tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/pauline-hanson-6799/articlesPauline Hanson – The Conversation2023-08-15T05:07:57Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2112062023-08-15T05:07:57Z2023-08-15T05:07:57ZLabor, Albanese and the Voice slide in Resolve poll; Fadden byelection preference flows<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542750/original/file-20230815-3698-wru29s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A federal <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-pays-price-as-voice-support-slips-again-20230814-p5dwc9.html?btis=">Resolve poll</a> for Nine newspapers, conducted August 9–13 from a sample of 1,603, gave Labor 37% of the primary vote (down two since the July Resolve poll), the Coalition 33% (up three), the Greens 11% (steady), One Nation 5% (down one), the UAP 2% (up one), independents 10% (up one) and others 2% (steady).</p>
<p>Resolve does not give two party estimates until close to elections, but applying 2022 election preference flows to these primary votes gives Labor about a 56–44 lead, a 2.5-point gain for the Coalition since July. Resolve has easily been Labor’s most favourable pollster since the 2022 election.</p>
<p>Anthony Albanese’s ratings were 44% good and 42% poor, for a net approval of only +2, down 14 points since July. Peter Dutton’s net approval was up two points to -13. Albanese led Dutton by 46–25 as preferred PM, a nine-point narrowing from 51–21 in July.</p>
<p>In a forced choice question on the Indigenous Voice to parliament, “no” led by 54–46 (a 52–48 “no” lead in July). Initial preferences were 45% “no” (<a href="https://theconversation.com/voice-support-slips-again-in-national-resolve-poll-massive-swing-in-wa-puts-libs-ahead-210252">up three</a>), 37% “yes” (up one) and 18% undecided (down four).</p>
<p>This is Albanese’s worst net approval, Labor’s lowest primary vote and implied two party lead and the worst result for “yes” in Resolve polls conducted since the May 2022 election.</p>
<p>Here is an updated graph of 2023 Voice polls that I first <a href="https://theconversation.com/voice-support-slumps-in-essential-poll-lnp-leads-in-queensland-208578">posted in July</a>. As the referendum has approached, the polling has become worse and worse for the Voice.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542741/original/file-20230815-9532-5ko42x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542741/original/file-20230815-9532-5ko42x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542741/original/file-20230815-9532-5ko42x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542741/original/file-20230815-9532-5ko42x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542741/original/file-20230815-9532-5ko42x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542741/original/file-20230815-9532-5ko42x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542741/original/file-20230815-9532-5ko42x.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">2023 Voice polls.</span>
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<p>State breakdowns combined the July and August Resolve polls for a total sample size of 3,213. The overall “no” lead in the combined poll would have been about 53–47. Victoria and Tasmania were the only two states with a “yes” lead (51–49 in Victoria and 55–45 in Tasmania).</p>
<p>“No” led by 54–46 in New South Wales, 54–46 in South Australia, 56–44 in Western Australia and 59–41 in Queensland. In this poll, four states were below the national result of 53–47 “no”, so even if “yes” were able to win a national majority, winning majorities in the required four of six states would be difficult.</p>
<p>In this Resolve poll, the Liberals led Labor by 33–32 on <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2021/political-monitor/index.html">economic management</a>, reversing a Labor lead of 35–31 in July. Labor still led by 30–26 on keeping the cost of living low, down from a 31–24 lead in July.</p>
<p>The poll report attributes Albanese’s ratings slump to opposition to the Voice, but it may also be due to concerns over high interest rates and inflation. </p>
<p>But on July 26 the <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-inflation/consumer-price-index-australia/latest-release">Australian Bureau of Statistics</a> reported that inflation rose 0.8% in the June quarter, a slowdown from 1.4% in March and 1.9% in December last year. The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-01/rba-leaves-interest-rates-on-hold-august-2023/102674010">Reserve Bank</a> did not increase rates at its meeting on August 1.</p>
<p>Morgan’s weekly <a href="https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/9285-anz-roy-morgan-consumer-confidence-august-1">consumer confidence index</a> was up to 78.4 last fortnight, its highest since late April, but it dropped to 75.0 last week <a href="https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/9295-anz-roy-morgan-consumer-confidence-august-15">before rebounding</a> to 78.2 this week. This index has reached a record 24 weeks below the 80-point mark. Economic pessimism that has made it more difficult for Labor has not yet eased.</p>
<h2>Newspoll’s absence</h2>
<p>A Newspoll is usually published by The Australian every three weeks on Sunday night, but it has now been over four weeks since the last Newspoll. YouGov is the pollster that conducts Newspoll.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.pollbludger.net/2023/08/14/no-news-is-no-news-open-thread/">Poll Bludger</a> said on Monday that two of YouGov’s senior staff had recently departed to start their own pollster. Perhaps this explains the delay in producing a new Newspoll.</p>
<h2>Fadden byelection preference flows</h2>
<p>The final results for the July 15 federal <a href="https://results.aec.gov.au/29422/Website/HouseDivisionPage-29422-159.htm">Fadden byelection</a> gave the Liberal National Party a 63.4–36.6 win over Labor, a 2.7% swing to the LNP since the 2022 federal election. Primary votes were 49.1% LNP (up 4.5%), 22.1% Labor (down 0.3%), 8.9% One Nation (up 0.2%), 7.2% Legalise Cannabis (new) and 6.2% Greens (down 4.6%). The UAP (6.6% in 2022) did not contest.</p>
<p>Preference flows from One Nation were 77–23 to the LNP, while Legalise Cannabis were 57.5–42.5 to Labor and the Greens were 79–21 to Labor. At the <a href="https://results.aec.gov.au/27966/Website/HouseDivisionPage-27966-159.htm">federal election in Fadden</a>, One Nation and UAP preference flows were both about 66–34 to the LNP, while Greens’ preferences were 78–22 to Labor.</p>
<p>This preference flow data suggests there has been an 11-point gain in LNP preferences from One Nation since the 2022 election. If this were applied nationally, the Coalition would be doing just under one point better after preferences in polls, with One Nation in the high single figures. The data also suggest that Legalise Cannabis voters are only modestly left-wing.</p>
<p>One Nation’s preference flow may have changed since the last election over opposition to Labor’s agenda, particularly the Voice.</p>
<h2>Victorian and NSW news</h2>
<p>Labor will not contest the Victorian state byelection for the <a href="https://pollbludger.net/vic2023by2/LA.htm?s=Warrandyte">seat of Warrandyte</a> on August 26. The Liberals won Warrandyte by a 54.2–45.8 margin against Labor at the 2022 state election. They should hold easily with their most prominent opponent likely to be the Greens (11.7% in Warrandyte in 2022).</p>
<p>One Nation federal leader Pauline Hanson on Monday <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-14/mark-latham-removed-as-nsw-one-nation-leader-pauline-hanson/102727170">dumped Mark Latham</a> as New South Wales leader. Latham claimed he remained leader of One Nation’s three NSW upper house MPs.</p>
<p>Hanson said One Nation’s vote at the March NSW election dropped by 14%. One Nation’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/nsw/2023/guide/lc-results">upper house vote</a> was actually 5.9% (down 1.0% since 2019). Hanson is using the relative decline from 6.9% in 2019. One Nation was expected to win at least two upper house seats at this election, but only won one.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211206/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adrian Beaumont does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Polling on the Voice continues to provide bad news for the Albanese government and the “yes” campaign.Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2115482023-08-14T23:59:17Z2023-08-14T23:59:17ZHanson-Latham rift leaves One Nation’s future in NSW uncertain<p>Changes to the management of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party in NSW reaffirm an unchanging rule of politics. Opponents be damned. The fiercest fighting is reserved for colleagues.</p>
<p>The party’s federal leader, Hanson, confirmed her <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-14/mark-latham-removed-as-nsw-one-nation-leader-pauline-hanson/102727170">national executive’s decision</a> to replace its NSW division and declare Latham’s position as NSW parliamentary leader vacant.</p>
<p>A spokesperson for Hanson said a decline in the <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/politics/senator-mark-latham-forced-out-as-leader-of-nsw-division-of-one-nation/news-story/6cdaabe98e3c02bf1532ef16872240f1">party’s performance</a> at the March 2023 NSW election warranted a review of the “relationship between the organisation and parliamentary wings of the party”.</p>
<p>Latham challenged the decision, arguing if electoral “under-performance” was the rationale for replacing the NSW executive, then Hanson should “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/MarkLathamsOutsiders?mibextid=LQQJ4d">buy a mirror</a>”. The party’s wider fortunes are the real issue, he observed, noting recent dips in support nationally and in Queensland.</p>
<p>Insisting he remains the leader of the One Nation NSW parliamentary team, Latham alleges the national intervention is really about control of the party’s finances. He committed to saying more on that issue when parliament next sits.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/clive-palmer-and-one-nation-flopped-at-the-election-what-happened-183722">Clive Palmer and One Nation flopped at the election. What happened?</a>
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<p>Discord is not new to the party. ABC electoral analyst Antony Green <a href="https://antonygreen.com.au/pauline-hanson-deposes-mark-latham-as-nsw-leader/">observes</a> of One Nation’s 35 state and federal parliamentarians over time, just “seven members have lasted long enough to face re-election”.</p>
<p>This latest conflict follows <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/disgusting-pauline-hanson-slams-latham-s-homophobic-comments-20230330-p5cwsv.html?_gl=1*3lvss1*_ga*MTAxNjI0ODE0NS4xNjc2NzAzODM3">Hanson’s condemnation</a>, in April, of Latham’s highly graphic social media post about independent NSW MP Alex Greenwich. Hanson labelled the post “disgusting”, asking Latham to issue an apology. He refused. </p>
<p>It is unlikely Latham and his One Nation parliamentary colleagues, Tania Mihailuk and Rod Roberts, will remain with the party. While their terms are assured – Latham’s expires in 2031 and his colleagues’ in 2027 – it is unclear what electoral traction they may have without Hanson’s backing. </p>
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<p>Hanson’s return as leader ahead of the 2016 federal election <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/oct/17/pauline-hansons-one-nation-triples-support-since-election-newspoll">proved pivotal</a> in One Nation’s resurgence after a period of decline. However, direct support for Hanson in NSW has proven elusive, with her <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/hanson-fails-to-win-seat-in-nsw-20110412-1dbuy.html">2011 bid for election</a> to the state’s upper house falling short.</p>
<p>Latham, on the other hand, has forged a sizeable support base in NSW. His profile was sufficient for him to resign mid-term from the Legislative Council position he secured in 2019, to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-28/mark-latham-move-to-boost-one-nation-in-upper-house-works/102141060">successfully extend</a> his term by eight years at the 2023 poll.</p>
<p>The party’s ambitions to secure lower house representation at this year’s NSW election went unfulfilled, but it did secure significant levels of support. In some seats in Sydney’s west, backing for One Nation eclipsed the Greens’ third-party status. </p>
<p>In Camden, One Nation attracted 13.8% of <a href="https://pastvtr.elections.nsw.gov.au/SG2301/LA/results">the primary vote</a>. In Campbelltown, 11.5%. At Hawkesbury, 10.3%. In Badgerys Creek, Londonderry and Penrith, the party drew 8.2%, and in Leppington it secured 7.5%.</p>
<p>It was not quite a “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-big-teal-steal-independent-candidates-rock-the-liberal-vote-183024">Teal wave</a>”, but the beginnings of third-party support that could afford One Nation strategic leverage over time. Many of these emerging subregions of support for the party <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/property/news/the-suburbs-most-vulnerable-to-mortgage-and-cost-of-living-stress-20230608-p5df40.html">overlay areas</a> of mortgage, rental and cost-of-living stress. </p>
<p>While the NSW Labor government is yet to feel significant political pressure from the housing crisis and rising interest rates, a degree of <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/education/2023/08/11/anger-over-broken-deal-nsw-teachers#mtr">negative sentiment</a> is emerging over frustrated wage negotiations. Discontent is particularly apparent among many education, health and comparable public sector workers. A significant proportion of them reside in Sydney’s west and <a href="https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/content/dam/digital/images/centre-for-western-sydney/CfWS-Western-Sydney-Votes-2023-The-Results-with-DOI.pdf">helped restore</a> Labor’s electoral fortunes in a crucial battleground.</p>
