I expect that we're going to have to agree to disagree on this
one, sk. Like I said, what you've described doesn't gel with my
experience at all, and I believe that Viper52 and the Bear would
say the same thing as well.
As for being around the world, I haven't experienced problems in
either England or the US, although on arrival in England, a nice
old gent at the train station did warn me to avoid Exmouth.
As for that politician, that's Pauline Hanson, who, if you haven't
been keeping up with recent news, was quite happily thrown into
jail by Australians. Her popularity, and that of the One Nation
party, was exaggerated by the fact of her racist stance. She was
never a political threat outside of Queensland, and like said
earlier, the rest of Australia considers the Banana Benders a weird
mob anyway. 
