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Sending Them Home
Refugees and the New Politics of Indifference; Quarterly Essay 13
by Robert Manne
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
In Sending Them Home, Robert Manne tells the stories of individual asylum seekers and finds in their experience the seeds of a devastating critique. Balancing sorrow and pity with a controlled anger, Manne develops a sustained argument about what could, and should, be done for the nine thousand refugees who remain in limbo on temporary protection visas.
Sending Them Home also contains a groundbreaking account of conditions in the offshore processing camps on Nauru, whose operations have until now been shrouded in secrecy, and a damning forensic investigation of the recent efforts to return - frequently against their will - many of those who sought our protection and whose countries remain in turmoil. Combining ethical reflection and acute political analysis, this essay initiates a new phase in the refugee debate.
'No one ought to pretend that the unanticipated arrival of the Iraqis, Afghans and Iranians did not pose real ... problems for Australia. However these problems arose not because these people were not genuine refugees. They arose, rather, precisely because the overwhelming majority of them were.' -Robert Manne, Sending Them Home
This issue also contains correspondence discussing Quarterly Essay 10, Made in England, from Phillip Knightley, Morag Fraser, Larissa Behrendt, Alan Atkinson, James Curran, Sara Wills, and Gerard Windsor
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Beyond Belief
What Future for Labor?; Quarterly Essay 6
by John Button
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
In Beyond Belief, John Button looks at what has gone wrong with the Labor Party.
What has happened to the faith of the True Believers and why is the ALP so bad at recruiting new members? He offers a tough-minded analysis of what went wrong in the last election and asks why the Labor Party has turned its back on its destiny as a party of reform.
Here is a very cool account of the factions which seem to stand for nothing but their own power bases, and the unions who both give and get little from the ALP. In a withering analysis, John Button looks at the quality of Labor members and the short-sightedness of a party turning its back on ideas. This is an essay by a man who still believes in Chifley's light on the hill but who thinks the only hope lies with New Believers.
'Beyond Belief represents one of the coolest and most disheartening accounts of a great political party this country has seen. This is the Australian Labor Party seen from the perspective of an elder statesman who has an absolute belief ... in the moral superiority of the Labor cause but who seriously doubts whether the ALP will ever achieve government again and who distinctly implies that in its present state it is not fit for it.' -Peter Craven, Introduction
'After the election debacle some people blamed the Tampa and September 11. But the simple fact is that the ALP had not built an adequate policy profile or built up sufficient enthusiasm and respect for its style of politics. Without these, it had no hope of differentiating its position on refugees and asylum seekers from the government's when this became the key issue of the election.' -John Button, Beyond Belief
This issue also contains correspondence discussing Quarterly Essay 5, Girt by Sea, from Alison Broinowski, Gerard Henderson, John Hirst, Philip Ruddock, Angela Shanahan, Robyn Spencer, and Mungo MacCallum.
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Whitefella Jump Up
The Shortest Way to Nationhood; Quarterly Essay 11
by Germaine Greer
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
In Whitefella Jump Up, Germaine Greer suggests that embracing Aboriginality is the only way Australia can fully imagine itself as a nation. In a wide-ranging essay she looks at the interdependence of black and white and suggests not how the Aborigine question may be settled but how a sense of being Aboriginal might save the soul of Australia.
In a sweeping and magisterial essay, touching on everything from Henry Lawson to multiculturalism, Germaine Greer argues that Australia must enter the Aboriginal web of dreams.
"[Whitefella Jump Up] is an essay about sitting down and thinking where all the politics start and what kind of legend Australia wants to place at its heart." Peter Craven, Introduction
"I'm not here offering yet another solution to the Aborigine problem ... Blackfellas are not and never were the problem. They were the solution, if only whitefellas had been able to see it." Germaine Greer, Whitefella Jump Up
This issue also contains correspondence discussing Quarterly Essay 10, Bad Company, from Tim Duncan, Evan Thornley, John Quiggin, Michael Pusey, Graham Jones, Trevor Sykes, and Gideon Haigh
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Quarterly Essay 52 Found in Translation
In Praise of a Plural World
by Linda Jaivin
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
Whether we're aware of it or not, we spend much of our time in this globalised world in the act of translation. Language is a big part of it, of course, as anyone who has fumbled with a phrasebook in a foreign country will know, but behind language is something far more challenging to translate: culture. As a traveller, a mistranslation might land you a bowl of who-knows-what when you think you asked for noodles, and mistranslations in international politics can be a few steps from serious trouble. But translation is also a way of entering new and exciting worlds, and forging links that never before existed.
Linda Jaivin has been translating from Chinese for more than thirty years. While her specialty is subtitles, she has also translated song lyrics, poetry and fiction, and interpreted for ABC film crews, Chinese artists and even the English singer Billy Bragg as he gave his take on socialism to some Beijing rockers. In Found in Translation she reveals the work of the translator and considers whether different worldviews can be bridged. She pays special attention to China and the English-speaking West, Australia in particular, but also discusses French, Japanese and even the odd phrase of Maori. This is a free-ranging essay, personal and informed, about translation in its narrowest and broadest senses, and the prism – occasionally prison – of culture.
"About six years ago, President George W. Bush was delivering a speech at a G8 summit, when, made impatient by the process of translation, he interrupted his German interpreter: 'Everybody speaks English, right?' …" -Linda Jaivin, Found in Translation
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In Denial
The Stolen Generations and the Right; Quarterly Essay 1
by Robert Manne
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
In this national bestseller Robert Manne attacks the right-wing campaign against the Bringing them home report that revealed how thousands of Aboriginal children had been taken from their parents.
What was the role of Paddy McGuinness as editor of Quadrant? How reliable was the evidence that led newspaper columnists from Piers Akerman in the Sydney Daily Telegraph to Andrew Bolt in the Melbourne Herald Sun to deny the gravity of the injustice done?
In a powerful indictment of past government policies towards the indigenous Australians, Robert Manne has written a brilliant polemical essay which doubles as a succinct history of how indigenous Australians were mistreated and an exposure of the ignorance of those who want to deny that history.
'In complex intellectual conflicts, there will always be argument about whether the antagonists are committed to finding the truth or to winning the battle. This essay tells us that Robert Manne is intent on finding the truth.' – Morag Fraser, editor Eureka Street
'[In Denial] is a work of both the head and the heart. It is carefully researched and powerfully expressed. It needs to be widely read. – The Hon. P.J. Keating, former Prime Minister of Australia
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Quarterly Essay 48 After the Future
Australia's New Extinction Crisis
by Tim Flannery
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
Australia is home to many animals and plants found nowhere else on earth, making Australians caretakers of a unique heritage in a land that tolerates few mistakes. Yet, in After the Future, Tim Flannery shows that this country is now on the brink of a new wave of extinctions, which threatens to leave our national parks as "marsupial ghost towns." Why are species becoming extinct despite the tens of millions of dollars being spent to protect nature? And what more should be done?
In this passionate and illuminating essay, Flannery tells the story of the human impact on the continent. He revisits his Future Eaters hypothesis, discussing how firestick farming helped to shape the ecology and preserve native fauna. He looks at the way recent governments, in tandem with an indifferent populace and a rabid libertarian right, have let environmental knowledge and commitments erode. Finally, he describes new approaches to wildlife conservation and argues that Australia must take the lead on these. This is an essay that rings the alarm on behalf of the natural world, and asks us to think again about protection of its irreplaceable riches.
