David Dale makes a case in "The Sydney Morning Herald" for nominating the phrase "a Magic Pudding" as Australia's National Metaphor. After making a list of recognisable metaphors Dale states: "...but my favourite is a metaphor created in the year 1918 by the artist and writer Norman Lindsay, which became so widely used that it ended up with its own entry in the Macquarie Dictionary (defined as 'endlessly renewable resource')...We're talking, of course, about The Magic Pudding. The world, said Lindsay, is divided into Puddin' Owners and Puddin' Thieves. Paul Keating used to call John Howard a Puddin' Thief, and accused the Liberal Party of using Telstra as a Magic Pudding, 'from which they could cut a slice to pay for their election commitments.' More recently environmentalists have argued that we treat this continent as if it were a Magic Pudding, and thus are exhausting its resources."
Oddly enough, the piece is dated 18th February 2007. Time-travel at last?
