To subscribe to the Traveller.com.au podcast Flight of Fancy on iTunes, click here or download using your favourite podcasting app.

Does Australia have too many rules? We certainly have a lot of rules. We have rules on how to drink. We have rules on how to ride a bike. We have rules on driving, rules on walking, and rules on just about anything else you can think of.

But is it too much? It's only when you travel the world that you realise that not every country has as many rules as we do. Countries such as Thailand and Laos come to mind, places where there's a greater reliance on personal responsibility and intelligent decision-making in everyday life, because the official rules just aren't there.

But even European countries are more relaxed than we are. You can drink on the street in Portugal. You can ride your bike without a helmet in every single place. Are Europeans just able to be relied upon to not do the wrong thing?

On this episode of "Flight of Fancy: the traveller.com.au podcast", we're examining the nanny state culture of Australia. We're also looking at the way Australians act overseas when they suddenly don't have these rules to follow. Are all of the laws in Australia breeding a nation of idiots – or were we just untrustworthy to begin with?

To discuss this, host Ben Groundwater is joined by two guests with very different takes on the issue. Traveller writer Ute Junker has spent plenty of time in Germany, and would like Australians to be as relaxed as they are in her second home. South African-born writer Catherine Marshall, meanwhile, sees plenty to love about the safe, orderly country she now inhabits.

Has the lucky country become the stuff country? We're about to find out.

To subscribe to the Traveller.com.au podcast Flight of Fancy on iTunes, click here or download using your favourite podcasting app.