'Such is the depth of public ignorance about Australia's extinction crisis that most people are unaware that it is occurring, while those who do know of it commonly believe that our national parks and reserves are safe places for threatened species. In fact the second extinction wave is now in full swing, and it's emptying our national parks and wildlife reserves as ruthlessly as other landscapes.' -Tim Flannery, After the Future
'Flannery is known as a passionate advocate for conservation, but rarely has he sounded so angry.' -Fiona Capp, Sydney Morning Herald
'He's a scientist of world standing, a prolific and bestselling writer, a noted explorer, passionate about the Australian environment, and believes global warming is a calamitous crisis facing us all. Tim Flannery is also a controversial, outspoken stirrer who promises … to tread on toes if he has to, to get his blunt views across.' –Kerry O'Brien, The 7:30 Report
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Quarterly Essay 45 Us and Them
On the Importance of Animals
by Anna Krien
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
For the first time in history, humans sit unchallenged at the top of the food chain. As we encroach on the wild and a vast wave of extinctions gathers force, how has our relationship with animals changed?
In this dazzling essay, Anna Krien investigates the world we have made and the complexity of the choices we face. From pets to the live cattle trade, from apex predators to scientific experiments, Krien shows how we should – and do – treat our fellow creatures. As she delves deeper, she finds that animals can trigger primal emotions in us, which we are often unwilling to acknowledge. This is a clear-eyed meditation on humanity and animality, us and them, that brings out the importance of animals in an unforgettable way.
"I am not weighing up whether our treatment of animals is just, because it isn't. That age-old debate is a farce – deep down we all know it. The real question is, just how much of this injustice are we prepared to live with?" -Anna Krien, Us and Them
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Quarterly Essay 49 Not Dead Yet
Labor's Post-Left Future
by Mark Latham
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
With an election looming and criticism of the ALP now a national pastime, Mark Latham considers the future for Labor. The nation has changed, but can the party?
With wit and insight, Latham reveals an organisation top-heavy with factional bosses protecting their turf. At the same time Labor's traditional working-class base has long been eroding. People who grew up in fibro shacks now live in double-storey affluence. Families once resigned to a lifetime of blue-collar work now expect their children to be well-educated professionals and entrepreneurs.
Latham explains how Labor has always succeeded as a grassroots party, and argues for reforms to clear out the apparatchiks and dead wood. Then there are the key policy challenges: what to do about the Keating economic legacy, education and poverty. Latham examines the rise of a destructive and reactionary far-right under the wing of Tony Abbott. He also makes the case that climate change is the ultimate challenge – and even opportunity – for a centre-left party.
Not Dead Yet is an essential contribution to political debate, which addresses the question: how can Labor reinvent itself and speak to a changed Australia?
"The grand old party of working-class participation has become a virtual party. In no other part of society … could an organisation function this way and expect to survive. This is the core delusion of 21st-century democracy, that political parties can fragment and hollow out, yet still win the confidence of the people." -Mark Latham, Not Dead Yet
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Quarterly Essay 2 Appeasing Jakarta
Australia's Complicity in the East Timor Tragedy
by John Birmingham
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
In the second Quarterly Essay, John Birmingham takes apart the folly of twenty-five years of Australian policy on East Timor. How did Gough Whitlam and Richard Woolcott in 1975 saddle this country with a policy that was bound to lead to the intervention of 1999? Why were shrewder voices ignored and why did we persist with an unworkable model? Where does this leave us with an Indonesia still dominated by the old power elites? And what was the tragedy like for the people of East Timor? John Birmingham has written a passionate narrative history of the East Timor question which never turns away from the slaughter and sorrow of the people who suffered it.
Appeasing Jakarta is an analysis of what happened in 1975 when we condoned Indonesia's intervention and what happened in 1999 when we stood against it ...John Birmingham is deadly in his disdain for the way a defunct paradigm...was clung to like a dogma...but [this] is also an essay about the human cost...written in flowing colours with a strong narrative streak and a swashbuckling power of dispatch... -Peter Craven, Introduction
It was a policy of wilful blindness, made possible only because we were always somewhere else when the trigger was pulled."" -John Birmingham, Appeasing Jakarta
John Birmingham's books include the cult memoir He Died with a Felafel in His Hand, Leviathan: The Unauthorised Biography of Sydney and the fiction series Weapons of Choice. He is the author of two Quarterly Essays, Appeasing Jakarta: Australia's Complicity in the East Timor Tragedy and A Time for War: Australia as a Military Power. He is a regular contributor to the Monthly.
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Quarterly Essay 16 Breach of Trust
Truth, Morality and Politics
by Raimond Gaita
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
In the fourth Quarterly Essay of 2004, Raimond Gaita confronts essential questions about politics as it is practised today. What do politicians mean when they talk about "trust"? Why is truthfulness important? Are we as politically and morally divided as the Americans? Does the war on terror authorise leaders to do things that once were considered beyond the pale?
Gaita argues for a conception of politics in which morality is not an optional extra. He discusses why successful politicians must at times be economical with the truth, but shows a way beyond cynicism on the one hand and moralising on the other. Politics, he says, is conceivably a noble vocation, as well as potentially a tragic one. He looks closely at patriotism and its distortions, and the temptation to betray our deepest values in the act of protecting ourselves. Combining gentle evocation with gloves-off argument, Breach of Trust is a clarion call from one of Australia's leading thinkers.
"I have never met anyone who believes that politicians should never lie ... But of course there are limits. They are not set in the heavens, but in culture." -Raimond Gaita, Breach Of Trust
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Rabbit Syndrome
Australia and America; Quarterly Essay 4
by Don Watson
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
In Rabbit Syndrome Don Watson takes an analytical look at the ways in which the Australian imagination has always been dominated by America.
Why are they so much better than we are? Even when it comes to producing books like the Updike "Rabbit" sequence that tell us what we are like? Why are they also a land of executioners who have nevertheless created the least bad empire the world has seen? Can we really expect to be deputies to America? And what about our own sacred story (the progressive one) that we have sold for the sake of the Americanisation of our own society? If we can't have a friendly independent relationship with America, why don't we go the whole hog and join them? In a dark, brooding, moody essay, Don Watson plays on the paradoxes of Australia's feeling about America and offers a scathing view of an Australian culture that is asking to be engulfed by its great and powerful friend because the mental process is already so advanced. This is a brilliant meditation round a set of paradoxes that are central to our long-term anxieties and hopes.
"... this is a Quarterly Essay that plays on our most fundamental fears, including the most terrifying of all, that we shall cease to exist because we have never been." Peter Craven, Introduction
"The Australian story does not work anymore, or not well enough ... to hang the modern story on ... The most useful thing is to recognise that ... we took the biggest step we have ever taken towards the American social model. And this has profound implications for how we think of Australia and how we make it cohere." Don Watson, Rabbit Syndrome
This issue also contains correspondence discussing Quarterly Essay 3, The Opportunist, from John Birmingham, Paul Bongiorno, Christopher Pearson, Tony Walker, and Guy Rundle
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Quarterly Essay 44 Man-Made World
Choosing Between Progress and Planet
by Andrew Charlton
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
Witnessing at first-hand the failure of the Copenhagen Climate Conference and wondering what went wrong, Andrew Charlton realised the truth of a colleague's words: 'The world is split between those who want to save the planet and those who want to save themselves.'
In this groundbreaking essay, Charlton discusses the rift that will shape our future- progress versus planet- rich versus poor. In recent times environmentalists have argued with mounting force that the growth of human activity on our planet is unsustainable. We are, they claim, on a collision course with destiny. But, the developing world counters, environmental threats, dire as they may be, are not the only challenges we face. Indeed, these can seem a distant danger compared to the daily tragedies of life in slums and villages.
Across the globe, economists and environmentalists vie over who has the right response to climate change, population growth and food scarcity. In Australia, this battle has plunged our politics into one of its most tumultuous periods. In Man-Made World Charlton evaluates some of the proposed solutions - renewable and nuclear energy, organic and genetically modified food - argues that our descendants will only thank us if we find a way to preserve both the natural world and human progress.