<p>The test for Latham, Mihailuk and Roberts will be their capacity to navigate this episode of party turmoil, remain unified, and position themselves to build on proven levels of support for their brand of politics, whatever banner it falls under. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pauline-hanson-built-a-political-career-on-white-victimhood-and-brought-far-right-rhetoric-to-the-mainstream-134661">Pauline Hanson built a political career on white victimhood and brought far-right rhetoric to the mainstream</a>
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<p>The trio have over three years to do so. It’s not an impossible task, particularly given Latham’s capacity to rally support, and the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jun/20/nsw-budget-faces-severe-challenges-as-economy-slows-and-interest-rate-repayments-soar">severe challenges</a>” predicted to constrain the upcoming NSW budget.</p>
<p>Complicating any scenario for Latham and co is a national leader, in Hanson, who likely shares their awareness of One Nation’s potential brand growth in one of the <a href="https://www.budget.nsw.gov.au/budget-papers/western-sydney/our-vision-western-sydney#:%7E:text=Western%20Sydney%20is%20one%20of,rest%20of%20New%20South%20Wales.">fastest-growing</a> regions in Australia, and the motivation to grasp it.</p>
<p>If the ferocity of internal conflict is a marker of true politics, then One Nation might be about to remind us of some <a href="https://theconversation.com/after-12-years-in-opposition-grassroots-politics-restores-labor-to-power-in-new-south-wales-202144">home truths</a> about NSW party politics and its infamous, albeit recently becalmed, penchant for volatility.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211548/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andy Marks does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After a period of relative calm, Pauline Hanson’s party is in turmoil once again.Andy Marks, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Strategy, Government and Alliances, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2080092023-07-11T20:05:09Z2023-07-11T20:05:09ZWhat is ‘reverse racism’ – and what’s wrong with the term?<p>“Reverse racism” is sometimes used to describe situations where white people believe they are negatively stereotyped or discriminated against because of their whiteness – or treated less favourably than people of colour. </p>
<p>“Reverse racism” claims have surfaced in the current debate around the <a href="https://theconversation.com/10-questions-about-the-voice-to-parliament-answered-by-the-experts-207014">Voice to Parliament</a> referendum. “The concept looks racist to me,” <a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/building-a-voice-to-parliament-into-our-constitution-would-divide-us-along-racial-lines-and-do-nothing-to-change-the-past/news-story/794a86f16d664e6a4ebfbed589b27a01">wrote Sky News commentator Kel Richards</a> last August.</p>
<p>Such views misrepresent the Voice as preferential treatment of First Nations peoples, falsely suggesting it would somehow weaken the political say of non-Indigenous Australians.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/far-from-undermining-democracy-the-voice-will-pluralise-and-enrich-australias-democratic-conversation-205384">Far from undermining democracy, The Voice will pluralise and enrich Australia’s democratic conversation</a>
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<p>Complaints of reverse racism can be found in the community more generally, too.
“I think average, working-class, white Australian males have it the hardest out of anyone in society,” said one 23-year-old man in a <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2673-995X/3/1/19">2023 study</a> of Australian men, “we are the victims of reverse racism”. </p>
<p>“Reverse racism” is an idea that focuses on prejudiced attitudes towards a certain (racialised) group, or unequal personal treatment – namely, discrimination. But it ignores one of racism’s central markers: power.</p>
<p>“Prejudice plus (institutional) power” is the widely accepted basic definition of racism. Or, as <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1998-07453-002">two researchers defined it</a> in 1988: “Racism equals power plus prejudice.”</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/jun/04/aamer-rahman-reverse-racism-comedy-tour">famous 2013 sketch</a>, comedian Ahmer Rahman said, yes, reverse racism is possible … if you go back in a time machine and convince the leaders of Africa, Asia and the Middle East to invade and dominate Europe hundreds of years ago, leading to systemic inequality across every facet of social and economic life, “so all their descendants would want to migrate [to] where black and brown people come from”.</p>
<p>Put simply, the concept of “reverse racism” – or “anti-white racism” – just doesn’t work, because racism is more than just prejudice.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Comedian Ahmer Rahman unpacks ‘reverse racism’, and why making it real would need a time machine.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Why ‘reverse racism’ is a myth</h2>
<p>Prejudice and discrimination are inherently tied to historically rooted and entrenched, institutionalised forms of systemic racism and racial hierarchies, injustices and power imbalance. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-systemic-racism-and-institutional-racism-131152">Explainer: what is systemic racism and institutional racism?</a>
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<p>The continuing lack of diverse representation in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/25/the-47th-parliament-is-the-most-diverse-ever-but-still-doesnt-reflect-australia">political</a>, social and economic positions of influence is just one of many indicators that we’re still a long way from living in a post-racial society. </p>
<p>White people may be called a derogatory name with a reference to their whiteness. They may be discriminated against: for example, by an ethnic business owner who prefers to employ someone from their community background. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532872/original/file-20230620-20-b5ym4j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C5%2C1276%2C712&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532872/original/file-20230620-20-b5ym4j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C5%2C1276%2C712&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532872/original/file-20230620-20-b5ym4j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532872/original/file-20230620-20-b5ym4j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532872/original/file-20230620-20-b5ym4j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532872/original/file-20230620-20-b5ym4j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532872/original/file-20230620-20-b5ym4j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532872/original/file-20230620-20-b5ym4j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Far-right activist Lauren Southern.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Twitter</span></span>
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<p>This may sometimes be unlawful. At other times, it may be a lawful form of “positive action” or “affirmative action”, aimed at reducing historically entrenched, intergenerational and systemic inequalities. </p>
<p>But in all these instances – and regardless of whether it’s lawful or not – the term racism, or “reverse racism”, would not apply. </p>
<h2>How common are reverse racism claims?</h2>
<p>A representative US survey, conducted by PEW in <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/04/09/race-in-america-2019/">2019</a>, found that around 12% of respondents believed “being white hurts people’s ability to get ahead in the country nowadays”. Among white Republicans, the proportion was 22%. It was only 3% among white Democrats.</p>
<p>A more recent US survey, in <a href="https://theconversation.com/poll-reveals-white-americans-see-an-increase-in-discrimination-against-other-white-people-and-less-against-other-racial-groups-185278">2022</a>, concluded that 30% of white respondents saw “a lot more discrimination against white Americans”. </p>
<p>Representative data on these issues is lacking in Australia. But there is evidence a significant minority of Australians seem convinced anti-white racism is a thing. </p>
<p>A 2018 <a href="https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/bitstream/10453/128799/4/Reverse%20racism%20and%20white%20victimhood%20in%20Australia%20JIS%20March%202018%20clean.pdf">Australian survey</a> found that around 10% of respondents who stated they had witnessed racism as bystanders said the victim of the allegedly “racist” incident was a white person. </p>
<p>Another recent (non-representative) <a href="https://periscopekasaustralia.com.au/papers/volume-10-2-2023/demarcating-australias-far-right-political-fringe-but-social-mainstream/">survey</a> of 335 Australian men in 2021 showed that one in three respondents agreed with the statement: “white people are the victims these days”.</p>
<p>Australian senator <a href="https://theconversation.com/pauline-hanson-built-a-political-career-on-white-victimhood-and-brought-far-right-rhetoric-to-the-mainstream-134661">Pauline Hanson</a> has been complaining about “reverse racism” since her maiden speech to parliament in 1996, when she described “the privileges Aboriginals enjoy over other Australians”. <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/pauline-hansons-1996-maiden-speech-to-parliament-full-transcript-20160915-grgjv3.html">She said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We now have a situation where a type of reverse racism is applied to mainstream Australians by those who promote political correctness […]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Gamilaraay man <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2020/mar/12/its-time-to-put-an-end-to-the-gaslighting-that-occurs-every-day-in-australia">Joshua Waters says</a> most First Nations Australians have heard this kind of sentiment, and statements like: “Uh, I’m not racist. You’re racist for calling me racist. Actually, that’s reverse racism!”</p>
<p>But as he has argued, “To be called racist for identifying actual racist behaviours and rhetoric is not OK.”</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-believers-in-white-genocide-are-spreading-their-hate-filled-message-in-australia-106605">How believers in 'white genocide' are spreading their hate-filled message in Australia</a>
</strong>
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</p>
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<h2>Backlash against racial justice</h2>
<p>“Reverse racism” sometimes reflects a naïve but profound lack of racial literacy. But more often, it’s a defensive backlash against societal reckoning with racial injustices, both past and present. </p>
<p>And it’s often an expression of “<a href="https://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/viewFile/249/116">white fragility</a>” in the face of an <a href="https://scanloninstitute.org.au/mapping-social-cohesion-2022">increasing awareness</a> of racism in Australia – as epitomised by Hanson’s political career.</p>
<p>“Reverse racism” claims are often strategically adopted by right-wing populist political actors and far-right fringe movements, to garner support and recruit new sympathisers and members. This can manifest in political stunts such as the infamous “<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/15/australia/pauline-hanson-white-australia-intl/index.html">ok to be white</a>” motion Hanson put to the Australian Senate in 2018, which claimed to condemn alleged “anti-white racism”. </p>
<p>The phrase “it’s OK to be white” had <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-17/origins-of-its-ok-to-be-white-slogan-supremacists-united-states/10385716">previously been used</a> by white supremacists in the US.</p>
<p>Anti-white racism claims have also been expressed in more explicit, aggressive and extreme ways: as threats of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-believers-in-white-genocide-are-spreading-their-hate-filled-message-in-australia-106605">white genocide</a>”, a core neo-Nazi belief. </p>
<p>In far-right extremist movements, in Australia and globally, these conspiratorial narratives are commonly used to mobilise – and in some cases, have become crucial drivers for – white supremacy terror attacks, like the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, which killed 51 people and injured 49.</p>
<p>“Reverse racism” is a skewed, reductionist and ultimately inaccurate understanding of racism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208009/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mario Peucker receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth).</span></em></p>‘Reverse racism’ focuses on prejudiced attitudes towards a certain (racialised) group, or unequal personal treatment. But it ignores one of racism’s central markers: power.Mario Peucker, Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2080062023-06-19T02:11:12Z2023-06-19T02:11:12ZReferendum legislation passes 52-19 to applause but Lidia Thorpe condemns ‘assimilation day’<p>The legislation to enable the Australian people to vote in a referendum for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament has passed the Senate by 52 to 19.</p>
<p>The vote took place with the public gallery crowded with supporters, and was greeted with prolonged applause. Those watching included prominent leaders of the “yes” campaign, including Megan Davis, Pat Anderson and Thomas Mayo.</p>
<p>But Indigenous crossbencher Lidia Thorpe labelled it “assimilation day” and interjected repeatedly during the debate on the bill’s third reading, and during the applause.</p>
<p>Those who voted against the legislation will be involved in preparing the no case for the yes/no pamphlet that will be sent to all voters. </p>
<p>Earlier, Nationals leader David Littleproud told the ABC he did not support having the claim the Voice would “re-racialise” Australia – a claim Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has made – included in the pamphlet’s no case. “I don’t support those sort of words. I’m not prepared to put my weight behind those words,” he said. </p>
