SHANE​ WARREN

So, when Australian politicians import the American posture - the swagger, the suspicion, the “strongman realism” - we should be asking: which America are you importing? The one that sells freedom like a brand? Or the one that lives with the consequences of a fractured social contract and a heavily armed civic culture?

On Anzac Day, we gather around a story. It is a story of courage, of mateship, of sacrifice. It is told in dawn services and echoed in silence. It lives in old photographs, in medals carefully kept, in names carved into stone. It is a story we have learned well and one we return to each year with reverence.

There are some public figures people describe as brilliant communicators, and I have often found myself standing a little to the side of that praise, wondering if we are even watching the same performance.