'Progress has its price. Each step of human advancement has left a foot-print on the planet. Today our two defining challenges are managing climate change and eliminating global poverty. In Copenhagen we learned that these challenges are inseparable.' Andrew Charlton, Man-Made World.
This edition of Quarterly Essay also includes a piece by one of Australia's leading writers, Richard Flanagan, entitled The Australian Disease; On the Decline of Love and the Rise of Non-freedom.
This issue also contains correspondence discussing Quarterly Essay 43, Bad News, from Nick Cater, Jay Rosen, Tim Flannery, Mark Latham, Jack Waterford, Rodney Tiffen, Ian Lowe, and Robert Manne.
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Quarterly Essay 24 No Fixed Address
Nomads and the Fate of the Planet
by Robyn Davidson
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
After many thousands of years, the nomads are disappearing, swept away by modernity. Robyn Davidson has spent a good part of her life with nomadic cultures – in Australia, north-west India, Tibet and the Indian Himalayas – and she herself calls three countries home. In this Quarterly Essay, she draws on her unique experience to delineate a vanishing way of life.
In a time of environmental peril, Davidson argues that the nomadic way with nature offers valuable lessons. Cosmologies such as the Aboriginal Dreaming encode irreplaceable knowledge of the natural world, and nomadic cultures emphasise qualities of tolerance, adaptability and human interconnectedness. She also explores a notable paradox: that even as classical nomadism is disappearing, hypermobility has become the hallmark of modern life. For the privileged, there is an almost unrestricted freedom of movement and an ever-growing culture of transience and virtuality.
No Fixed Address is a fascinating and moving essay, part lament, part evocation and part exhilarating speculative journey.
'I watched him out of the corner of my eye. A man unused to sitting still, restless hands, darting eyes. Looking for water, feed, camping places, villages for food and medicine, thinking '... when will the cotton here be harvested, should we risk that jungle area ...' - calculating, observing, comparing, deducing, holding massive amounts of information in the head, juggling it around - the paradigm of human intelligence. This was what nomadism required - resilience, resourcefulness, versatility, flexibility.' -Robyn Davidson, No Fixed Address
'No Fixed Address is a fascinating and learned account of lives unknown to most of us ... remarkable.' -Eric Rolls, author of A Million Wild Acres
'It's her clear-eyed no bullshit honesty that I most admire. Robyn Davidson is, without doubt, free. And being free is hard work.' -Anna Krien, Dumbo Feather
Robyn Davidson is an award-winning writer who has travelled and published widely. Her books include Tracks, Desert Places, Quarterly Essay 24: No Fixed Address – Nomads and the Fate of the Planet and, as editor, The Picador Book of Journeys. Her essays have appeared in Granta, the Monthly, the Bulletin, Griffith Review and in several previous editions of the Best Australian Essays, among others.
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Quarterly Essay 62 Firing Line
Australia's Path to War
by James Brown
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
Going to war may be the gravest decision a nation and its leaders make. At the moment, Australia is at war with the Islamic State. We also live in a region that has become much more volatile, as China asserts itself and America seeks to hold the line.
What is it like to go to war? How do we decide to go to war? Where might we go to war in the future? Will we get that decision right? In this vivid, urgent essay, James Brown looks to history, strategy and his own experience to explore these questions. He examines the legacy of the Iraq War and argues that it has prevented a clear view of Australia's future conflicts. He looks at how we plug into the US war machine, now that American troops are based in Darwin. And he sheds fascinating light on the extraordinary concentration of war powers in the hands of the Prime Minister – and how this might go wrong. This powerful essay argues that we have not yet begun to think through the choices that may confront us in years ahead.
'When you live in a country like ours, the dirty business of war is a stranger. That is the blessed legacy of a place where soldiers are rarely seen, and then only on parade. Where war means Anzac Day, and Anzac Days are all the same. There are few moments in modern Australia when you might pause to ask the most consequential of questions . . . What is it that we are willing to fight for?' -James Brown, Firing Line
'[James Brown] is a fine writer, clear and persuasive and capable of adroit tactical moves.' -Weekend Australian
'Brown's survey of this complicated landscape yields some striking phrases and arresting moments. He is a natural and precise writer with a vivid sense of place.' -Australian Book Review
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Quarterly Essay 79 the End of Certainty
Scott Morrison and Pandemic Politics
by Katharine Murphy
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
What has the coronavirus pandemic revealed about Scott Morrison, and where is he taking Australia?
Epidemics are mirrors. What has COVID-19 revealed about Australia, and about Scott Morrison and his government? In this gripping essay, Katharine Murphy goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the response to the crisis. Drawing on interviews with Morrison, Brendan Murphy, Josh Frydenberg, Sally McManus and other players, she traces how the key health and economic decisions were taken.
Her account is twinned with a portrait of the prime minister. She explores his blend of pragmatism and faith, and shows how a leader characterised by secrecy and fierce certainty learnt to compromise and reach out – with notable exceptions.
Now, as the nation turns inwards and unemployment rises, our faith in government is about to be tested anew. What does "We're all in this together" truly mean? Will Morrison snap back to Liberal hardman, or will he redefine centre-right politics in this country?
"Morrison's a partisan, blue team to the core, but his political philosophy is hard to pin down, because it is predominantly trouble-shooting. By instinct, Morrison is a power player and a populist, not a philosopher; a repairer of walls, not a writer of manifestos … [his] conservatism is extreme pragmatism in defence of what he regards as the core of the nation." -Katharine Murphy, The End of Certainty
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Quarterly Essay 20 a Time for War
Australia as a Military Power
by John Birmingham
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
In A Time for War, John Birmingham ponders the Australian way of war. After East Timor and Bali, a combination of primal fear and primal ambition has transformed attitudes to our region, to security and to war as an instrument of politics. Australian defence policy has become more assertive and our armed forces are being radically restructured and hardened. Australia now has the capacity, and even the will, to act as a military power in its region.
A Time for War begins with a gripping account of Operation Anaconda, the 2002 battle in Afghanistan to which Australian special forces made a crucial contribution. Birmingham also looks at our war dreaming: the sanctification of Anzac Day and the eclipse of the Vietnam Syndrome.Ranging from Sir John Monash to Peter Cosgrove, from Rudyard Kipling to The One Day of the Year, he finds that our armed forces can now do no wrong, and that politicians have taken note. The new militarism is not simply a response to September 11, he argues - it marks a deeper shift in the culture.
'It being an RSL, we would stand each night at six o'clock for the praye rof remembrance. It was always a moving occasion, a strange suspended moment when the pokies and racing channel, the piped music and the drunken bullshitting all fell away … Friends from overseas who witnessed the quiet ceremony never failed to be impressed. One, a poet from Czechoslovakia, had always thought Australians to be a shallow, soulless, materialistic people, but she changed her mind after her first experience of the ode to the fallen among the half-empty schooners and chip packets." John Birmingham, A Time for War
This issue also contains correspondence discussing Quarterly Essay 19,Relaxed & Comfortable, from David Kemp, Graham Richardson, David Corlett, Don Aitkin, Ian Marsh, Matthew Sharpe, and Judith Brett
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Girt by Sea
Australia, the Refugees and the Politics of Fear
by Mungo MacCallum
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
In Girt By Sea Mungo MacCallum provides a devastating account of the Howard government's treatment of the refugees as well as delineating the factors in Australian history which have worked towards prejudice and those which have worked against it; ranging from Calwell's postwar immigration policy to the recent revelations of beat-ups and distortions in the 2001 election campaign.
This is a powerful account of how the government played on what was ultimately the race issue. In an essay which is, by terms, witty, dry and bitingly understated, Mungo MacCallum asks what epithets are appropriate for a prime minister who has brought us to this pass. He also raises the question of whether Australia's contemporary treatment of refugees has anything in common with the sane and decent policies that have characterised the better moments in our history.