<p>The government has not announced a date for the vote yet.</p>
<p>The referendum legislation required an absolute majority, so every vote was recorded. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1670601062196338689"}"></div></p>
<p>In the final round of speeches in the Senate, shadow Attorney-General Michaelia Cash said “we are opening up a legal can of worms. The proposed model […] is not just to the parliament but to all areas of executive government. It gives an unlimited scope.”</p>
<p>Opposition spokeswoman for Indigenous Australians Jacinta Nampijinpa Price said the Voice would divide the country. </p>
<p>Greens Senator Dorinda Cox said the Greens “remain committed to the full implementation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, truth, treaty and voice. The referendum is the first important step.”</p>
<p>ACT crossbencher David Pocock said the Voice was “about ensuring that First Nations people, Australia’s first peoples, have a say on issues that affect them”. </p>
<p>Thorpe declared: “Happy assimilation day”. She said the Voice was “appeasing white guilt in this country by giving the poor little blackfellas a powerless advisory body”. She would be voting no to something that gave no power.</p>
<p>“"There is not one law in this country that has ever, ever, ever been good for us, not one. And now we’re meant to accept a powerless voice. It is truly assimilating our people so we’ll fit nicely as your little Indigenous Australians, it’s what you want us to be, right?”</p>
<p>She was asked by Senate President Sue Lines to cover her T-shirt, which had “gammin” in it, used in Aboriginal slang to mean fake.</p>
<p>Pauline Hanson said many people were still very confused about the proposal. </p>
<p>Assistant Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy said “this is a critical moment in our country’s history. It is the right thing to do.” McCarthy paid tribute to Senator Patrick Dodson, who is on extended leave due to illness. </p>
<p>Murray Watt, representing the Attorney-General, called for the coming debate to be respectful, saying there was an onus on people to “tell the truth” and accusing no supporters of misinformation.</p>
<p>Appearing after the legislation passed parliament, at a news conference with Indigenous leaders, Anthony Albanese pitched a strong appeal to voters: “I say to my fellow Australians: parliaments pass laws, but it is people that make history.</p>
<p>"This is your time, your chance, your opportunity to be a part of making history,” he said. It was a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lift our great nation even higher”.</p>
<p>Referencing Labor’s recent historic victory at the Aston byelection, the PM said this was “more important than any by-election ever held”. </p>
<p>Liberal MP Julian Leeser, who quit as shadow minister for Indigenous Australians to support the yes case, said in a statement after the vote: “Over the months ahead, I am looking forward to being part of a movement of Australians from all political backgrounds and playing a part in a campaign that will bring our country together”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208006/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The vote took place with the public gallery crowded with supporters, and was received with long applause.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1879882022-08-02T01:30:35Z2022-08-02T01:30:35ZWhat is an Acknowledgement of Country and how is it different to a Welcome to Country?<p>Pauline Hanson’s recent dramatic <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-27/pauline-hanson-walkout-acknowledgement-of-country/101275080">outburst and walkout</a> from parliament as an Acknowledgement of Country was delivered has been <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-27/pauline-hanson-walkout-acknowledgement-of-country/101275080">condemned</a> as <a href="https://www.triplem.com.au/story/pauline-hanson-called-racist-for-storming-out-during-senate-s-acknowledgment-of-country-203517">racist and ignorant</a>.</p>
<p>Social media sites reporting this incident have attracted a barrage of negative comments perpetuating misconceptions around Acknowledgement of Country and Welcome to Country. Many clearly do not understand what they are and see them as “special treatment”. Unfortunately, Hanson has been a source of this line of thinking around so-called “special treatment”, as seen in her <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/pauline-hansons-1996-maiden-speech-to-parliament-full-transcript-20160915-grgjv3.html">1996 maiden speech</a> to parliament.</p>
<p>Such comments reveal an Australian society still burdened with an unfounded resentment and fear of Aboriginal rights and connection to Country. </p>
<p>So, what is an Acknowledgement of Country? How is it different to a Welcome to Country?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-courage-to-feel-uncomfortable-what-australians-need-to-learn-to-achieve-real-reconciliation-183914">The courage to feel uncomfortable: what Australians need to learn to achieve real reconciliation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is an Acknowledgement of Country?</h2>
<p>An Acknowledgement of Country is often made at the start of an event to pay respect to First Nations peoples as the Traditional Owners and ongoing custodians of the land. </p>
<p>An Acknowledgement often highlights the unique position of First Nations people in the context of culture and history, and their intimate <a href="https://www.commonground.org.au/learn/acknowledgement-of-country">relationship</a> with the land.</p>
<p>An Acknowledgement does not exclude anyone. Anyone can deliver one. It costs nothing to give or listen to. You lose nothing from a ten second acknowledgement of the Country, language, and people that existed in a place for tens of thousands of years.</p>
<p>An Acknowledgement does not impact on the rights and status of other Australian people.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1552102373568311296"}"></div></p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dont-read-the-comments-misinformed-and-malicious-comments-stifle-indigenous-voices-180576">'Don't read the comments': misinformed and malicious comments stifle Indigenous voices</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>What is a Welcome to Country?</h2>
<p>Acknowledgement of Country is different to a Welcome to Country. Crucially, only Traditional Owners can deliver a Welcome to Country.</p>
<p>Traditionally, First Nations people travelling to different Country had to seek permission to enter from the Traditional Owners. If granted, permission was given by way of a Welcome to Country. </p>
<p>Today, inviting an Elder to perform a Welcome is a way to recognise unceded Aboriginal sovereignty of ancestral lands. It’s also a way to honour ancient and continuing First Nations customs.</p>
<p>Wurundjeri Elder Joy Murphy Wandin has <a href="https://keynoteworthy.com.au/the-significance-of-welcome-to-country-why-every-event-should-have-one/">described</a> Welcome to Country as practised by her people:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When there was a request to visit Country, the Werrigerri (a young man selected by the Elders of the community) would go on behalf of the community under the voice of the Elder, the Nurungeeta. There would be this negotiation and that could take a long time, it could take months. So that is the background of Welcome to Country. It is not a new thing. It is not because our land was dispossessed; it has nothing to do with that. It is all about respect for our culture and who we are. It is paying respect, especially to our ancestors.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Acknowledgements and Welcomes to Country weren’t invented to divide First Nations and non-Indigenous people.</p>
<p>Although both have been widely revived in recent years, they are <a href="https://www.commonground.org.au/learn/acknowledgement-of-country">traditional protocols</a>. When Aboriginal peoples travel from their own home Country to that of another Aboriginal group, they too acknowledge the traditional custodians.</p>
<p>Similarly, it’s standard practice for a hosting First Nations group to perform a welcome to all visitors – Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike – as a way of being inclusive and welcoming.</p>
<p>In doing this, Aboriginal people are sharing their culture and social protocols and offering the opportunity to feel a deeper connection to the lands you walk upon and visit. </p>
<p>By learning traditional place names, you unlock important information about the character or features of that place.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/creating-a-constitutional-voice-the-words-that-could-change-australia-187972">Creating a constitutional Voice – the words that could change Australia</a>
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</em>
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<h2>Restoring and maintaining connection to Country</h2>
<p>Many Aboriginal people have been removed from Country, or can no longer access it through development, private ownership, farming and mining.</p>
<p>The Stolen Generations and mission era systematically worked to eradicate Aboriginal languages and cultural traditions. For many First Nations peoples, Acknowledgement of Country can help to restore some of this severed connection to Country and identity. </p>
<p>As Professor Mick Dodson <a href="https://keynoteworthy.com.au/the-significance-of-welcome-to-country-why-every-event-should-have-one/">explains</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>For us, Country is a word for all the values, places, resources, stories, and cultural obligations associated with that area and its features. It describes the entirety of our ancestral domains. While they may all no longer necessarily be the titleholders to land, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians are still connected to the Country of their ancestors and most consider themselves the custodians or caretakers of their land.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For some Aboriginal people, Acknowledgement of Country is a constant reminder of the responsibilities of custodians to advocate for the protection of a fragile environment and its cultural heritage. </p>
<p>It reminds us all Aboriginal languages were the first languages spoken in this country. Many are are still spoken. Acknowledgement of Country brings us together and recognises the shared cultural history and landscape we have all inherited.</p>
<p>Joy Murphy Wandin, <a href="https://keynoteworthy.com.au/the-significance-of-welcome-to-country-why-every-event-should-have-one/">describes</a> it as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a very important way of giving Aboriginal people back their place in society, and an opportunity for us to say, “We are real, we are here, and today we welcome you to our land”. It’s paying respect, in a formal sense, and following the traditional custom in a symbolic way.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Understanding what Acknowledgement of Country and Welcome to Country are, and their history and origins can help us recognise the importance and power of continuing these practices. </p>
<p>It’s not about being divisive. It’s about continuing ancient connections to Country, history, and ancestors. It’s a reminder of the responsibility of custodians to the land and its creatures; to protect and look after them. </p>
<p>It’s about honouring and being respectful towards a custom and way of thought much older than the name or concept of “Australia” as a nation state, or any sitting of parliament.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187988/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cally Jetta works for UniSQ. She is a co-founder of the Blackfulla Revolution social media site and current co-admin of 'Connecting with Country' Facebook page.</span></em></p>Misconceptions around Acknowledgement of Country and Welcome to Country persist. Many people do not understand what they are, how they are different or why they are practised.Cally Jetta, Course examiner and lecturer; College for First Nations, University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1850512022-06-17T23:00:28Z2022-06-17T23:00:28ZMore Senate results: Hanson wins easily, but Labor still on track for a friendly Senate<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469581/original/file-20220617-17-45obx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Darren England</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some links in this article refer to the Australian Electoral Commission results. These links no longer work; archived AEC results are <a href="https://results.aec.gov.au/27966/Website/HouseDefault-27966.htm">here</a>.</p>
<p>Buttons have now been pressed to electronically distribute preferences for the May 21 federal election in the Senate for South Australia, Tasmania and Queensland. I discussed the ACT and NT results that elected David Pocock to the Senate on Tuesday.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/act-senate-result-pocock-defeats-liberals-in-first-time-liberals-have-not-won-one-act-senate-seat-184738">ACT Senate result: Pocock defeats Liberals in first time Liberals have not won one ACT Senate seat</a>
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<hr>
<p>All states have 12 senators, with six up for election at half-Senate elections. A quota is one-seventh of the vote, or 14.3%. State senators are elected for six-year terms beginning July 1, barring a double dissolution.</p>
<p>Final primary votes in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/federal/2022/results/senate">Queensland</a> were 2.47 quotas for the LNP, 1.73 Labor, 0.87 Greens, 0.52 One Nation, 0.38 Legalise Cannabis and 0.29 UAP. The result was two LNP, two Labor, one Green and one One Nation. The change from the previous parliament was the Greens winning a seat from the LNP.</p>
<p>Preferences were distributed on Friday. ABC election analyst <a href="https://antonygreen.com.au/2022-queensland-senate-election/">Antony Green</a> said after the exclusion of Clive Palmer (UAP), 57% of his preferences flowed to One Nation’s Pauline Hanson, putting Hanson ahead of Labor’s second candidate, Anthony Chisholm.</p>
