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It’s such a little word. Mate. Small, but with long Australian legs, having survived and thrived through the convict era, the gold rushes, two world wars and the first two decades of the 21st century. Mate can mean many things in Australia, from the tenderest greeting to the whiplash of condemnation.
It can radiate great goodwill or the oiliest insincerity. It depends on the intonation, the circumstances of its delivery and who is saying it to – or about – whom.
Academics have expended much time and energy grappling with the word. A prime minister caused a national convulsion when he tried and failed to co-opt mate’s conceptually broader companion, mateship, for a preamble to the Constitution.