'… it will take a long time to recover from the campaign of hate and fear which was deemed to be necessary to return the Howard government in the first year of the new millennium.' -Mungo MacCallum, Girt By Sea
'This most cold-eyed of one time Canberra chroniclers brings to this story all his wit and dryness and power of mind. It's a sad tale ... though it is everywhere enlivened by MacCallum's … tendency to suggest that spades really are bloody shovels at the end of the day.' -Peter Craven
'A document of immense power … MacCallum's essay will stand as a record of Australia's shame and depravity. It will haunt us. ' -Julian Burnside, Australian Book Review
'Mungo's assertion that Howard is a man with no vision, only division, to his name and his recognition that Howard will never have the approval of those elites he so gratuitously desires, is a blistering strike at the Liberal man.' -Geoff Parkes, Journal of Australian Studies
Mungo MacCallum has long been one of Australia's most influential and entertaining political journalists, in a career spanning more than four decades. Mungo has worked with the Australian, the Age, the Financial Review, Sydney Morning Herald and numerous magazines, as well as the ABC, SBS, Channel Nine and Channel Ten. His books include the bestselling Mungo: The Man Who Laughs, The Good, the Bad and the Unlikely: Australia's Prime Ministers and The Whitlam Mob.
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Quarterly Essay 78 the Coal Curse
Resources, Climate and Australia's Future
by Judith Brett
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
Australia is a wealthy nation with the economic profile of a developing country – heavy on raw materials, and low on innovation and skilled manufacturing. Once we rode on the sheep's back for our overseas trade; today we rely on cartloads of coal and tankers of LNG. So must we double down on fossil fuels, now that COVID-19 has halted the flow of international students and tourists? Or is there a better way forward, which supports renewable energy and local manufacturing?
Judith Brett traces the unusual history of Australia's economy and the "resource curse" that has shaped our politics. She shows how the mining industry learnt to run fear campaigns, and how the Coalition became dominated by fossil-fuel interests to the exclusion of other voices. In this insightful essay about leadership, vision and history, she looks at the costs of Australia's coal addiction and asks, where will we be if the world stops buying it?
"Faced with the crisis of a global pandemic, for the first time in more than a decade Australia has had evidence-based, bipartisan policy-making. Politicians have listened to the scientists and … put ideology and the protection of vested interests aside and behaved like adults. Can they do the same to commit to fast and effective action to try to save our children's and grandchildren's future, to prevent the catastrophic fires and heatwaves the scientists predict, the species extinction and the famines?" -Judith Brett, The Coal Curse
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Quarterly Essay 65 the White Queen
One Nation and the Politics of Race
by David Marr
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
Most Australians despise what Pauline Hanson stands for, yet politics in this country is now orbiting around One Nation.
In this timely Quarterly Essay, David Marr looks at Australia's politics of fear, resentment and race. Who votes One Nation, and why? How much of this is due to inequality? How much to racism? How should the major parties respond to anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim voices? What damage do Australia's new entrepreneurs of hate inflict on the nation?
Written with drama and wit, this is a ground-breaking look at politics and prejudice by one of Australia's best writers.
"This woman went to prison, danced the cha-cha on national television for a couple of years, and failed so often at the ballot box she became a running joke. But the truth is she never left us. She was always knocking on the door. Most of those defeats at the polls were close-run things. For twenty years political leaders appeased Hanson's followers while working to keep her out of office. The first strategy tainted Australian politics. The second eventually failed. So she's with us again – the Kabuki make-up, that mop of red hair and the voice telling us what we already know: 'I'm fed up.'" -David Marr, The White Queen
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Quarterly Essay 70 Dead Right
How Neoliberalism Ate Itself and What Comes Next
by Richard Denniss
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
How did the big banks get away with so much for so long? Why are so many aged-care residents malnourished? And when did arms manufacturers start sponsoring the Australian War Memorial?
In this passionate essay, Richard Denniss explores what neoliberalism has done to Australian society. For decades, we have been led to believe that the private sector does everything better, that governments can't afford to provide the high-quality services they once did, but that security and prosperity for all are just around the corner. In fact, Australians are now less equal, millions of workers have no sick leave or paid holidays, and housing is unaffordable for many. Deregulation, privatisation and trickle-down economics have, we are told, delivered us twenty-seven years of growth ... but to what end?
In Dead Right, Denniss looks at ways to renew our democracy and discusses everything from the fragmenting Coalition to an idea of the national interest that goes beyond economics.
'Neoliberalism, the catch-all term for all things small government, has been the ideal cloak behind which to conceal enormous shifts in Australia's wealth and culture ... Over the past thirty years, the language, ideas and policies of neoliberalism have transformed our economy and, more importantly, our culture' -Richard Denniss, Dead Right
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Quarterly Essay 81 Getting to Zero
Australia's Energy Transition
by Alan Finkel
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
The world is overheating, and despite good intentions and significant efforts, emissions increase nearly every year. The challenge is immense, but there are solutions.
In this lucid, inspiring essay, Alan Finkel maps Australia's path forward. He explains the solar and wind revolution, and addresses the challenge of intermittent supply. He introduces hydrogen, the energy hope of the future. He traces the rise and rise of the electric car. He shows how we can build a zero-emissions world.
Taking into account economics, science and emotions, Getting to Zero is an essential guide to how Australia can tackle the climate crisis with realism and ingenuity.
"Change is in the air. I sense we will live through a technological revolution this decade as exciting as the conquest of space in the 1960s. If Australia handles the challenge well, we can build an economy that takes advantage of the transition. If we cling to the past, we will miss opportunities that the rest of the world will seize." -Alan Finkel, Getting to Zero
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Quarterly Essay 69 Moment of Truth
History and Australia's Future
by Mark McKenna
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
Australia is on the brink of momentous change, but only if its citizens and politicians can come to new terms with the past.
In this inspiring essay, Mark McKenna considers the role of history in making and unmaking the nation. From Captain Cook to the frontier wars, from Australia Day to the Uluru Statement, we are seeing fresh debates and recognitions. McKenna argues that it is time to move beyond the history wars, and that truth-telling about the past will be liberating and healing.
This is an urgent essay about a nation's moment of truth.
'The time for pitting white against black, shame against pride, and one people's history against another's, has had its day. After nearly fifty years of deeply divisive debates over the country's foundation and its legacy for Indigenous Australians, Australia stands at a crossroads – we either make the commonwealth stronger and more complete through an honest reckoning with the past, or we unmake the nation by clinging to triumphant narratives in which the violence inherent in the nation's foundation is trivialised.' -Mark McKenna, Moment of Truth
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Quarterly Essay 58 Blood Year
Terror and the Islamic State
by David Kilcullen
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
Last year was a "blood year" in the Middle East – massacres and beheadings, fallen cities, collapsed and collapsing states, the unravelling of a decade of Western strategy. We saw the rise of ISIS, the splintering of government in Iraq, and foreign fighters – many from Europe, Australia and Africa – flowing into Syria at a rate ten times that during the height of the Iraq War. What went wrong?
In Blood Year, David Kilcullen calls on twenty-five years' experience to answer that question. This is a vivid, urgent account of the War on Terror by someone who helped shape its strategy, as well as witnessing its evolution on the ground. Kilcullen looks to strategy and history to make sense of the crisis. What are the roots and causes of the global jihad movement? What is ISIS? What threats does it pose to Australia? What does its rise say about the effectiveness of the War on Terror since 9/11, and what does a coherent strategy look like after a disastrous year?
"As things stand in mid-2015, Western countries . . . face a larger, more unified, capable, experienced and savage enemy, in a less stable, more fragmented region. It isn't just ISIS – al-Qaeda has emerged from its eclipse and is back in the game in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Syria and Yemen. We're dealing with not one, but two global terrorist organisations, each with its own regional branches, plus a vastly larger radicalised population at home and a massive flow of foreign fighters." -David Kilcullen, Blood Year
Winner of the 2015 Walkley Award for best long feature writing.
