30 years in Australia

Reflections

February 2025 marks 30 years since my family arrived in Australia. I was 3 at the time, so I didn't help much with the move. The least I can do is take the opportunity now to write a few words about how good a decision it was.

Communism fell and Romania opened to the world in 1990, but that doesn't mean that getting out was easy. From finding a country that would take you, to meeting the stringent entry requirements, to flying to the other side of the world with a 3 year old who didn't speak any English - it's a miracle it happened at all. My parents are heroes.

Australia is very underrated, mostly by Australians. I was one of them. 7 years ago I felt the itch to get out of my small boring hometown future Olympic city. Unlike everyone else my age, I didn't see the appeal of London, but America beckoned. We ended up living in the US for 5 years, and it was very good to us. American optimism is infectious. When you're in your bright eyed and bushy tailed 20s, it's hard not to be inspired by a culture that has so much (justified) self belief. And it's hard to not have fun when you have a country that is designed around consumerism and hedonism.

Eventually, unfortunately, we grew up. Got married, had a baby, etc. I woke up one day with a firm conviction that this was not the country I wanted to raise my kids in. Some of that comes down to America's flaws, but just as much comes from what we had left behind. If you have lived in Australia, it's hard to imagine why you'd choose to raise a family anywhere else.

Australia has always had a strong sense of fairness. It is a great cultural strength, and it was an innate sense of fairness that welcomed my family here 30 years ago. It's also a burden. Trying to be too fair is why we overwhelm each other with silly rules and complex laws. I've spent almost half of my time in Australia - basically my whole adult life - trying to make employment law more manageable. No one bit of software (no matter how good) will cure Australia's bureaucratism, but it feels like important work, and I hope I've been able to give back a little to the country that's given me so much.

Since moving back from the US I've talked to a lot of people who went overseas and for whatever reason came back. Some just went to pour beers in Canada for a few months, others moved "permanently" like I thought I did. I haven't found anyone who regrets coming home. I certainly don't.

But there's one thing I do miss. Americans who don't have a passport will talk your ear off about living in the best country in the world, and while we might find that cute or annoying (depending on how loud they are), the reality is that if you grow up hearing that all the time, it becomes part of your identity. That counts for something. By contrast, it's easy to grow up in Australia and be pretty neutral about the country by the time you're an adult. For many people, it takes moving away to realise what they left behind. I don't think that's good.

We don't all need to be as brash as the stereotypical yank, but if we don't tell our friends, kids, cousins, nieces and nephews how good they have it, then we risk a future where only those fortunate enough to fly somewhere else are able to work this out. This might be good for Qantas, but it's not good for the rest of us.

Here's to 30 more years!