Australia Day reflections on Hard Tack

Many my age have been sent down to a corner store as kids to buy broken biscuits. They were cheaper than perfect ones. At some stage larrikin kids tried our hand at being a Beano-comic style comedian
"Mr, do you have any broken biscuits?"
"Yes, son"
"Then why don’t you mend them"
Biscuits were then scooped out from a large tin, and weighed into a brown paper bag. Our parents knew what sort of biscuits to buy then, they didn’t need fancy climate-change-producing plastic wrapped tubes with pictures on the size the grab their fancy on a biscuit shelf.
Biscuits have been an integral part of our lives and culture. Iced Vo-Vos, Yo-Yos, Anzacs, Sao, Ginger Nuts and Milk Arrowroot. In true Aussie style, they were generally referred to as "Bickies"
Imagine my horror then at the way our language is being damaged, like a stale biscuit. . I go to a restaurant and I am offered a cookie. I fly and the cabin crew offer cookies. In the supermarket the biscuit aisle is labeled ‘cookies’.
I protest. As an Australian, I want a biscuit with my cup of tea or coffee. Not a placebo sweet called a cookie.
This introduction-by-stealth of the name ‘cookie’ is a well accomplished example of subversion of Australian culture and language.
For a young nation that grew from a diet of hard tack, we must protect our great tucker.
American companies homogenising our foods and words, and weak-minded Australian marketing puppets, are gradually surrendering the name and status of our fundamental snack foods.
In 2009 ill advised Americans tried to change the name of one Australian iconic food Vegemite, to something like I_P_on_U.
The local protest was strong enough and loud enough to make the overseas owners back off. But I notice the so called ‘withdrawn’ label is still taking up metres of shelf space in supermarkets. They haven’t really withdrawn the re-named re-flavoured substitute for vegemite.it is still being sold possibly to wear down loyalty to Vegemite.
This is important to the issue, and relevant to the discussion of biscuit lore. Imagine a cookie and vegemite snack. Vegemite in a sandwich of Vita wheat crackers, oozes out little worms when squeezed. The American substitute just seeps and creeps like spilled oil.
We don’t have to accept these change. Our food is NOT Terra Nullis. ANZAC biscuits have been part of the nation's diet for nearly 100 years. When biscuit companies tried to sell some swamp hay they called ‘ANZAC cookies’ there was an outcry. Enough is enough. That was where and when the cookie should have crumbled. They still appear, and if you see them around this Australia day, join me in class action, claiming the seller is anti Australian.
Then a fast food chain (from: guess where) tried to sell more sludge, this time called by the proper name "Anzac Biscuits" but they were not the real deal (they were some fast food ignorant recipe). It was more than this country could swallow.
The Department of Veteran's Affairs ordered Subway to bake its ANZAC biscuit as per the original recipe, which is protected by federal legislation.
Rather than meet local customer needs, and the Australian law, Subway restaurants stopped selling their faux ANZAC biscuits.
Don’t get me wrong. Cookies have a place in scoffing, but not at the cost of bickies
A 'biscuit' and 'cookie' are two different classifications, not to be used to describe the same food type
The word biscuit comes from the Old French biscuit. Italians sell Biscotti-
In most English-speaking countries outside North America, the most common word for various hand-held, flour-based sweet cakes-either crisp or soft- is BISCUIT.
In the United States a biscuit is a kind of quick bread similar to a scone.
Small hard biscuits were probably first made by ancient Middle Eastern peoples. These foods were quite practical, as they were filling, easily transported and able withstand adverse weather conditions. This is why cracker-type foods have a long history in military rations. Ancient Roman armies ate biscuits, Nelson's sailors ate Ship's biscuit, and soldiers ate hardtack.
I believe the Tax Office could be well served by looking into this cookie-biscuit fiasco. At present they are confused and relying on courts to tell them the difference between biscuits and bread. Australia taxes biscuits, but not breads. Ciabatte is a bread, every where in the world, but Australian Tax Office wants to tax the local product as a biscuit. I think the ATO, and Australia, would be better served by taking the extra Goods and Services Tax off biscuits, but taxing everything called a Cookie.
With a little change in the law to protect the Australian way of life, they could collect millions of dollars (AU) from overseas food polluters, and gain the respect and support of millions of Australians.

For more on this: Warren Fahey was done great research on The History of the Australia Biscuit