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Quarterly Essay 88 Lone Wolf
Albanese and the New Politics: Quarterly Essay 88
by Katharine Murphy
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
A prime minister in the making, and a nation on the move.
In Lone Wolf, Katharine Murphy offers a new portrait of Anthony Albanese. She reveals a leader who has always had to think three steps ahead, who was an insurgent for much of his professional life, but had to learn to listen and devise "strategies of inclusivity" to win the 2022 election.
Following that victory, Greens leader Adam Bandt voiced hopes for "a great era of progressive reform," but it is Albanese and Labor who will ultimately decide whether that potential is reached or not.
Drawing on interviews with Albanese, Bandt, Penny Wong, Jim Chalmers, Mark Butler, Katy Gallagher, Simon Holmes à Court, Zoe Daniel and more, Murphy's brilliant essay draws out the meaning of an eventful political year. She offers a telling character study of the prime minister, investigates the success of the teals and the Greens, and looks to the challenges of the future.
"Taking the party leadership was both a beginning and an ending. Insurgency was done. New skills were required … Albanese knew how to recruit people to a cause and to get them to a similar place. He'd been doing that since his teens. But to win, he had to learn to listen, to trust his team and to lead, understanding that sometimes leadership involves holding back rather than imagining it's all on you." Katharine Murphy, Lone Wolf
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Quarterly Essay 83 Top Blokes
The Larrikin Myth, Class and Power
by Lech Blaine
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
Who can be a larrikin and how is it used politically?
The figure of the larrikin goes deep in Australian culture. But who can be a larrikin, and what are its political uses?
This brilliant essay looks at Australian politics through the prisms of class, egalitarianism and masculinity. Lech Blaine examines some "top blokes," with particular focus on Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese, but stretching back to Bob Hawke and Kerry Packer. He shows how Morrison brought a cohort of voters over to the Coalition side, "flipping" what was once working-class Labor culture.
Blaine weaves his own experiences through the essay as he explores the persona of the Aussie larrikin. What are its hidden contradictions – can a larrikin be female, or Indigenous, say? – and how has it been transformed by an age of affluence and image?
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Faction Man
Bill Shorten's Path to Power: Quarterly Essay 59
by David Marr
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
The top job is within Bill Shorten's grasp. But who is he? How did he rise to become Labor leader? And does he have what it takes to beat Malcolm Turnbull and lead the country?
In this dramatic essay, David Marr traces the hidden career of a Labor warrior. He shows how a brilliant recruiter and formidable campaigner mastered first the unions and then the party. Marr presents a man willing to deal with his enemies and shift his allegiances, whose ambition to lead has been fixed since childhood.
But does he stand for anything? Is Shorten a defender of Labor values in today's Australia or a shape-shifter, driven entirely by politics? How does the union world he comes from shape the prime minister he might be? Marr reveals a man we hardly know: a virtuoso with numbers and a strategist of skill who Labor hopes will return the party to power.
"Australians distrust Shorten almost as much as they distrust Abbott. That's why this election will be fought on trust. It's going to be dirty. At the heart of the contest will be Shorten's character. All the way to polling day, Australians will be invited to rake over every detail of his short life and hidden career." David Marr, Faction Man
This issue contains correspondence relating to Blood Year by David Kilcullen from Hugh White, Jim Molan, Waleed Aly, Paul McGeough, Audrey Kurth Cronin, Martin Chulov, James Brown, Clive Kessler, and David Kilcullen.
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Quarterly Essay 82 Exit Strategy
Politics After the Pandemic
by George Megalogenis
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
Between the fires and the plague, Scott Morrison had no choice but to adapt his style of leadership. But does he have an exit strategy for Australia from the pandemic?
In this original essay, George Megalogenis explores the new politics of care and fear. He shows how our economic officials learnt the lessons of past recessions and applied them to new circumstances. But where to from here? Megalogenis analyses the shifting dynamics of the federation and the appeal of closed borders. He discusses the fate of higher education – what happened to the clever country? And he asks: what should government be responsible for in the twenty-first century, and does the Morrison government have the imagination for the job?
"Morrison has no political interest in talking about the future. But passivity does not reduce the threat of another outbreak. In any case, the future is making demands on Australia in other ways." -George Megalogenis, Exit Strategy
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The Great Divide
Australia's Housing Mess and How to Fix It; Quarterly Essay 92
by Alan Kohler
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
What caused Australia's housing crisis – and how we might fix it
One of the great mysteries of Australian life is that a land of sweeping plains, with one of the lowest population densities on the planet, has a shortage of land for houses. As a result, Sydney's median house price is the second most expensive on Earth, after Hong Kong's.
The escalation in house prices is a pain that has altered Australian society; it has increased inequality and profoundly changed the relationship between generations – between those who have a house and those who don't. Things went seriously wrong at the start of the twenty-first century, when there was a huge and permanent rise in the price of housing. But what actually happened? And what to do now? As Alan Kohler explains, "the solutions are both complex and simple, difficult and easy: supply must be increased and superfluous demand reduced."
In this crisp, clarifying and forward-looking essay, Alan Kohler tells the story of how we got into this mess – and how we might get out of it.
"The growth in the value of Australian land has fundamentally changed society, in two ways. First, generations of young Australians are being held back financially by the cost of shelter, especially if they live somewhere near a CBD and especially in Sydney or Melbourne; and second, the way wealth is generated has changed. Education and hard work are no longer the main determinants of how wealthy you are; now it comes down to where you live and what sort of house you inherit from your parents. It means Australia is less of an egalitarian meritocracy." Alan Kohler, The Great Divide
Correspondence 'LIFEBOAT' from Bill Shorten, Monique Ryan, Sam Drummond, Rhonda Galbally, Sam Bennett, Robbi Williams, Carly Findlay, and Micheline Lee.
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Balancing Act
Australia Between Recession and Renewal; Quarterly Essay 61
by George Megalogenis
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
In this urgent essay, George Megalogenis argues that Australia risks becoming globalisation's next and most unnecessary victim. The next shock, whenever it comes, will find us with our economic guard down, and a political system that has shredded its authority.
Megalogenis outlines the challenge for Malcolm Turnbull and his government. Our tax system is unfair and we have failed to invest in infrastructure and education. Both sides of politics are clinging defensively to an old model because it tells them a reassuring story of Australian success. But that model has been exhausted by capitalism's extended crisis and the end of the mining boom. Trusting to the market has left us with gridlocked cities, growing inequality and a corporate sector that feels no obligation to pay tax. It is time to redraw the line between market and state.
Balancing Act is a passionate look at the politics of change and renewal, and a bold call for active government. It took World War II to provide the energy and focus for the reconstruction that laid the foundation for modern Australia. Will it take another crisis to prompt a new reconstruction?
"Australia is in transition. Saying it is easy. The panic kicks in when we are compelled to describe what the future might look like. There is no complacent middle to aim at. We will either catch the next wave of prosperity, or finally succumb to the Great Recession." -George Megalogenis, Balancing Act
This issue also contains correspondence discussing Quarterly Essay 60, Political Amnesia, from Bernie Fraser, Amanda Walsh, Tarah Barzanji, Allan Behm, Jennifer Rayner, Anne Tiernan, Graham Evans, John Quiggin, Scott Ludlam, Michael Keating, Stephen Sedgwick, and Laura Tingle
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High Noon
Trump, Harris and America on the Brink; Quarterly Essay 95
by Don Watson
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
Is the United States disintegrating?
Don Watson offers a report from the United States that catches the madness and theatre of an election like no other.
