The independent MP Monique Ryan was very dismissive recently of One Nation and the Liberals' tough stance on immigration.

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"I'm deeply uncomfortable with Pauline Hanson and Angus Taylor's clumsy attempts to turn migrants into political punching bags," she opined.

"This is not who we are as a country."

The snag is that this may actually be who we are as a country, at least among a swathe of the people. It's not the whole truth but it is part of the truth.

I am very mistrustful of the phrase. It sounds to me like an attempt to minimise the truth. If it's not who we are, why worry about whatever appalling transgression has been revealed?

If a man defends his bad behaviour - infidelity, for example - by saying , "It's not who I really am," his wife might snort and scoff.

And as with the personal, so with the bigger picture, particularly in sport.

In 2023, the South Sydney rugby league player Latrell Mitchell was racially abused by a spectator. There was an uproar, of course.

But the broadcaster Stan Grant was having none of the accompanying this-is-not-who-we-are-ism: "This is not who we are. Yes, easy to say. But look closer. It is who you are. How can it not be?"

"I am writing because it has happened to my children playing sport. It happens to my parents. It has happened to me."

Anthony Albanese used the phrase after The Guardian published details of atrocities perpetrated by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. "I know Australians will be distressed by this report. I am too. This is not who we are," he said.

In the United States, the country's top officer, General Peter Pace, reacted to atrocities committed by his soldiers in Iraq, including the alleged rape and murder of an Iraqi girl and her family. "It's not who we are as a nation; it's not who we are as an armed force," he said.

But it was. Not the whole force, of course, but a section of it. There was a problem with the culture which needed to be addressed.

Barack Obama later echoed the line.

After Donald Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington to try to prevent Mr Trump's electoral defeat being ratified, the actual winner, Joe Biden, said: "This is not who we are."

Except, it........

© Canberra Times