U