<p>Final results were 0.996 quotas for Hanson, 0.974 Labor and 0.720 for the LNP’s third candidate, Amanda Stoker. Hanson was elected fifth, Chisholm sixth and Stoker was defeated.</p>
<p>Final primary votes in South Australia were 2.37 quotas for the Liberals, 2.26 Labor, 0.84 Greens, 0.28 One Nation, 0.21 UAP and 0.21 Nick Xenophon. Rex Patrick, who defected from Xenophon’s Centre Alliance, won just 0.15 quotas.</p>
<p>Preferences were distributed on Wednesday. The <a href="https://www.pollbludger.net/2022/06/14/late-counting-first-senate-buttons-pressed/">Poll Bludger</a> said the third Liberal won the final seat over One Nation by 0.87 quotas to 0.67. At the previous count, Labor was excluded behind One Nation, with 0.56 quotas to 0.61 for One Nation and 0.67 for the Liberals. The Liberals would have won even if Labor had made the final two.</p>
<p>At the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Australian_federal_election#Senate">2016 double dissolution</a> election, Xenophon won three seats with two getting long terms that expire on June 30. Labor and the Liberals were each defending two seats. So the Greens and Liberals each gained a seat with Centre Alliance losing their two seats (one a defector).</p>
<p>Final primary votes in Tasmania gave the Liberals 2.24 quotas, Labor 1.89, the Greens 1.08, the Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN) 0.61 and One Nation 0.27.</p>
<p>Preferences were distributed <a href="https://tallyroom.aec.gov.au/External/SenateStateDop-27966-TAS.pdf">Thursday</a>. The second Labor candidate and the JLN’s Tammy Tyrrell reached quota, with Tyrrell joining Lambie and increasing the JLN’s Senate representation from one to two. This was a gain for the JLN from the Liberals. At the final count, Tyrrell had 1.05 quotas and One Nation 0.63, with the third Liberal excluded before One Nation.</p>
<p>The third Liberal was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jun/16/liberal-eric-abetz-to-leave-parliament-as-jacqui-lambie-network-claims-tasmanian-senate-seat?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">Eric Abetz</a>, who has been a senator since 1994. At this election, he was demoted to third on the Liberal Tasmanian ticket. Analyst <a href="https://kevinbonham.blogspot.com/2022/06/2022-senate-button-press-thread.html">Kevin Bonham</a> said Abetz easily won the biggest share of 39s (last preference) out of all below the line voters who numbered every box.</p>
<h2>Remaining states</h2>
<p>Twenty-two of the 40 Senate seats up for election have now been formally decided, and have gone as expected. I expect the remaining states early next week. Primary votes in NSW are 2.57 quotas for the Coalition, 2.13 Labor, 0.80 Greens, 0.29 One Nation and 0.24 UAP. This will result in three Coalition, two Labor and one Green.</p>
<p>The Coalition has 2.26 quotas in Victoria, Labor 2.20, the Greens 0.97, UAP 0.28, Legalise Cannabis 0.21 and One Nation 0.20. Complete data files on every vote cast in Senate contests are available soon after the distributions. From this data, the <a href="https://www.pollbludger.net/2022/06/14/late-counting-first-senate-buttons-pressed/">Poll Bludger</a> said One Nation preferences flowed far better to the UAP in SA than in 2019. </p>
<p>If this pattern is repeated in Victoria, he said UAP has a much better chance of winning the final seat than 2019 preference flows would suggest. So Victoria will be two Coalition, two Labor, one Green, with the final seat leaning to the UAP instead of the Coalition.</p>
<p>Labor has 2.42 quotas in WA, the Liberals 2.22, the Greens 1.00, One Nation 0.24, Legalise Cannabis 0.24 and the Christians 0.15. Labor is likely to win three senators in WA, the Liberals two and the Greens one, but it’s still possible Labor loses the last WA seat to either the Liberals or One Nation.</p>
<p>If results in the remaining states are as expected, the outcome of this half-Senate election would be 15 Coalition out of 40, 15 Labor, six Greens and one each for One Nation, UAP, JLN and David Pocock.</p>
<p>The Coalition would hold 32 of the 76 total senators, Labor 26, the Greens 12, One Nation two, the JLN two and Pocock and UAP one each. To pass legislation opposed by the Coalition, Labor would need support from the Greens and any one of the six others.</p>
<p>If Labor loses the final WA seat, their path to legislation is more difficult. They would then need the Greens and two of the six others, and would likely depend on the JLN.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469583/original/file-20220617-24-a75j8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469583/original/file-20220617-24-a75j8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469583/original/file-20220617-24-a75j8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469583/original/file-20220617-24-a75j8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469583/original/file-20220617-24-a75j8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469583/original/file-20220617-24-a75j8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469583/original/file-20220617-24-a75j8p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Liberal Eric Abetz has lost his place in the senate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Mick Tsikas</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>House: independent in Groom makes final two on just 8.3% primary vote</h2>
<p>In the House of Representatives, primary votes in <a href="https://tallyroom.aec.gov.au/HouseDivisionPage-27966-164.htm">Groom</a> were 43.7% LNP, 18.7% Labor, 9.6% One Nation, 8.3% for independent Suzie Holt, 7.1% for another independent, 5.9% Greens and 5.1% UAP. After a distribution of preferences, Holt jumped over both One Nation and Labor to make the final two, but she still lost decisively to the LNP.</p>
<p>Analyst <a href="https://twitter.com/mumbletwits/status/1536628805766627329">Peter Brent</a> said Holt had the third lowest primary vote percentage, and the lowest when both major parties contested, to make it to the final two at a federal election or byelection, and is the first to make the final two from fourth or lower on primary votes.</p>
<p>In Australia the two top candidates on primary votes are not guaranteed to be the final two. The distribution of preferences starts by excluding the lowest polling candidate, and their votes are distributed to all remaining candidates. This is followed until there are two candidates remaining.</p>
<p>In past elections, the Australian Electoral Commission has not released the full distribution of preferences for all seats until months after the election.</p>
<h2>Essential poll: Albanese surges to 59% approval</h2>
<p>Essential is the first Australian pollster to poll <a href="https://essentialreport.com.au/reports/15-june-2022">Anthony Albanese’s ratings</a> since the election. In this week’s poll, he had a 59% approval for his performance as prime minister, and just an 18% disapproval (net +41). In Essential’s final poll before the election, Albanese was at +1 net approval for his performance as opposition leader (42-41 approval).</p>
<p>By 44-34, voters supported Australia becoming a republic, down from a 49-28 margin in March 2021.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185051/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adrian Beaumont does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With Senate results close to being finalised across the country, Labor will need the support of the Greens and one or two other senators to get legislation through the upper house.Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist), The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1837222022-05-25T05:49:23Z2022-05-25T05:49:23ZClive Palmer and One Nation flopped at the election. What happened?<p>Many commentators tipped Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party (UAP) and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation to perform well this election by scooping up the “freedom” and anti-vax vote from voters angry about how the pandemic was handled.</p>
<p>But this wasn’t the case. </p>
<p>The parties did see a modest rise in their vote, but not enough to translate into significant electoral success. Neither party won any seats in the lower house. </p>
<p>UAP candidate Ralph Babet is likely to <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/05/24/meet-ralph-babet-clive-palmer-acolyte-and-maybe-victorias-newest-senator/">pick up Victoria’s sixth Senate seat</a> – in part thanks to preferences from the Coalition, who put UAP second on their how to vote cards in the state. But this may be all Palmer gets for his obscene campaign spending.</p>
<p>UAP leader and former Liberal MP Craig Kelly lost his seat of Hughes, and Palmer failed in his bid for a Queensland Senate spot.</p>
<p>One Nation also failed to pick up any extra Senate seats. Pauline Hanson is projected to hold onto her Senate seat, only just, while Malcolm Roberts continues as a Senator having earned a six year term in the 2019 federal election.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://theconversation.com/populism-and-the-federal-election-what-can-we-expect-from-hanson-palmer-lambie-and-katter-179567">populism researcher</a>, I’ve taken a keen interest in these minor parties. Here’s why I think they did so badly.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-actually-is-populism-and-why-does-it-have-a-bad-reputation-109874">What actually is populism? And why does it have a bad reputation?</a>
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<h2>United Australia Party</h2>
<p>UAP garnered about an extra 0.7% of the national primary lower house vote compared to 2019 (for a total of 4.1%), after spending an estimated A<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-07/clive-palmer-united-australia-party-election-spending-influence/100973064">$70</a>-<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/22/clive-palmers-massive-advertising-spend-fails-to-translate-into-electoral-success">$100 million</a>. In Queensland the party has thus far secured just 4.3% <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/palmer-and-hanson-fight-it-out-for-last-qld-senate-seat-20220522-p5angz">of the Senate vote</a> – and this is where Palmer himself was the lead Senate candidate.</p>
<p>While in 2019, the party didn’t have much of a platform outside of being anti-Bill Shorten, this wasn’t the case in 2022. They had visible policies on cost-of-living, such as housing affordability and investing Australian superannuation funds in Australian companies.</p>
<p>The party also tried to position itself as the voice of the “freedom” movement, opposing COVID lockdowns and vaccine mandates.</p>
<p>The fact that none of this seemed to resonate – particularly their interest rate policies – surprises me.</p>
<p>I expected the party’s populist, anti-major party, “freedom” agenda to resonate in some parts of the country. For example, many predicted UAP would <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/palmer-s-people-why-the-united-australia-party-will-do-particularly-well-in-victoria-20220427-p5aghd.html">poll well in the outer suburbs of Melbourne</a> where there’s high levels of anti-lockdown and anti-Dan Andrews sentiment.</p>
<p>While it did poll better than it has before in some of these areas, it didn’t translate into electoral success, nor make much of a dint in preferences as it did last election.</p>
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<h2>One Nation</h2>
<p>One Nation struggled despite fielding candidates in <a href="https://theconversation.com/race-for-the-senate-could-labor-and-the-greens-gain-control-181350">149</a> of 151 House of Representatives seats.</p>
<p>The party’s national primary lower house vote increased a bit – up about 1.8% to 4.9% – but this was mostly because it ran in many more seats than last election.</p>
<p>Early in the Senate vote count it looked like Hanson might lose her Senate seat, but now she’s <a href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national/federal-election/hanson-tipped-to-triumph-over-cannabis-candidate/news-story/1a17b8e14bb942c19b07c671b75b7d68">projected to just hold on</a>.</p>
<p>She faced fierce competition from Palmer, former Queensland Premier Campbell Newman, and a relatively unknown minor party called <a href="https://theconversation.com/legalise-cannabis-australia-did-well-at-the-ballot-box-but-reform-is-most-likely-to-come-from-a-cautious-approach-183612">Legalise Cannabis Australia</a>. Hanson is very well known – particularly in Queensland – so it was also surprising to see her fighting for her political life against a little known party.</p>
<h2>6 reasons why UAP and One Nation flopped</h2>
<p>So why did both parties fail to perform as well as some thought they might? Here are some of the key reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>They were competing for the same small segment of the electorate. Both are populist right parties, they tried to brand themselves as the parties of the “freedom” movement, and likely took votes off each other in the process.</p></li>
<li><p>They were also competing for votes against the right wing of the Coalition, some of whose candidates share very similar views in terms of sentiments regarding immigration and vaccination mandates. </p></li>
<li><p>The wind has been taken out of the sails of the “freedom” movement. Since lockdowns finished and almost all COVID restrictions have been phased out, the cause is not as urgent. This freedom banner brought together disparate groups – spanning from the far-right to “wellness” and alternative health groups – but the links between the groups were always tenuous. Now the shared enemy of lockdowns has disappeared, there doesn’t seem to be social, class or political linkages holding them together. If this election was held last year – or even a few months ago – both parties might’ve had more success.</p></li>
<li><p>Populists often campaign against the “corruption” of the ruling classes. However, it was hard for UAP or One Nation to get much traction on this as almost every non-Coalition party or candidate – from Labor, to the Greens to the teal independents – was also campaigning on the same issue.</p></li>
