TIL "The Lucky Country" probably doesn't mean what you think it means.

The term "The Lucky Country" gets thrown around by people to suggest Australia is lucky to have a safe, secure country with nice weather etc.

But the term comes from a book of the same name written in the 60s that had quite a different meaning. Here's a quote:

Australia is a lucky country run mainly by >second rate people who share its luck. It >lives on other people's ideas, and, >although its ordinary people are >adaptable, most of its leaders (in all >fields) so lack curiosity about the events >that surround them that they are often >taken by surprise.

Although written in the 60s it's still accurate today.

The Wikipedia article summarises the book as:

(portraying) Australia's climb to power and wealth based almost entirely on luck rather than the strength of its political or economic system, which Horne believed was "second rate". In addition to political and economic weaknesses, he also lamented on the lack of innovation and ambition, as well as a philistinism in the absence of art, among the Australian population, viewed by Horne as being complacent and indifferent to intellectual matters. He also commented on matters relating to Australian puritanism, as well as conservatism, particularly in relation to censorship and politics

Something to consider next time a politician or media commentator whips out "The lucky country".