The Peking duck arrived on a platter the size of a solar dish and the party of prosperous retired couples tucked in with gusto. Conventionally leftish, comfortably superannuated, ‘Yes’ voters (though they would have thought gay marriage an absurd fantasy five years ago, and weren’t that keen on gays in general not many years before that), they all liked dining out in the exotic restaurants they considered one of the manifold benefits multiculturalism had bestowed on the dull old Australia of their youth.