Finally, a government found the courage to do what the rest of us have wanted to do — outlaw annoying behavior.

Australian police were given authority to impose a fine of more than $5,000 on anyone who “causes annoyance or inconvenience” during a World Youth Day event later this month that the Pope will attend.

If only our federal government had the guts to ban annoying behavior here.

Think of it.

When the woman at the supermarket waits until her groceries are rung up, bagged, taken to her car and neatly arranged in her pantry before she takes out her checkbook, we could holler, Gomer-like, “Citizens a-ray-est!” (Ever notice, too, that these people are always incredibly slow writers, like they are trying to win the third-grade penmanship medal?)

Those of us who KNEW we were going to have to pay for our groceries before we even went in the store will finally have the last laugh.

And we could put our cars in gear and not-so-gently push the car in front of us through the drive-in bank lane if the driver chooses to sit in line and balance his checkbook, research a few stocks and clip his toenails after his transaction is completed. Don’t tell me y’all haven’t thought about it. But it would be nice to have the government’s support.

I do foresee a problem, though.

We would need more jails to hold all the teenagers. Face it, teens don’t have the money to pay such steep fines and their parents aren’t likely to. And wouldn’t they be the age group voted Most Annoying?

Who hasn’t wanted to slap cuffs on the kid whose hind-end was showing above pants that hover around his knees?

Last month, a Florida man took out a gun and shot a teen, whom he did not know, after ordering the teen to pull up his sagging shorts. The teen was only slightly injured and, while I certainly don’t condone violence, I sense a movement is growing.

Oh, and most fun of all would be getting out of our cars at red lights, tapping on the window of the teen driver behind us, and telling him he better stop vibrating us like a load of laundry if he doesn’t want us to call the police — or at the very least make him listen to Celine Dion until he curls fetal-like and begs, “Make it stop; make it stop!”

In a news story about the annoyance law, Australians were babbling on about “civil rights” and “freedom of speech.”

Some attorneys claim it’s “unnecessary and repugnant” to impose fines on “behaviour” that inconveniences.

I object.