We read:
"Australia becoming a country of wogs - and it is OK to say so. The federal Arts Minister, George Brandis, said yesterday that calling someone a "wog" is no longer considered offensive or racist because Australians are better at laughing at themselves. "It is a badge of arrival when a racial group can tell a joke against itself," he said.
But the Liberal MP Teresa Gambaro, the Assistant Minister for Immigration whose parents hail from the southern Italian region of Calabria, said using the word depended on the situation. "I wouldn't like a complete stranger to call me a wog. I think I'd be quite offended then."
Source
Senator Brandis is probably best known for pointing out how similar Greenie policies are to the policies of Hitler. See also here on that.
Historically, the term "wog" was applied to poor immigrants from Southern Europe but people from Southern Europe are now so prosperous and well assimilated into the general Australian society that they actually run the parliament of Australia's most populous State (NSW). And some Australians of Southern European origin do now cheerfully describe themselves as "wogs".
All of which goes to show that for an ethnic description to be derogatory and offensive, there has to be some adverse reality behind it. If there is in fact nothing inferior or discreditable about the group concerned, words describing that group ("Redneck" is a good U.S. example) will have little power to offend.