This is a historically informed, mordant account of Donald Trump, Kamala Harris and a country approaching democratic high noon. From Los Angeles to New York, from Detroit to Kalamazoo, Watson observes America in all its diversity and conflict, reality and unreality. Above all, he sees the threat posed by Trump and his movement, with its blend of menace and glee, Great Replacement theory and electoral malpractice. Do Harris and the Democrats have what it takes? Can America mend its divisions? Do enough of its voters even want to?
An essential essay about a crucial moment of choice.
"The fact that half the voters in a country that never stops calling itself the world's greatest democracy are cheering on a man with contempt for the law and unashamed autocratic ambitions may be explained by the man's charisma, or by his supporters' derangement. Take your pick. Maybe they all just want to have a good time."
Don Watson, High Noon
This essay contains correspondence relating to Quarterly Essay 94 Highway to Hell from Lesley Hughes, Clive Hamilton, David Pocock, Polly Hemming, James Bowen, and Lesley Head
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Minority Report
The New Shape of Australian Politics; Quarterly Essay 96
by George Megalogenis
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
What does the new political landscape look like in Australia?
Australian politics is shifting. The two-party system was broken at the last federal election, and a minority government is a real possibility in the future. Politics-as-usual is not enough for many Australians.
In this richly insightful essay, George Megalogenis traces the how and why of a political re-alignment. He sheds new light on the topics of housing, the changing suburbs, the fate of the Voice to Parliament, and trust in politicians. This is an essay about the Greens, the teals and the Coalition. In a contest between new and old, progressive and conservative, which vision of Australia will win out? But it's also about Labor in power – is careful centrism the right strategy for the times, or is something more required?
In Minority Report, Megalogenis explores the strategies and secret understandings of a political culture under pressure.
"The sword of minority government hangs over the major parties. Neither side commands an electoral base broad enough in the twenty-first century to guarantee that power, once secured, can be sustained for more than a single three-year term. Now the question turns to whether a return to minority government will further damage our democracy, or, perhaps, revitalise it."-George Megalogenis, Minority Report
This essay contains correspondence relating to Quarterly Essay 95, High Noon, from Thomas Keneally, Emma Shortis, David Smith, Bruce Wolpe, Paul Kane, and Don Watson
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Clivosaurus
The Politics of Clive Palmer: Quarterly Essay 56
by Guy Rundle
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
In Clivosaurus, Guy Rundle observes Palmer close up, examining his rise to prominence, his beliefs, his deals and his politics – not to mention his poetry. Rundle shows that neither the government nor the media have been able to take Palmer's measure.
Who is Clive Palmer, and what does his ascent say about Australia's creaking political system?
In Clivosaurus, Guy Rundle observes Palmer close up, examining his rise to prominence, his beliefs, his deals and his politics - not to mention his poetry. Rundle shows that neither the government nor the media have been able to take Palmer's measure. Convinced they face a self-interested clown, they have failed to recognise both his tactical flexibility and the consistency of his centre-right politics.
This is a story about the Gold Coast, money in politics, Canberra's detached political caste and the meaning of Palmer's motley crew. Above all, it is a brilliantly entertaining portrait of 'the man at the centre of a perfect storm for Australian democracy, a captain steering his vessel artfully in the whirlpool.'
'In the first half of the year we saw Tony Abbott treated with deference to his values and beliefs, as his chaotic and lying government slid from one side of the ring to the other, while Clive Palmer, ploughing a steady course on a range of key issues, was treated as the inconstant one. No wonder no one could tell what he was going to do next - they weren't even bothering to look at where he had come from.' Guy Rundle, Clivosaurus
This issue also contains correspondence discussing Quarterly Essay 55, A Rightful Place, from Megan Davis, Rachel Perkins, Celeste Liddle, John Hirst, Henry Reynolds, Peter Sutton, Paul Kelly, Robert Manne, and Fred Chaney.
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Quarterly Essay 80 the High Road
What Australia can learn from New Zealand
by Laura Tingle
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
Australia and New Zealand are often considered close cousins. But why, despite being so close, do we know so little about each other? And now, in the wake of COVID-19, is it time to change that?
In this wise and illuminating essay, Laura Tingle looks at leadership, character and two nations in transition. In the past half-century, both countries have remade themselves amid shifting economic fortunes. New Zealand has been held up as a model for everything from privatisation to the conduct of politics to the response to COVID. Tingle considers how both countries have been governed, and the different way each has dealt with its colonial legacy. What could Australia learn from New Zealand? And New Zealand from Australia?
This is a perceptive, often amusing introduction to two countries alike in some ways, but quite different in others.
"Jacinda Ardern is not the first reason we have had to look across the Tasman and wonder whether there is another way of doing things . . . New Zealand – perhaps the only place in the world that has suffered isolation and the tyranny of distance more than Australia – has repeatedly jumped out of its comfort zone and changed direction harder, faster and for longer than Australia has done in the past half-century." -Laura Tingle, The High Road
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Quarterly Essay 55 a Rightful Place
Race, Recognition and a More Complete Commonwealth
by Noel Pearson
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
The nation has unfinished business. After more than two centuries, can a rightful place be found for Australia's original peoples?
Soon we will all decide if and how indigenous Australians will be recognised in the constitution. In the words of Professor Greg Craven: "We have a committed prime minister, and a committed opposition. We have a receptive electorate. There will never be a better time. We have no choice but to address the question. If constitutions deal with fundamental things, our indigenous heritage is pretty fundamental."
In A Rightful Place, Noel Pearson shows how the idea of "race" was embedded in the constitution, and the distorting effect this has had. Now there is a chance to change it – if we can agree on a way forward. Pearson shows what constitutional recognition means, and what it could make possible: true equality and a renewed appreciation of an ancient culture. This is a wide-ranging, eloquent call for justice, an essay of remarkable power that traverses history and culture to make the case for change.
"As long as we have a constitution that characterises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on the basis of race, it will have deleterious implications for their citizenship. It must be removed … This is not just a matter of symbolism. I think this will be a matter of psychology. The day we come to regard ourselves as people with a distinct heritage, with distinct cultures and languages but not of a distinct race will be a day of psychological liberation. And it will also be liberating for those in the wider community …" Noel Pearson, A Rightful Place
'Noel Pearson's searing Quarterly Essay is a watershed moment for this country, a call for us to deal with unfinished business that tarnishes our nation … a landmark essay' -Patricia Karvelas, The Australian
'Clarity, goodwill, flexibility and realism ... Noel Pearson offers them in abundance.' -Paul Kelly
'A Rightful Place is an admirable addition to the Pearson oeuvre – intellectually braceing and cogently argued.' -Henry Reynolds
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The Australian Dream
Blood, History and Becoming; Quarterly Essay 64
by Stan Grant
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
In Quarterly Essay 64, Stan Grant takes a deep and passionate look at Indigenous futures, in particular the fraught question of remote communities.
In a landmark essay, Stan Grant writes Indigenous people back into the economic and multicultural history of Australia. This is the fascinating story of how fringe dwellers fought not just to survive, but to prosper. Their legacy is the extraordinary flowering of Indigenous success - cultural, sporting, intellectual and social - that we see today.
Yet this flourishing coexists with the boys of Don Dale and the many others like them who live in the shadows of the nation. Grant examines how such Australians have been denied the possibilities of life, and argues eloquently that history is not destiny; that culture is not static. In doing so, he makes the case for a more capacious Australian Dream.
"The idea that I am Australian hits me with a thud. It is a blinding self-realisation that collides with the comfortable notion of who I am. To be honest, for an Indigenous person, it can feel like a betrayal somehow - at the very least, a capitulation. We are so used to telling ourselves that Australia is a white country: am I now white? The reality is more ambiguous ... To borrow from Franz Kafka, identity is a cage in search of a bird." -Stan Grant, The Australian Dream
This issue also contains correspondence discussing Quarterly Essay 63, Enemy Within, from Patrick Lawrence, Nicole Hemmer, Bruce Wolpe, Dennis Altman, David Goodman, Patrick McCaughey, Gary Werskey, and Don Watson.
