Furious Aussies slam actress Miriam Margolyes after she labels Australia brutal and greedy

Defensive Aussies have slammed British-born actress Miriam Margolyes for comments she made about her adopted country in the upcoming docuseries, Almost Australian.

The 79-year-old Harry Potter star incited the wrath of furious Australians when she labelled the country brutal and greedy, after seeing the growing number of developments in Queensland’s tourist hotspot Surfers Paradise.  

Many suggested that Miriam could always leave in scathing comments on Facebook. 

‘Put your claws back in Miriam and be thankful for the surroundings of where you are living. If you are so incensed with Aussies, simply pack your bags and head back to England,’ one wrote. 

‘One simple solution f**k off out of Australia. This country has a lot to offer. Get rid of you and that means some other deserving human might take your place. I sincerely hope you are pressured to leave,’ another added. 

‘Nobody is forcing you to stay here!’ one person put it simply, while another added, ‘Nobody is perfect Miriam… and no country is perfect either. We all know that.’ 

But some agreed with her comments, arguing she has a right to an opinion and claiming she was only pointing out an inconvenient truth.  

‘Good on her… I’m ashamed of how Aussies act too… stop selling Australia offshore,’ wrote one. 

‘I have no idea if she’s right or wrong, but at least she didn’t cave in and give a half-a**ed apology. She has the right to an opinion and she offered one. Good for her,’ added another.  

Miriam, who became a naturalised citizen seven years ago, travelled from coast to coast for her series Almost Australian, but the process left her feeling disenchanted with her adopted home country.

She made headlines for saying she was horrified by the ‘brutality’ and ‘greed’ of modern Australia – and has since declared in an interview with The New Daily that she won’t be making any apologies for her remarks. 

She said her longtime partner, Heather Sutherland, a retired Australian professor of Indonesian studies, had warned her that ‘Australians do not like criticism’.

‘And they don’t, so I knew that I was doing something quite risky by, you know, having an opinion,’ she said. ‘Because I think Australians are a bit tired of Brits mouthing off about Australia, and I don’t blame them.’ 

But despite this, she decided to throw caution to the wind and say what she really thought about Australia – regardless of the consequences.

‘I hope people will not be too annoyed about the things I have to say, but in the end, to be honest, f**k ’em if they are. That’s tough. I’m telling it like I see it,’ she said. 

It comes after Miriam, who is best known for playing Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter film series, sparked outrage by saying Australia was ‘harsher’ than she had first thought when she arrived in the 1980s.

‘We think we know what [Australia is] like, but we don’t. It’s quite complicated. It’s layered. Lots of things happen. I do think I was right that it’s harsher than it was. Maybe that’s true in the world,’ she told TV Tonight. 

‘There’s a harshness about it, which I didn’t expect.’  

She said the most confronting part of the documentary was having to visit Surfers Paradise, a highly developed stretch of coastline on Queensland’s Gold Coast popular with holidaymakers.

‘There is a brutality there and a greed in Australia, which I don’t like,’ she said.

‘You know, the developers. Those horrible structures along the coast, that people should be ashamed of living in. Surfers Paradise, it’s disgusting. I think that actually shocked me because I don’t go there. It’s not my world and I don’t want to go there.’