Blackhand,
All part of our good old British heritage --- All rights are reserved to the Crown, all that is not expressly permitted is prohibited, is probably closer to the origin.
Really, the "cultural" differences that we should have long since outgrown, but in may ways haven't , have got a lot answer for.
I have often wondered how much Australia has suffered, by not having had a revolution against the Crown, we simply have no conception of the concept of freedom, as embraced in the US Declaration of Independence and the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
All our laws stem from the same basic origin, Blackstone's Commentaries, but how differently they have developed in various Common Law countries, and how what freedoms we may have are increasingly circumscribed by an avalanche of statutory law.
In short, freedom as the yanks understand it, is too dangerous a concept to be allowed Australians.
Tootle pip!!