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Quarterly Essay 43 Bad News
Murdoch's Australian and the Shaping of the Nation
by Robert Manne
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
This year has seen unprecedented scrutiny of Rupert Murdoch's empire in Britain. But what about in Australia, where he owns 70 per cent of the press? In Bad News, Robert Manne investigates Murdoch's lead political voice here, the Australian newspaper, and how it shapes debate.
Since 2002, under the editorship of Chris Mitchell, the Australian has come to see itself as judge, jury and would-be executioner of leaders and policies. Is this a dangerous case of power without responsibility? In a series of devastating case studies, Manne examines the paper's campaigns against the Rudd government and more recently the Greens, its climate change coverage and its ruthless pursuit of its enemies and critics. Manne also considers the standards of the paper and its influence more generally. This brilliant essay is part deep analysis and part vivid portrait of what happens when a newspaper goes rogue.
"The Australian sees itself not as a mere newspaper, but as a player in the game of national politics, calling upon the vast resources of the Murdoch empire and the millions of words it has available to it to try to make and unmake governments." Robert Manne, Bad News
'A devastating expose.' -Crikey
'The are many things to admire about Professor Robert Manne. He's a prolific writer. He's incredibly intelligent. And he's brave.' -Josh Rosner, The Canberra Times
'Fairness and integrity are under the microscope in this scathing analysis of Murdoch's flagship.' -Peter Craven, Sydney Morning Herald
'In our shrinking broadsheet market, it would be good if the healthiest specimen, and the only national one, recognised that we need more mutual respect in public debate if we are ever going to sort through the complex problems and opportunities that confront us.' -Robert Phiddian, Australian Book Review
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That Sinking Feeling
Asylum Seekers and the Search for the Indonesian Solution; Quarterly Essay 53
by Paul Toohey
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
Paul Toohey searches for the solution our politicians have been unwilling or unable to find, and asks whether, amid the diplomatic turmoil, we've now missed our chance.
Tony Abbott promised to stop the boats. With the help of Kevin Rudd's 'PNG solution,' he has. But at what cost?
In Quarterly Essay 53, Paul Toohey tells the dramatic stories of asylum seekers heading from Java to Australia, investigates people-smuggling and witnesses the aftermath of a sinking at sea.
Toohey also examines Australian attitudes to boat people, and what politicians have made of these. He assesses the diplomatic fall-out from turning back boats and asks- have we missed our chance for an Indonesian solution, a realistic alternative to the brutally effective system we now have? This is an unflinching look at people at their worst and best - and most ruthless and most vulnerable - by one of Australia's finest reporters.
'Any hope for a genuine regional solution rested with Indonesia, the final stepping stone to Australia . . . Why did neither Howard, in his better times with Indonesia, or Labor, from 2007, seek a one-on-one solution with Indonesia? 'The Indonesian Solution.' Those words would have been the most convincing political statement any Australian government could ever deliver to Australian voters on asylum seekers.' Paul Toohey, That Sinking Feeling
This issue contains correspondence relating to Lost in Translation by Linda Jaivin from Rowan Callick, Brian Nelson, Julie Rose, John Minford, and Linda Jaivin
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Quarterly Essay 46 Great Expectations
Government, Entitlement and an Angry Nation
by Laura Tingle
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
Rather than relaxed and comfortable, Australians are disenchanted with politics and politicians. In Quarterly Essay 46 Laura Tingle shows that the reason for this goes to something deep in Australian culture: our great expectations of government.
Since the deregulation era of the 1980s, Tingle finds, governments can do less, but we wish they could do more. From Hawke to Gillard, each prime minister has grappled with this dilemma. Keating sought to change expectations, Howard to feed a culture of entitlement, Rudd to reconceive the federation. Through all of this, and back to our origins, runs an almost childlike sense of the government as saviour and provider that has remained constant even as the world has changed.
Now we are an angry nation, and the Age of Entitlement is coming to an end. What will a different politics look like? And, Tingle asks, even if a leader surfs the wave of anger all the way to power, what answer can be given to our great expectations?
"It is wrong to see the anger of the last few years as a 'one-off,' which might go away at the next election. The things we are angry about betray the changes that have been taking place over recent decades. Politicians no longer control interest rates, the exchange rate, or wages, prices or industries that were once protected or even owned by government. Voters are confused about what politicians can do for them in such a world." -Laura Tingle, Great Expectations
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Quarterly Essay 66 the Long Goodbye
Coal, Coral and Australia's Climate Deadlock
by Anna Krien
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
The Great Barrier Reef is dying. Extreme weather is becoming all too familiar. Yet when it comes to action on climate change, division and paralysis rule the land.
In this vivid, urgent essay, Anna Krien explores the psychology and politics of a warming world. She visits the frontlines of Australia's climate wars – the Reef, the Galilee and Bowen basins, South Australia. She investigates the Adani mine, with its toxic politics and controversial economics. Talking to power workers and scientists, lobbyists and activists, she considers where climate change is taking us, and where effective action is to be found.
"This was Turnbull's moment, and the Liberal Party's too. Not just the Snowy 2.0, but the whole thing – an ailing and dysfunctional grid, a complex issue, something for the 'adults' to take responsibility for. But instead of leadership, Australians got politics as usual. Cheap shots, culture-war baiting, bad and good ideas lobbed like hot potatoes and lost in the trash talk of low-grade politics. After the ten-day policy spree, Turnbull resumed his poker face, continuing with his grim role of negotiating with the vipers in his nest." Anna Krien, The Long Goodbye
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Quarterly Essay 12 Made in England
Australia's British Inheritance
by David Malouf
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
In Made in England, David Malouf looks at Australia's bond with Britain and wonders whether it wasn't the Mother Country which did most of the giving. This is an essay which presents British civilisation, the civilisation of Shakespeare and the Enlightenment and the Westminster system, as the irreducible ground on which any Australian achievement is based. Britain has always been the tolerant parent, and an older Australia could be both intensely patriotic and see itself as what it was, a transplan- tation of Britain. This relationship did not exclude America but it made for a sometimes complicated threesome of nations. This is a brilliant, deeply meditated essay by one of our finest writers about the traditions that shaped Australia and which connect it to one of the mightier traditions in world history.
"... Made in England is ... a case of one of Australia's most eminent novelists allowing himself to imagine, and by imagining to analyse, the hopes and glories, once and future, that were part of this new Britannia." -Peter Craven, Introduction
"Any argument for [the republic] based on the need to make a final break with Britain will fail." -David Malouf, Made in England
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Quarterly Essay 67 Moral Panic 101
Equality, Acceptance and the Safe Schools Scandal
by Benjamin Law
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
Are Australian schools safe? And if they're not, what happens when kids are caught in a bleak collision between ill-equipped teachers and a confected scandal?
In 2016, the Safe Schools program became the focus of an ideological firestorm. In Moral Panic 101, Benjamin Law explores how and why this happened. He weaves a subtle, gripping account of schools today, sexuality, teenagers, new ideas of gender fluidity, media scandal and mental health.
In this timely essay, Law also looks at the new face of homophobia in Australia, and the long battle for equality and acceptance. Investigating bullying of the vulnerable young, he brings to light hidden worlds, in an essay notable for its humane clarity.