<li><p>One Nation’s anti-immigration stance is one of its key policies. The fact that Australia had barely any immigration since the beginning of the pandemic made campaigning on the party’s bread-and-butter issue very difficult.</p></li>
<li><p>There’s been a lot of talk about parties using “<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-tracked-election-ad-spending-for-4-000-facebook-pages-heres-what-theyre-posting-about-and-why-cybersecurity-is-the-bigger-concern-182286">microtargeting</a>” in this election, but UAP’s strategy was the opposite. Their mass advertising and huge billboards were the modern equivalent to throwing a bunch of leaflets out of a moving plane. This election suggests this doesn’t work – you can’t just bombard people.</p></li>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-this-the-end-of-the-two-party-system-in-australia-the-greens-teals-and-others-shock-the-major-parties-182672">Is this the end of the two-party system in Australia? The Greens, teals and others shock the major parties</a>
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<p>None of this means we should write UAP or One Nation off for good. Hanson has proven herself a mainstay of Australian politics, and returned from the political wilderness before. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Palmer has now contested three separate federal elections – each time, seemingly with a completely different platform. With his deep pockets, who knows whether or what he will run on in 2025.</p>
<p>This federal election, however, was not a “populist moment” for these parties. The real story in 2022 is not on the right, but on the other side of politics.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183722/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin Moffitt receives funding from the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Early Career Researcher Award funding scheme and from the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation.</span></em></p>An expert on populism gives 6 reasons why these minor parties failed to gain electoral success.Benjamin Moffitt, Associate Professor, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1812752022-04-13T12:23:16Z2022-04-13T12:23:16ZView from The Hill: New One Nation candidate George Christensen set to win from losing<p>George Christensen caused the government a heap of trouble while he was in the Nationals, and is set to be a pest now he’s jumped ship. </p>
<p>A year ago Christensen announced he wouldn’t re-contest at this election, saying “I think my time is done”. Now he’s opted, just days after resigning from the Liberal National Party, to run as third candidate on the One Nation Queensland Senate ticket. </p>
<p>He won’t win a seat but defeat will entitle him to a $105,000 “resettlement allowance”. </p>
<p>It had been earlier reported he’d tried to have the LNP disendorse him, so he could get this payout, but it had declined. (Christensen claims he is already likely entitled to the money but this is denied by government sources.)</p>
<p>At a news conference with his new leader, Pauline Hanson, Christensen said if he could help get Hanson and maybe her number two candidate elected it would be “the job done, because Pauline’s been a warrior for common sense conservative issues”. </p>
<p>Christensen, 43, member for the north Queensland seat of Dawson since 2010, has been extended an extraordinary degree of tolerance by his colleagues over the years. His party has treated him with kid gloves, despite some outrageous behaviour. </p>
<p>So indeed did his electorate. Regardless of his spending nearly 300 days in the Philippines between April 2014 and June 2018 – which earned him the title “the member for Manila” – the Dawson locals gave him a positive swing of more than 11% in 2019.</p>
<p>Over the years Christensen periodically threatened to cross the floor and sometimes did, although he was equally likely to draw back after kicking up the dust. In his book A Bigger Picture, Malcolm Turnbull has a diary entry saying Christensen kept threatening to move to the crossbench.</p>
<p>In late 2017 he encouraged Sky to report that an unnamed Coalition MP would quit the government if Turnbull remained prime minister, then changed his mind leaving a couple of presenters high and dry. </p>
<p>In the arguments over the handling of COVID, he featured prominently at anti-lockdown and anti-vaccination rallies. </p>
<p>In August last year he condemned the handling of the pandemic, declaring in a parliamentary speech: “restore our freedoms, end this madness.” Scott Morrison dissociated himself from Christensen’s views and the house voted to condemn his comments. </p>
<p>Christensen called the bluff of his peers and betters in the Nationals. When tackled about his maverick backbencher Barnaby Joyce would say that taking him on would be fruitless, and just make things more difficult. Nationals deputy leader David Littleproud earlier this year described him as a “free spirit” while disagreeing with him. </p>
<p>Christensen and Joyce only spoke about his defection on Tuesday night. On the campaign trail on Wednesday, Joyce described his action as an “unwelcome distraction”. </p>
<p>Senator Matt Canavan months ago tried to talk Christensen out of retiring, believing he was an asset for the LNP and a great campaigner. </p>
<p>Canavan now describes his former colleague as “a coward” for “shirking away from battles in the LNP” in favour of the “echo chamber” of a minor party. He’d deserted the Nationals party members, Canavan said. </p>
<p>Canavan admits that Christensen could harm the LNP Senate vote in Queensland, where there are “a lot of angry people” from the debate over COVID and vaccines.</p>
<p>Christensen told the Courier Mail he should have joined One Nation “a long time ago”.</p>
<p>“The more I queried One Nation’s policies and looked at their constitution, their core beliefs, the things that Pauline has been campaigning on recently, just about everything aligned with my views.”</p>
<p>On Sky on Wednesday night he said he hadn’t deserted anyone because “my beliefs are exactly the same. I’ve just realised One Nation is more in tune with those thoughts.” He rejected the gold-digging interpretation of his motives for running for One Nation. </p>
<p>He said he had fulfilled his “contract” because he had stuck with the LNP right to the end of the parliament before he “pulled the pin”. He named not just the handling of COVID but the signing up to the 2050 net zero target as among his beefs. One Nation was the only party in the parliament questioning “this religion of manmade climate change”. </p>
<p>“You get sick of defending the indefensible,” he said. </p>
<p>He said it was “not impossible” to win the Senate seat but it would be “a big ask”, although he claimed he was in One Nation “for the long haul”. </p>
<p>For a minor party, One Nation sure has a big umbrella. In their earlier years George Christensen and former Labor leader Mark Latham (now in the NSW parliament) would never have imagined they’d end up wearing the same brand.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181275/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>George Christensen caused the government a heap of trouble while he was in the Nationals, and is set to be a pest now he’s jumped ship.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1723162021-11-22T10:12:49Z2021-11-22T10:12:49ZView from The Hill: Scott Morrison trips on a truth test<p>With the opposition and other critics homing in on the issues of his character and integrity, Scott Morrison on Monday played right into their hands.</p>
<p>It was question time on the first day of parliament’s final sitting fortnight for the year (and incidentally, the last day the much-respected Tony Smith would be in the Speaker’s chair).</p>
<p>The issue was an old one, that had been canvassed before, giving all the more reason why the prime minister should have been careful with his words.</p>
<p>Labor MP Fiona Phillips, from the NSW marginal seat of Gilmore (which the government hopes to reclaim) asked Morrison why, when her electorate was burning in the bushfires of 2019, his office told journalists he wasn’t on holiday in Hawaii.</p>
<p>Morrison replied that he’d texted Anthony Albanese “from the plane when I was going on that leave, and told him where I was going and he was fully aware of where I was travelling with my family”.</p>
<p>Half of this was untrue, as Albanese knew full well. Morrison had not said “where” he was going at all. There were some angry exchanges across the table.</p>
<p>After question time, Albanese in a personal explanation said Morrison had not indicated his destination in the text.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-morrison-gives-religious-discrimination-bill-priority-over-national-integrity-commission-172166">Grattan on Friday: Morrison gives religious discrimination bill priority over national integrity commission</a>
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<p>Morrison then made his looseness-with-the-truth worse, redefining the meaning of “where”.</p>
<p>“Where I was going was on leave, Mr Speaker, and that was the important thing I sent to the leader of the opposition. […] I told him I was taking leave.”</p>
<p>But soon after, Morrison or his advisers realised the need to get the carpet sweeper out. The PM made another intervention.</p>
<p>In a rare admission, he told the House: “I wish to add to an answer. I want to confirm what the leader of the opposition said, that in that text I did not tell him the destination of where I was going on leave with my family.</p>
<p>"I simply communicated to him that I was taking leave.</p>
<p>"When I was referring to, ‘He knew where I was going and was fully aware I was travelling with my family,’ what I meant was that we were going on leave together.</p>
<p>"I know I didn’t tell him where we were going because, Mr Speaker, that is a private matter where members take leave, and I know I didn’t tell him the destination – nor would I and nor would he expect me to have told him where he [sic] was going.</p>
<p>"I simply confirmed to him that I was taking leave with my family and he was aware of that at that time.”</p>
<p>This is extraordinary. First the PM says he told Albanese “where” he was going and emphasised the point. Then, pushed onto the back foot, he admits he didn’t tell him that and says neither of them would have expected him to do so. It was a spectacular example of Morrison’s penchant to slip and slide around things, but one that, given the written evidence and his own logic, was always going to end badly. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-scott-morrison-caught-in-catch-22-over-the-issue-of-his-integrity-171750">View from The Hill: Scott Morrison caught in catch-22 over the issue of his integrity</a>
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<p>This wasn’t the only untidiness of the day.</p>
<p>In the Senate, five government senators crossed the floor to support Pauline Hanson’s bill to ban discrimination against the unvaccinated. The bill covered federal, state and territory government and the private sector.</p>
<p>Those Coalition senators who voted for the bill were two former ministers, Matt Canavan and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, as well as Alex Antic, Gerard Rennick and Sam McMahon.</p>
<p>Ironically Hanson could not vote for her own bill, defeated 5-44, because she was participating in parliament remotely, which doesn’t permit casting a vote. She had to confine herself to a fiery speech, that was matched by an opposing one from another crossbencher, Jacqui Lambie, who launched a ferocious attack on One Nation.</p>
<p>Hanson said: “State governments are relishing this extraordinary power to command and control […]</p>
<p>"The Victorian government relishes this power so much
they’re trying to permanently enshrine it in law, giving the premier unprecedented authority to act like a dictator – and still the prime minister has done nothing to stop this discrimination.”</p>
<p>But Lambie said: “If you want to champion against discrimination, you don’t want One Nation”.</p>
<p>“One Nation is not a fighter against discrimination. One Nation seeks to profit from it. It’s just a fundraising exercise for them and that’s all this is.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/white-supremacist-and-far-right-ideology-underpin-anti-vax-movements-172289">White supremacist and far right ideology underpin anti-vax movements</a>
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<p>Morrison had facilitated the bill being considered in an attempt to mollify Hanson, who is opposing government legislation generally over the vaccine mandate issue. Despite this gesture, she is maintaining her position.</p>
<p>Senators Rennick and Antic are withholding their votes from the government over the same issue, making the outlook in the Senate chaotic for this fortnight.</p>
<p>On Tuesday the Coalition party room will get the government’s religious discrimination legislation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172316/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Scott Morrison has again had his integrity questioned over his decision to provide loose-with-the-truth answers during question timeMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1674482021-09-13T20:02:57Z2021-09-13T20:02:57ZI studied 31 Australian political biographies published in the past decade — only 4 were about women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420676/original/file-20210913-19-17pzow3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week, a new Australian political biography will appear on bookshelves. This is <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/annika-smethurst/the-accidental-prime-minister">The Accidental Prime Minister</a>, an examination of Scott Morrison by journalist Annika Smethurst.</p>
<p>While a prime minister makes for an obvious – and worthy — biographical subject, it also continues Australia’s strong tradition of focusing on the stories of men in politics. </p>
<p>History as a discipline may have been grappling with gender issues since the 1970s, but political history has been especially resistant to questions about women and gender.</p>
