Let me give you a little Mendelsohn 101: I came up in television in the early- to mid- 1980s in Australia.
When I was 24 I went to Nigeria and it was such a culture shock, growing up in Australia and suddenly being the only white man in this unit full of black men.
If you want to appeal to everyone, you can't do a world tour and expect black people to show up at every date - when you're in Australia, when you're in Dubai, when you're in Indonesia.
I'm out there arguing the Labor case. I will do it anywhere and everywhere that I can. I do it within various communities across Australia where I am able to make a positive contribution. And let me tell you, my voice won't be silenced in the public debate because the issue at stake for Australia are so stark.
It's funny because when I'm outside Australia, I never get to do my Australian accent in anything. It's always a Danish accent or an English accent or an American accent.
A lot of artists get famous overseas first. I don't know what it is here. I have a large underground following in the U.S., but I don't get the airplay as much as I do in, say, Australia. Over there, they can play whatever they like, it seems, but not so much here.
We all go back to our roots. My father went to the central west, went to Ilfracombe in 1919. He was the manager of the wool scour there. And, Ilfracombe was right at the heart of Australia's great wool industry, and my mother was a teacher at Winton.
On Australia Day 2010, as we enter this second decade of the 21st century, Australians can be optimistic about our future, but we cannot afford to mistake optimism for complacency.
There isn't a lot of work in Australia. I think that's why everyone comes over to America to find jobs and pilots and things, because there's not enough work to justify staying there, unfortunately. Like, I wish there was. I would love to stay home and be working with my family around the corner, but the work just isn't there.
There's very little bohemia in Australia and it's one of the things I miss most about not living in Europe.
I was eight when we came to Australia. It was five amazing weeks onboard this ship - it was the Northern Star.
If it wasn't for my dad, I would never have known about pentathlon, because it's not popular at all in Australia.
The Apology opened the opportunity for a new relationship based on mutual respect and mutual responsibility between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia. Because without mutual respect and mutual responsibility, the truth is we can achieve very little.
Establishing the rights for gay people to be married would cost the Australian government nothing financially and would gain for you worldwide respect from people like us and, of course, would change lives enormously - the lives of gay people and of their friends and of their families and therefore of Australia as a whole.
As an outsider, you don't think of Australia as being old-fashioned - it's only when you've been here for a period of time when you realise there are issues.
I came to the United States to see what would happen in 2000 after working for 20 years in Australia and asked my agent to look out for the nasty roles because I'd become famous for playing the nicest man in Australia. So I wanted to play bad guys.
Canada, Australia and New Zealand have apologised for their treatment of native peoples.
I lived in New York City, and when I was about 24 in the 1980s, I decided to get out of here. I wanted to go live in Australia for a year or something, and it ended up being 18 years.
And the reason for that I think is that in Australia our films don't get the exposure, so the process is foremost. But anyway, I love being part of the team and hate being stuck in a corner somewhere.
I could definitely see myself living back in Australia again. If I had a family, I could move back.
My point is this, the Government made this decision to ban totally beef exports into Indonesia, even to compliant abattoirs and this will have enormous consequences for the beef cattle industry across Australia.
The magnitude of discrimination and stigma faced by people with disability in Australia cannot be underestimated. People do not understand disability, and people fear what they don't understand.
I'd love to come to Australia. I'd love to walk about the Sydney Opera House.
In my view, helping to feed a hungry world is Australia's greatest responsibility and opportunity in the 21st century.
I found myself drawn to the remote Kimberley region of Australia - in the far Northwest corner of the country - our last frontier. I still can't explain why. I kept coming back over many years and started shooting material.
My working history as an actor is definitely in the theatre; it certainly was in Australia.
You don't leave Australia unless you are passionate. Any Australian actor who comes to America is really committed. There are no dabblers - it's all or nothing.
One of the reasons why Australia and Canada have support for migration is because they control the numbers.
England was the first true colonial power to use its dominion over a large part of Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, North America, and many Caribbean islands, in the first half of the 20th century.
Australia has suffered a decade of drought, epic floods, a Category 5 cyclone, and a plague of locusts. But just because Aussies have the biggest carbon footprint in the world, it doesn't mean they're stupid.
Once, in Australia, I ate 33 pancakes in 20 minutes, and I only did it because they said a girl could never enter the competition.
I find Australia compelling and vexatious at the best of times; I've never been able to get it out of my system since going there as a young lecturer, and yet however much I love revisiting it, I always feel I have to leave again.
When I race in Australia or Korea or Japan, I know it will be a big change for me because Ferrari fans are worldwide. It's very nice if you win, but it's not so good if you lose. All this is part of being a Ferrari driver.
'Rolling Stone,' my first single, was only a hit in Portugal, but when we recorded my second single, 'Can The Can,' I got that hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck feeling, and I knew it would be huge. It topped the charts in the U.K. and Australia in 1973, and I got my first gold disc.
When I graduated from high school, I had artistic and academic scholarships, and I was trying to figure out what to do. I decided to audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Juilliard and the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sydney, Australia.
I've never had a cold Christmas, as I always spend it back home in Australia.
