The other Land of Opportunity

I am speaking of Australia, where a man with a rather colorful family background can rise to the top and become Prime Minister. Seriously, it's like a Horatio Alger story, but with stolen underpants:

While a convict past was once a source of shame for Australians, most now wear any criminal ancestry with pride.

The first European settlers arrived in Australia from Britain in 1788 to set up a British penal colony. More than 160,000 British convicts were sent to Australia until 1868, when the convict transports stopped.

The family history reveals Rudd's fifth great-grandmother Mary Wade lived in poverty in England and survived by sweeping streets and begging. In 1788, aged about 12, she and another girl robbed an eight-year-old girl of her dress and underclothes.

Wade was caught and tried at London's Old Bailey court in January 1789 and was sentenced to be executed, but after three months she was transported to Australia with 200 other women on the second fleet.

You know, far be it from me to coddle someone who would steal underwear from an eight-year-old, but daaaaamn, the justice system was a bit harsh back then. I mean, the two options they had were the death penalty or getting shipped around to the other side of the planet? I guess juvenile hall is a fairly recent invention.