<p>In a recent <a href="http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/n8684/pdf/02_williams.pdf">study</a> for the Australian Journal of Biography and History, I looked at Australian political biographies over the past decade. I found female political figures are almost always ignored. </p>
<h2>Why biographies matter</h2>
<p>Political biographies add life, colour and depth to historical events and personalities. They can shape the legacies of politicians long after they’ve left politics. They also show us who is worthy of being written about and who is overlooked in the pages of history.</p>
<p>However, most Australian political biographies have been written about men, particularly male prime ministers. </p>
<p>This inevitably calls to mind the enduring myth of the “Great Man” as the architect of historical change. This is best described by 19th century historian Thomas Carlyle, who believed “the history of the world is but the biography of great men”. </p>
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<img alt="Labor senator Penny Wong." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420679/original/file-20210913-27-1xz2t6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420679/original/file-20210913-27-1xz2t6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420679/original/file-20210913-27-1xz2t6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420679/original/file-20210913-27-1xz2t6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420679/original/file-20210913-27-1xz2t6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420679/original/file-20210913-27-1xz2t6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420679/original/file-20210913-27-1xz2t6s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Labor senator and former finance minister Penny Wong is one of the few women MPs to be the subject of a recent biography.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
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<p>As women were largely excluded from politics until the end of the 20th century, it could be argued they simply haven’t had the opportunity to be seen as “great politicians” worthy of literary examination. </p>
<p>Yet, as political biographies define which personal and political qualities suggest “greatness”, it could also be argued we tend to associate these qualities with men and masculinity. Male leaders’ gender is never discussed or explored in their political biographies. Masculinity is portrayed as the unseen norm while gender is an attribute only ever identified with women.</p>
<p>This argument gains further support from the fact there are more women in Australian politics than ever before, yet there remains a notable lack of political biographies covering their lives and stories. In my study, I <a href="http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/n8684/pdf/02_williams.pdf">examined </a> Australian political biographies published in the past decade. Only four out of 31 were on women politicians. </p>
<p>This small minority includes Margaret Simons’ Penny Wong in 2019 and Anna Broinowski’s 2017 biography of Pauline Hanson, Please Explain.</p>
<h2>Why are women ignored?</h2>
<p>There are three key factors that can explain the lack of biographies written on Australian women politicians.</p>
<p>First, as previously noted, there is the lack of gender parity in Australian politics. The 1990s saw a surge of women enter politics, partly due to Labor’s gender quotas. Yet at the moment, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp2021/Quick_Guides/CompositionPartyGender">only 31%</a> of the House of Representatives are women and all major leadership positions are held by men.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-it-taking-so-long-to-achieve-gender-equality-in-parliament-117313">Why is it taking so long to achieve gender equality in parliament?</a>
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<p>Second, Australian political biography itself has a role to play here — the Great Man narrative is an enduring problem. It leads to an overemphasis on so-called “foundational patriarchs” and overlooks the impact of political players who don’t conform to this stereotype.</p>
<p>In the past decade, two biographies each were written on former Labor prime ministers Paul Keating and Bob Hawke and former Liberal prime minister Robert Menzies. Another biography on former Labor prime minister Gough Whitlam added to the ever-growing stack of tomes dedicated to these leaders. </p>
<p>Third, women politicians might be more hesitant to expose their private lives to the same extent as their male counterparts. Women politicians <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14680777.2020.1842482?journalCode=rfms20">frequently experience</a> sexist media coverage that often scrutinises their personal choices as a reflection of their professional capabilities. It is hardly shocking that they might be hesitant to cede agency over their own story and endorse an official biography. </p>
<p>So, there are several glaring omissions in Australian political biography. Where is the biography of our first woman prime minister, Julia Gillard? Former deputy prime minister Julie Bishop is another that comes to mind. </p>
<p>There is also pioneering former Labor minister Susan Ryan, who was pivotal in the passing of the Sex Discrimination Act, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act and the Affirmative Action Act. And Natasha Stott Despoja, the youngest woman to sit in the Australian parliament and former leader of the Australian Democrats. </p>
<h2>Sisters must do it for themselves</h2>
<p>So where are all the great women political figures? Well, they’re in the memoir section.</p>
<p>Through my research, since 2010, I found 12 autobiographies and memoirs have been published by women premiers, party leaders, federal and state MPs and senators, lord mayors and, of course, our first and only woman prime minister (though I also counted over 30 written by male politicians). </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/julia-banks-new-book-is-part-of-a-50-year-tradition-of-female-mps-using-memoirs-to-fight-for-equality-163888">Julia Banks' new book is part of a 50-year tradition of female MPs using memoirs to fight for equality</a>
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<p>Autobiographies can be a valuable way for women politicians to recover their voices, reassert their agency and reclaim their public identity by telling their own life story.</p>
<p>An ambition to take charge of their public image is a common thread running through these books, usually paired with a desire to expose sexism. Gillard’s autobiography My Story, published in 2014 (the year after she left politics), is a notable example of this, holding her opponents and the media to account for their frequently sexist behaviour. </p>
<p>Many women from across the political spectrum have now published comparable memoirs, including Labor MP Ann Aly, former Greens leader Christine Milne and former independent MP Cathy McGowan. </p>
<p>This year, former Labor cabinet minister Kate Ellis’ Sex, Lies and Question Time and former Liberal MP Julia Banks’ Power Play have provided two more examples of how women politicians — particularly those who’ve left politics — use the power of memoir to reclaim their stories and critique the sexist culture in parliament.</p>
<h2>History/herstory</h2>
<p>While it’s great women are using memoirs to voice their stories, we should not give up on conventional political biography. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Former prime minister Julia Gillard in 2018." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420681/original/file-20210913-25-raezp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/420681/original/file-20210913-25-raezp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420681/original/file-20210913-25-raezp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420681/original/file-20210913-25-raezp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420681/original/file-20210913-25-raezp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420681/original/file-20210913-25-raezp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/420681/original/file-20210913-25-raezp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=549&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">There is no definitive political biography of Julia Gillard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Mariuz/AAP</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>As this genre continues to shape our understanding of political culture and history, it is more important now than ever that women are included to dispel once and for all the myth that their stories are not worth recording. </p>
<p>Rather than adding to the sexist speculation that women politicians experience, political biographers should offer their support for these stories to be told in a consensual and meaningful manner.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167448/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blair Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Political biographies show us who is ‘worthy’ of being written about … and who is overlooked in history.Blair Williams, Research Fellow, Global Institute for Women's Leadership (GIWL), Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1638882021-07-08T01:31:36Z2021-07-08T01:31:36ZJulia Banks’ new book is part of a 50-year tradition of female MPs using memoirs to fight for equality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410094/original/file-20210707-17-uv64bu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C0%2C4439%2C2816&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Ross/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Political memoirs in Australia often create <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-awash-with-political-memoir-but-only-some-will-survive-the-flood-46386">splashy headlines and controversy</a>. But we should not dismiss the publication of former Liberal MP Julia Banks’ book, Power Play, as just the latest in a genre full of <a href="https://theconversation.com/secrets-and-scandals-where-malcolm-turnbulls-memoir-fits-in-the-rich-history-of-prime-ministerial-books-136730">scandals and secrets</a>.</p>
<p>There is a long tradition of female parliamentarians using memoirs to reshape the culture around them. Banks — whose book includes <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/liberal-mp-julia-banks-speaks-on-the-toxic-culture/13432590">claims</a> of bullying, sexism and harassment — is the latest to push for equality and understanding of what life is like for women in Canberra.</p>
<h2>The power of a memoir</h2>
<p>There are many ways to tell your story — from <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-27/liberal-nicolle-flint-wears-garbage-bag-to-protest-sexism/12497238">social media posts</a> to <a href="https://play.acast.com/s/10-news-first-person/5.womenofthehouse-juliabanks">podcasts</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2018/nov/28/youre-not-fit-to-call-yourselves-men-sarah-hanson-young-tells-senators-video">speeches</a> to parliament. </p>
<p>But there is something enduring about memoir. Sales figures aside, the political memoir can be a significant event. The inevitable round of media interviews, book tours and literary festivals can allow an author to stamp their <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-awash-with-political-memoir-but-only-some-will-survive-the-flood-46386">broader ideas</a> onto the public debate and shed light on the culture of our institutions. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-madness-of-julia-banks-why-narratives-about-hysterical-women-are-so-toxic-163963">The 'madness' of Julia Banks — why narratives about 'hysterical' women are so toxic</a>
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<p>They also have the advantage of usually being written when women have left parliament, and no longer need to place their party’s interests ahead of all others. Indeed, Banks tells us that her story is that of “an insider who’s now out”.</p>
<h2>It started with Enid Lyons</h2>
<p>In 1972, Dame Enid Lyons (the first woman elected to the House of Representatives and wife of former prime minister Joe Lyons) published Among the Carrion Crows. </p>
<p>In her memoir, she offered a compelling insight into how she dealt with the male-dominated environment of parliament house. She recalled feeling like a “risky political experiment”, as if the very “value of women in politics would be judged” by the virtue of her conduct. She joyfully described how her maiden speech had moved men to tears. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In that place of endless speaking … no one ever made men weep. Apparently I had done so. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>She also recorded key moments when she had vigorously presented her views in the party room and the parliament. She asserted the right of women to stand — and more importantly, to be heard — in parliament.</p>
<h2>Encouraging women, challenging men</h2>
<p>Since Lyons, women have continued to use autobiographies to promote women’s participation in politics and challenge the masculine histories of political parties. </p>
<p>When the ALP celebrated its centenary in 1991, it was the male history that was celebrated. Senator Margaret Reynolds (Queensland’s first female senator) “decided that the record had to be corrected”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Former Labor minister Susan Ryan." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410098/original/file-20210707-15-qrozft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410098/original/file-20210707-15-qrozft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410098/original/file-20210707-15-qrozft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410098/original/file-20210707-15-qrozft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410098/original/file-20210707-15-qrozft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410098/original/file-20210707-15-qrozft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410098/original/file-20210707-15-qrozft.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Former education minister Susan Ryan wanted to encourage other women to go into politics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Reynolds’ writings on Labor women occurred alongside the ALP’s moves toward affirmative action quotas in the early 1990s. As well as a memoir, she wrote a series of newsletters called Some of Them Sheilas, and a book about Labor’s women called The Last Bastion. In it, she recorded the experiences and achievements of ALP women over the past 100 years.</p>
