It's always been an irreverent and largely egalitarian society here. With a few loathed snobby exceptions, the highest in the land, the academics,the filthy rich, the famous, were as likely to be, and expected to be, found sharing a beer with the plumber and butcher at a local barbie as at a black tie dinner. Business dealings etc were separate classes, socialising was not.
It's changed gradually over the last few decades, more due to the change in media than in character traits though I think. I've been at gatherings where looking at us from outside we all appeared to be working class 'bogans' in casual attire and it was impossible to pick the 3 millionaires from those who could barely cover their mortgage. They'd grown up together, or had been mates for many years and the change in circumstances made no difference to that on either side. We didn't give any credence to wealth or society status, just to character. Before paparazzi type media there was very little 'class consciousness' here and multis and movie stars were accorded the same degree of familiarity as Joe up the road.
Any pretensions were, and are, cut down to size ruthlessly. We didn't need the Tories. We'd 'crushed' the aristocracy in our own way and they were just one of us with slightly different political bias or they got very lonely.
So 'Liberal' is as right wing as we needed to get. Still damned confusing though.
