19/20; I only missed the one about the executive versus judicial arm of the government. Being Canadian helped.
(My great-grandfather’s kids all emigrated to Australia… except my grandfather, who went to Saskatchewan just in time for the Great Depression. He got privation and cold winters instead of beaches and warm weather. My mom told tales of walking along the wooden sidewalks of Regina as a little girl, going to school in the -40C chill. We could have been Australian, dammit, and taken our holidays on the warm sunny beach!)
Being Canadian helped, I think, as a number of the questions were related to the constitutional monarchy and parliamentary systems with which I’m already familiar.
19/20, missing the one about the Governor-General’s power.
I made educated guesses about Anzac Day (Australia, New Zealand Army Corps… must be something about a war) and the Aboriginal Flag (They live in the desert, right? Probably not blue or green then.), as well as the January 1st, 1901 question (Jan. 1st is good day for laws, etc., to come into effect). As others have said, most of it is indeed standard liberal democracy stuff.
20/20. I’m a flag and military history buff, so the Aboriginal flag and ANZAC didn’t throw me. I’m a bit disappointed, though, by the glaring lack of questions about the University of Woolamaloo Philosophy Department, kookaburras, Waltzing Matilda or Breaker Morant.
As the Wiki article on Foster’s notes, “Foster’s does not enjoy widespread popularity in Australia” and “These days (2007), it is relatively difficult to find in smaller bottle shops, and is seldom found on tap.” In fact, you don’t even have to drink beer: Australia makes some of best wine in the world.
In all my years living in Australia, i don’t think i knew a single person who drank Foster’s. For those who drank regular, mass-market beer, Victoria Bitter tended to be the brew of choice.
I remember the first time i saw the American Foster’s commercial, where the slogan was “Foster’s: It’s Australian for beer,” i said to my wife, “No, Foster’s is Australian for urine.”
19 out of 20. Not sure which one I missed, but it was in the fourth group of questions. I guessed on the Aboriginal flag, as I know I’ve seen it, but forgot the color scheme.
Was 4/5 on each section for 16/20 total, but several of my correct answers were complete guesses (how the hell would I know what “Anzac day” is?). And a lot of the other answers are the same as they are for the U.S.
19 out of 20, but only because I was reading too fast, and missed the word “second” in “what is the second largest political coalition called.” The only question I had to flat-out guess on was the aboriginal flag colors.
It took me two guesses to get the Aboriginal flag, and I got lucky and guessed right the first time on the 1901 question, but other than that, I knew (or had a strong educated guess for) the other 18. For instance, I knew that “ANZAC” was something military-related, and the date of a troop landing is the sort of thing that gets commemorated with a named day, so that was an easy guess. And some of them were just obviously wrong: “Everyone in Australia has the same religion”? That’s not even true of Saudi Arabia.
Oh, I should add that I used knowledge of Australia specifically for two of them. I’ve read about mandatory voting here on the Dope, so I knew that one, and I know that the Queen is the Head of State of Australia, so the governor-general obviously doesn’t appoint her.
