This could have been a comment uttered in Australia every single year since fifteen years after the tea was thrown in the river in Boston. It could refer to either side of any argument.
As a fellow Australian it works for me.
And obviously before that, but the assumption of who government was responsible to underwent a massive paradigm shift. "Gee, Charlemagne doesn't seem to have the interests of us serfs in mind" wouldn't have been a very interesting conversation back in the day.
The case could be made that there was a long slow steady devolution of power in the UK system of Government since 1215 until the present, that was branched, modified and frozen by the US Constitution which has remained in a kind of "little King for four years" stasis since while other countries have continued to evolve government, democracy, elections and representation.
Which Australia are you thinking of?
Quite disturbed these days by the state of governance in this country, on so many levels.
- William Kermode, Tasmanian maritime merchant (1836) [3]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party
The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest on December 16, 1773, by the Sons of Liberty in Boston in colonial Massachusetts.
The first settlement, at Sydney, consisted of about 850 convicts and their Marine guards and officers, led by Governor Arthur Phillip. They arrived at Botany Bay in the "First Fleet" of 9 transport ships accompanied by 2 small warships, in January, 1788.