"To read every article the Australian has published on Safe Schools is to induce nausea. This isn't even a comment on the content, just the sheer volume … And yet, across this entire period, the Australian – self-appointed guardian of the safety of children – spoke to not a single school-aged LGBTIQ youth. Not even one. Later, queer teenagers who followed the Safe Schools saga told me the dynamic felt familiar. At school, it's known as bullying. In journalism, it's called a beat-up." -Benjamin Law, Moral Panic 101
'This is a timely and important work' -Steven Carroll, Sydney Morning Herald
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Quarterly Essay 7 Paradise Betrayed
West Papua's Struggle for Independence
by John Martinkus
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
In Paradise Betrrayed John Martinkus details what is being done to West Papua by its Indonesian overlords. He illustrates how those who seek independence are killed and tortured for their cause. There is now no one like the Papuan leader Theys Eluay, murdered in 2001 by the Indonesian military, and a campaign of death and terror has been launched on those who raise the Morning Star flag. Martinkus shows how the wealth of the Freeport mine underpins a regimen of repression and he reports on the rise of Laskar Jihad, the imported Islamic extremists who spread fear in the name of Indonesian domination. In a powerful, groundbreaking piece of reportage, Martinkus shows how West Papua is another East Timor waiting to happen and how this is made possible by the indifference of everyone from the United Nations to the Australian government.
"John Martinkus' narrative is as engrossing as it is appalling. It is full of menace and madness and the smell of death." -Peter Craven, Introduction
"The violence in West Papua today … is being orchestrated by the same figures in the Indonesian military who were behind the events in East Timor … the whole repressive network of the Indonesian military that laid [it] waste." -John Martinkus, Paradise Betrayed
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Not Waving, Drowning
Mental Illness and Vulnerability in Australia; Quarterly Essay 85
by Sarah Krasnostein
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
How can we mend Australia's broken mental health system?
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Highway to Hell
Climate Change and Australia's Future; Quarterly Essay 94
by Joëlle Gergis
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
Australia is in peril. Do we truly grasp the impact of a warming planet – in particular, what it will mean for our sunburnt country? As temperatures rise, the climates of our capital cities will change. The sea will rise, and we will see increased fire and drought.
In this powerful essay, Joëlle Gergis, a leading climate scientist, depicts the likely future in vivid and credible detail. Working from the science, she discusses the world's and Australia's efforts to combat climate change. She outlines how far Australia is from keeping its promises to cut emissions. She takes aim at false solutions and the folly of "adaptation" rather than curbing fossil fuel use. This is an essay about government paralysis and what is at stake for all of us. It's about getting real, in the face of an unprecedented threat.
"How many disasters does it take to wake people up to the fact that Australia's climate is becoming more extreme, with today's destruction set to be dwarfed by things to come? Do people realise that adapting to climate change won't be possible in some parts of the country?" Joëlle Gergis, Highway to Hell
This essay contains correspondence relating to Quarterly Essay 93 Bad Cop from Niki Savva, Thomas Mayo, Lachlan Harris, Mark Kenny, Robert Wood, Paul Strangio, and Lech Blaine
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Quarterly Essay 50 Unfinished Business
Sex, Freedom and Misogyny
by Anna Goldsworthy
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
On the surface, it seems the best time ever to be a woman in Australia. The prime minister, governor-general and the richest person are all female; women are at the forefront of almost every area of public life. Yet when Julia Gillard's misogyny speech ricocheted around the world, it clearly touched a nerve. Why?
In the fiftieth Quarterly Essay, Anna Goldsworthy examines life for women after the gains made by feminism. From Facebook to Fifty Shades of Grey, from Girls to gonzo porn, what are young women being told about work and equality, about sex and their bodies? Why do many reject the feminist label? And why does pop culture wink at us with storylines featuring submissive women?
Unfinished Business is an original look at role models and available options in the age of social media and sexual frankness. Goldsworthy finds that progress for women has provoked a backlash from some, who wield misogyny as a weapon, whether in parliament, on talkback radio or as internet trolls. With piercing insight and sharp humour, she lays bare the dilemmas of being female today and asks how women can truly become free subjects.
"There is a charmed zone for a girl, shortly before she is ambushed by puberty. At eleven or twelve, she is usually taller than her male peers; more articulate; and more confident than she will be for years. She probably spends a lot of time in front of a screen, words and images flickering in her eyes. Facebook, SlutWalks, Lady Gaga, Girls, Mad Men, gonzo porn, Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey. What messages are being broadcast to her, and what messages is she hearing? Are they going to make her bigger, or smaller?" -Anna Goldsworthy, Unfinished Business
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Quarterly Essay 15 Latham's World
The New Politics of the Outsiders
by Margaret Simons
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
In the third Quarterly Essay of 2004, Margaret Simons takes a long hard look at Mark Latham, the self-proclaimed "club buster" and the man who would be prime minister. Few doubt Latham's intelligence and ambition, but what will this amount to in government? Simons argues that if Labor is elected, it will not be "business as usual". Rather we can expect a reformist government in the spirit - if not the letter - of Latham's political tutor, Gough Whitlam. It is also likely to be a government that has little time for the totemic issues of the Labor elites.
This is an essay that takes the political pulse of the nation - it is clear-eyed, probing, anchored in observation and an original analysis of the political state of play. It ventures into the murky world of Liverpool Council, where Latham made enemies and ran the show. It reserves harsh words for those in the media who have ignored Latham's ideas and community campaigning in favour of rumour-mongering. Above all, it reveals Latham as a conviction politician and an acute thinker, with a prescient understanding of how the urban fringe now drives the politics of the nation.
"Mark Latham's arrival on the political scene has brought to an end the fictions that have dominated politics for the last ten years." -Margaret Simons, Latham's World
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Quarterly Essay 9 Beautiful Lies
Population and Environment in Australia
by Tim Flannery
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
In the first Quarterly Essay of 2003, Tim Flannery launches an attack on the various lies that we tell ourselves about our resources, our past and our future. The lie of terra nullius that made us ignore the Aborigines' knowledge of the environment. The lie of the Snowy Mountains Scheme that did untold damage to our river system for the sake of white immigration. The lie that rushing to preserve wilderness will save endangered species. Tim Flannery is also skeptical about the myths of multiculturalism, and he argues that we cannot sustain a larger population given our resources. In his conclusion, he asks how we can discharge our responsibility to the refugees who are the victims of American policies we collude with.
'This essay is written as a thundering no to the characteristic Australian assumption that 'She'll be right' ... This is a Quarterly Essay written in the passionate belief that we need a coherent policy on population ... If we do not have one, we will never be in a position to do justice to ... the dispossessed people of the earth; indeed our children's children will ... think we have dishonoured their birthright.' -Peter Craven, Introduction
'The refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol will almost certainly, in time, be remembered as the greatest failure of the Howard government - Tampa, detention camps and Iraq notwithstanding.' -Tim Flannery, Beautiful Lies
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Quarterly Essay 51 the Prince
Faith, Abuse and George Pell
by David Marr
Part of the Quarterly Essay series
The leading Catholic in the nation and spiritual adviser to Tony Abbott, Cardinal George Pell has played a key role in the greatest challenge to face his church for centuries: the scandal of child sex abuse by priests.
In The Prince, David Marr investigates the man and his career: how did he rise through the ranks? What does he stand for? How does he wield his authority? How much has he shaped his church and Australia? How has he handled the scandal?
Marr reveals a cleric at ease with power and aggressive in asserting the prerogatives of the Vatican. His account of Pell's career focuses on his response as a man, a priest, an archbishop and prince of the church to the scandal that has engulfed the Catholic world in the last thirty years. This is the story of a cleric slow to see what was happening around him; torn by the contest between his church and its victims; and slow to realise that the Catholic Church cannot, in the end, escape secular scrutiny.
The Prince is an arresting portrait of faith, loyalty and ambition, set against a backdrop of terrible suffering and an ancient institution in turmoil.
"He knows children have been wrecked. He apologises again and again. He even sees that the hostility of the press he so deplores has helped the church face the scandal. What he doesn't get is the hostility to the church. Whatever else he believes in, Pell has profound faith in the Catholic Church. He guards it with his life. Nations come and go but the church remains." David Marr, The Prince