<p>In her 1999 book, Catching the Waves, Labor’s first female cabinet minister Susan Ryan acknowledged there was “a lot of bad male behaviour in parliament”. But she argued this should not “dissuade women from seeking parliamentary careers”. Importantly, Ryan saw her autobiography as a collective story about the women’s movement and its “breakthrough into parliamentary politics” in the 1970s and 1980s. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-it-taking-so-long-to-achieve-gender-equality-in-parliament-117313">Why is it taking so long to achieve gender equality in parliament?</a>
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<p>While Labor women like Reynolds, Ryan and Cheryl Kernot were publishing their memoirs, few Liberal women put their stories on the public record. Former NSW Liberal leader Kerry Chikarovski’s 2004 memoir, Chika, was billed as the story of a woman who </p>
<blockquote>
<p>learnt to cope with some of the toughest and nastiest politics any female has ever encountered in Australia’s political history.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 2007 Pauline Hanson published an autobiography called Untamed and Unashamed, telling journalists, “I wanted to set the record straight”. But these were exceptions to the rule.</p>
<h2>Julia Gillard’s story</h2>
<p>Following the sexism and misogyny that disfigured her prime ministership, Julia Gillard’s 2014 memoir My Story helped revitalise the national conversation about women and power. Hoping to help Australia “work patiently and carefully through” the question of gender and politics, Gillard promised to “describe how I lived it and felt it” as prime minister.</p>
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<img alt="Former prime minister Julia Gillard at the Sydney Writers' Festival" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410097/original/file-20210707-23-wbg9h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410097/original/file-20210707-23-wbg9h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410097/original/file-20210707-23-wbg9h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410097/original/file-20210707-23-wbg9h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410097/original/file-20210707-23-wbg9h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410097/original/file-20210707-23-wbg9h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410097/original/file-20210707-23-wbg9h5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Julia Gillard released her memoir in 2014, the year after she lost the prime ministership.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Moir/AAP</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Importantly, she held not only her opponents but also the media to account for their gender bias. Critics like journalist Paul Kelly <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/opinion/misogyny-doesnt-account-for-julia-gillards-missteps-as-pm/news-story/85c7989553b3fccdca92227a28438617">derided</a> Gillard’s version of history as “nonsense”, but the success of her account suggests otherwise. My Story <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/23/malcolm-turnbull-memoir-new-book-a-bigger-picture-bestseller-after-launch">sold 72,000 copies</a> in just three years. </p>
<p>In her 2020 book, <a href="https://theconversation.com/expect-sexism-a-gender-politics-expert-reads-julia-gillards-women-and-leadership-142725">Women and Leadership</a> co-authored with former Nigerian finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Gillard interviewed eight women leaders from around the world, further showing how gender continues to shape political lives. </p>
<h2>The risks of writing</h2>
<p>A political memoir can be fraught, however. After a decade in parliament, Democract-turned-Labor MP Cheryl Kernot published her memoir Speaking for Myself Again in 2002.
She had hoped it would argue the case for Australian women “participating fully” in politics to promote “their own values and interests and shift the underlying male agenda”.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Former MP Cheryl Kernot" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410095/original/file-20210707-21-18u5tti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410095/original/file-20210707-21-18u5tti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410095/original/file-20210707-21-18u5tti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410095/original/file-20210707-21-18u5tti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410095/original/file-20210707-21-18u5tti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410095/original/file-20210707-21-18u5tti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410095/original/file-20210707-21-18u5tti.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Former MP Cheryl Kernot’s memoir release was overshadowed by controversy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julian Ross/AAP</span></span>
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<p>But the release was <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/cheryl-and-gareth-the-consuming-passion-20020704-gdff7j.html">quickly overshadowed</a> by revelations of an extra-marital affair with Labor’s Gareth Evans (which were not in the book). Her book tour was halted amid the fallout. Kernot later despaired journalist Laurie Oakes — who broke the story — had managed to “sabotage people’s interest in the book”. </p>
<p>Others, such as Labor’s Ros Kelly, have told their stories in private or semi-private ways. Kelly’s autobiography was privately published as a gift to her granddaughter, but she also gives copies to women in politics, many of whom “have read it, and sent me really nice notes”. </p>
<h2>Power in numbers</h2>
<p>In the past five years, several women from across the political spectrum have published life stories. </p>
<p>In her memoir, An Activist Life, former Greens leader <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/parliament-male-dominated,-testosterone-charged-boys-club/9137400">Christine Milne argued</a> that women should perform feminist leadership rather than being “co-opted into being one of the boys”. In Finding My Place, Labor MP Anne Aly, showed women of non-Anglo, non-Christian backgrounds belong in parliament too. Independents Jacqui Lambie and Cathy McGowan used their memoirs to show female MPs can thrive without the backing of the major parties. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-former-mp-kate-ellis-on-the-culture-in-parliament-house-155874">Politics with Michelle Grattan: Former MP Kate Ellis on the culture in parliament house</a>
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<p>Most recently, former Labor MP Kate Ellis published Sex, Lies and Question Time, which includes reflections on the experiences of nearly a dozen other women in parliament. </p>
<p>For fifty years, Australia’s female politicians have used their memoirs to assert the equal rights of women in parliament, party rooms, and the media. Drawing on that lineage, Banks is the latest to help reveal and disrupt the sexism and misogyny in political life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163888/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship.
</span></em></p>From Enid Lyons, to Julia Gillard and Kate Ellis, memoirs have become a critical way to highlight the ongoing problems faced by women in politics.Joshua Black, PhD Candidate, School of History, National Centre of Biography, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1631022021-06-22T05:41:23Z2021-06-22T05:41:23ZThe Senate has voted to reject critical race theory from the national curriculum. What is it, and why does it matter?<p>The Australian Senate <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/classroom-critical-race-theory-ban-passes-in-the-upper-house/news-story/dbeacea64af6e17b02a043df5d55edb3">yesterday voted in support of a motion</a> calling on the federal government to reject critical race theory from the national curriculum.</p>
<p>The motion was moved by Senator Pauline Hanson. Critical race theory, or CRT, is an academic theory developed primarily by Black scholars and activists to highlight the systemic and institutional nature of racism. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1406859623387176960"}"></div></p>
<p>The motion comes after <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/curriculum-pushes-radical-racial-theory/news-story/2bfb3f27df48975438a1808480ee7dcb">concerns reported in some media</a>, such as The Australian, that the proposed draft national curriculum’s is “preoccupied with the oppression, discrimination and struggles of Indigenous Australians”.</p>
<p>A draft of the proposed revised national curriculum was released at the end of April. New <a href="https://theconversation.com/proposed-new-curriculum-acknowledges-first-nations-view-of-british-invasion-and-a-multicultural-australia-160011">revisions include</a> a more accurate reflection of the historical record of First Nations people’s experience with colonisation, with a commitment to “truth telling”. This means in part recognising that Australia’s First Nations peoples experienced the British arrival as an “invasion”. (It also classifies as an invasion according to international law <a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-this-continent-was-invaded-in-1788-an-international-law-expert-explains-130462">at the time</a>.)</p>
<p>After the release of the draft curriculum, a conservative think tank <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/curriculum-pushes-radical-racial-theory/news-story/2bfb3f27df48975438a1808480ee7dcb">claimed there were signs</a> critical race theory was creeping into schools. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/proposed-new-curriculum-acknowledges-first-nations-view-of-british-invasion-and-a-multicultural-australia-160011">Proposed new curriculum acknowledges First Nations' view of British 'invasion' and a multicultural Australia</a>
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<p>Critical race theory is an academic framework that is not part of the Australian curriculum. Learning how, for example, First Nations Australians experienced colonisation is expanding knowledge and understanding about our history. It is not necessarily a direct influence of critical race theory. </p>
<p>Every time race is mentioned in an educational context, it does not mean CRT is being applied. </p>
<p>It’s important the historical and ongoing legacies of colonialism and racial disparities are discussed in the Australian curriculum. Seeking to restrict this discussion by misrepresenting critical race theory is a move copied from conservative United States playbooks.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1406593937830301697"}"></div></p>
<h2>What is critical race theory?</h2>
<p>Critical race theory is a collection of theoretical frameworks, which provide lenses through which to examine structural and institutional racism.</p>
<p>Within critical race theory, racism is viewed as more than just individual prejudices. Instead, it is considered to include a wide range of social practices deeply embedded in policies, laws and institutions.</p>
<p>Critical race theory was developed from the 1960s and 1970s by legal scholars applying sociological critical theory in their work, although the term “CRT” did not emerge until the late 1980s. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Critical_Race_Theory/lLXTyrlM59MC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=critical+race+theory+reader&printsec=frontcover">Critical race theorists</a> including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/12/kimberle-crenshaw-the-woman-who-revolutionised-feminism-and-landed-at-the-heart-of-the-culture-wars">Kimberlé Crenshaw</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/us/derrick-bell-pioneering-harvard-law-professor-dies-at-80.html">Derrick Bell</a> and <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/civil-rights-reimagining-policing/a-lesson-on-critical-race-theory/">Patricia Williams</a> investigated how and why racial disparities persisted in the United States. They did so through analysing these disparities in the legal and criminal justice system, as well as how education and employment opportunities (or lack theoreof) impacted generational wealth accumulation.</p>
<p>Interpretations of critical race theory are diverse as it is a growing body of scholarship. These are not formulated by theorists into specific doctrines, manifestos or sets of practices. But some general principles underpin CRT. </p>
<p>They include:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>race is understood as a “social construct” rather than a biological reality. That is, supposed “racial” differences between groups of humans are founded in our social experience rather than our genetics (this is well supported by <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/race-is-a-social-construct-scientists-argue/">scientific evidence</a>)</p></li>
<li><p>“<a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/partners-and-community/initiatives/social-justice-uts/news/recording-australia-doing-better-systemic-racism">systemic racism</a>” means social institutions and practices unwittingly contribute to and maintain white supremacy. “Invisible” everyday practices perpetuate racial inequality and inequity in <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/ah/pdf/AH18062">health</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-citizenship-and-schooling-why-we-still-have-some-way-to-go-99373">education</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-deaths-in-custody-inquests-can-be-sites-of-justice-or-administrative-violence-158126">law</a></p></li>
