@the_great_she_elephant wrote:
It's a change that was long overdue. Not only does 'young and free' have racist overtones - it is also smacks of agism. We may all be "free" (whatever that means) but we are certainly not all young.
If, as Mark Latham insists, the words are meant to to celebrate how recent our nationhood is, then they should read "Our nation's young and free" not 'we are young and free."
And let's face it, the words are just that - words on paper - they are not a sacred text engraved on tablets of stone. We already changed 'Australia's sons' to something less sexist.
Most of the words have been changed or deleted from the original 1878 version