<li><p>everyone has <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination">multiple, overlapping aspects of their identity</a> which may impact their life experiences. These include race, gender, age, class, sexual orientation, disability and nationality. This suggests many people understand or interpret their life experiences through this “<a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality">intersectional</a>” lens</p></li>
<li><p>critical race theory encourages reflection on normalised ways of doing things, especially to question who benefits from systemic privilege and why.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Opponents of critical race theory sometimes claim it creates <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/books/are-all-white-people-racist-why-critical-race-theory-has-us-rattled-20201105-p56bwv.html">division and discord</a> between people. For example, they claim critical race theory is intended to make people with privileged identities, such as being white, “hate themselves” or feel shame and guilt for their whiteness. </p>
<p>Critical race theorists and practitioners argue the framework can bring people together by highlighting the causes of the deep racial rifts that <em>already</em> divide our societies. And that it can prepare people for the work of overcoming injustice through reflection.</p>
<h2>Where is this coming from?</h2>
<p>Since Donald Trump’s win in the 2016 US presidential election, the agenda of right-wing and conservative <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-trump-exits-the-white-house-he-leaves-trumpism-behind-in-australia-153289">political</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-sky-news-shifting-australian-politics-to-the-right-not-yet-but-there-is-cause-for-alarm-155356">media</a> actors in Australia has been heavily shaped by their US counterparts. Trump and other right-wing US actors have promoted <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/05/29/critical-race-theory-bans-schools/">broad misrepresentations of critical race theory</a>. </p>
<p>For instance, Trump <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2021/06/18/trump-says-critical-race-theory-borders-on-psychological-abuse/?sh=6c9aa1cc450e">has claimed</a> the “left’s vile new theory” (that is, critical race theory) teaches students that “judging people by the color of their skin is actually a good idea” and that the US is “systemically evil”. He claims “this deeply unnatural effort has progressed from telling children that their history is evil to telling Americans that they are evil”. Neither is true.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/critical-race-theory-sparks-activism-in-students-162649">Critical race theory sparks activism in students</a>
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</p>
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<p>Misinterpretations of critical race theory were an implied factor in Trump blocking funding for diversity and equity training in 2020, because it contained “<a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/civil-rights-reimagining-policing/a-lesson-on-critical-race-theory/">divisive concepts</a>” such as racial stereotyping and critical race theory.</p>
<p>In the past few months, Republican legislators in more than 20 US states have <a href="https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20210612085115831">proposed and voted</a> for bills banning critical race theory in primary and secondary schools and/or colleges and universities. Bills against critical race theory have become law in eight states and are set to become law in a further nine. </p>
<p>It is important to understand these moves in the context of a systemic <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/26/why-conservatives-really-fear-critical-race-theory/">push-back against calls for racial justice</a> in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement’s resurgence in 2020.</p>
<h2>What does the Senate motion mean?</h2>
<p>Hanson’s motion does not reflect a homegrown issue with critical race theory. It is the latest example in a series of divisive stunts. This includes her unsuccessful previous attempt to import right-wing racist rhetoric <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-45861433">into a Senate bill</a>. </p>
<p>The Senate is not responsible for creating the Australian curriculum. The Australian National Curriculum is developed by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (<a href="https://www.acara.edu.au/about-us">ACARA</a>), a national but independent statutory body. </p>
<p>The current curriculum took many years and extensive consultation to develop. New content cannot simply be added or removed by any one institution or organisation, including the Senate. The <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/consultation/">proposed revised curriculum</a> was similarly drafted based on wide consultation with relevant stakeholders and educational experts.</p>
<p>State and territory governments are responsible for implementing the curriculum in schools in their jurisdiction. The way different states require the curriculum to be implemented <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-29/australian-schools-on-how-they-teach-kids-consent/11969964">can differ</a> and individual schools have some flexibility in deciding which programs and resources to use in delivering it.</p>
<p>But critical race theory is complicated and not suited for delivery directly in the K-12 curriculum. Teachers would be unlikely to refer to it or require students to read the work of legal scholars.</p>
<p>However, general concepts about racial inequality, and discussion of historic and contemporary forms of racism, can be understood — <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/topics/voices/culture/article/2020/06/21/how-raise-racially-conscious-children">even by young children</a>. Teaching these issues <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/australian-journal-of-indigenous-education/article/abs/crafting-safer-spaces-for-teaching-about-race-and-intersectionality-in-australian-indigenous-studies/459BAC54E0C45D6399893241DD71BEFA">effectively and sensitively</a> may overlap with the general principles of CRT without necessarily being directly influenced by this theoretical framework.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/9-tips-teachers-can-use-when-talking-about-racism-140837">9 tips teachers can use when talking about racism</a>
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</em>
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<p>An increasing proportion of Australian children have diverse backgrounds and are likely to already have <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-a-day-passes-without-thinking-about-race-what-african-migrants-told-us-about-parenting-in-australia-149167">personal experience with discrimination</a>. So, it is important these topics are discussed <a href="https://theconversation.com/9-tips-teachers-can-use-when-talking-about-racism-140837">in educational contexts in age-appropriate ways</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163102/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Critical race theory highlights the systemic and institutional nature of racism. A campaign to misrepresent the theory is being waged by right-wing actors in the US, and some at home.Leticia Anderson, Lecturer in Humanities, Southern Cross UniversityKathomi Gatwiri PhD, Senior lecturer, Southern Cross UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1553262021-02-15T12:08:36Z2021-02-15T12:08:36ZPauline Hanson puts her foot down over government’s changes to the BOOT<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384242/original/file-20210215-21-bml0h8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C23%2C3116%2C2047&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://photos.aap.com.au/">Mick Tsikas/AAP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pauline Hanson has told the government it should drop its proposed watering down of the Better Off Overall Test (BOOT) if it wants One Nation to continue negotiations on the industrial relation legislation.</p>
<p>The government needs three of the five crossbench Senate votes to pass its legislation, which contains a raft of reforms. One Nation holds two votes.</p>
<p>In a letter to Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter delivered late Monday, Hanson said that while she and her party’s industrial relations spokesman Malcolm Roberts were available “for an open discussion” on reform, “it makes the task difficult if the Government maintains its plan to suspend the Better Off Overall Test for a further two years”.</p>
<p>“Therefore we strongly encourage you” to remove the relevant parts of the legislation “to continue the good faith negotiations and consideration of the Bill by One Nation Senators”.</p>
<p>Hanson wrote that One Nation had long supported improved and simplified IR legislation for small businesses and their more and 2.2 million workers.</p>
<p>But the bill in its current form was “inequitable and severely undermines the Better Off Overall Test (BOOT) that protects workers from the small number of deceitful employers,” she said.</p>
<p>Under the current BOOT, workers must be better off overall under a proposed enterprise agreement compared with the relevant modern award.</p>
<p>The legislation, now before parliament, proposes the BOOT would not have to be met if the Fair Work Commission decided this was appropriate given the impact of COVID on the enterprise.</p>
<p>The commission would also need to take into account the views of the workers, expressed in a vote. </p>
<p>The provision for suspending the BOOT would only apply to agreements made in the next two years, although the agreements themselves could run much longer.</p>
<p>The government has made it clear it will ditch its plan for the BOOT change if that is necessary to get its legislation through and has given every indication it expects to have to do so.</p>
<p>The Hanson demand may bring the argument about the BOOT to an early head, because there is also disquiet about the change among the other crossbenchers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155326/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pauline Hanson has told the government it will need to drop its proposed watering down of the BOOT if it wants One Nation support.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1531012021-01-14T19:11:09Z2021-01-14T19:11:09ZIs it curtains for Clive? What COVID means for populism in Australia <figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378695/original/file-20210113-13-jrpbjo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darren England/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What can we make of Clive Palmer? </p>
<p>This week, he announced his United Australia Party (UAP) <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-10/clive-palmer-united-australia-party-not-contesting-wa-election/13046336">would not</a> contest the upcoming West Australian state election on March 13. </p>
<p>After a <a href="https://theconversation.com/three-peat-palaszczuk-why-queenslanders-swung-behind-labor-in-historic-election-149076">dismal showing</a> in the October 2019 Queensland poll, where does this leave his political prospects?</p>
<h2>Palmer is no mini-Trump</h2>
<p>Given Palmer’s love of <a href="https://theconversation.com/now-for-the-55-million-question-what-does-clive-palmer-actually-want-116350">publicity stunts and populist policies</a>, one might be tempted to see him as a <a href="https://theconversation.com/clive-palmer-has-a-trump-style-slogan-but-is-no-sure-bet-to-return-to-parliament-98544">miniature, Antipodean Donald Trump</a> — but that would be misleading. </p>
<p>Trump was able to garner <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2020/dec/08/us-election-results-2020-joe-biden-defeats-donald-trump-to-win-presidency">massive support</a> in segments of the American population, whereas Palmer’s UAP only managed 3.43% of <a href="https://results.aec.gov.au/24310/Website/HouseStateFirstPrefsByParty-24310-NAT.htm">first preference votes</a> in the lower house at the 2019 federal election. </p>
<p>American-style populism does not resonate with large numbers of Australians. Australian political traditions are quite different to those of America especially in terms of welfare and health provision. Those who seek to take the populist route find it a hard road. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Trump supporters at Washington DC rally." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378699/original/file-20210113-19-190wse1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378699/original/file-20210113-19-190wse1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378699/original/file-20210113-19-190wse1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378699/original/file-20210113-19-190wse1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378699/original/file-20210113-19-190wse1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378699/original/file-20210113-19-190wse1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378699/original/file-20210113-19-190wse1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Donald Trump won more than 70 million votes at the recent US presidential election.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Minchillo/AP/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the 2019 election One Nation and United Australia combined only managed to win <a href="https://results.aec.gov.au/24310/Website/SenateStateFirstPrefsByGroup-24310-NAT.htm">7.76% of the Senate vote</a>.</p>
<p>Given the small base on which the likes of Palmer and One Nation’s Pauline Hanson have to work, one wonders what they now hope to achieve. </p>
<h2>Australia’s populism culture</h2>
<p>The current situation with COVID-19 might provide a clue as to why they have failed to spark a populist surge in Australia. </p>
<p>Palmer’s major contribution to the COVID world was his <a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-court-finds-border-closures-safest-way-to-protect-public-health-in-clive-palmer-case-145038">unsuccessful High Court challenge</a> to force Western Australia to open its borders.</p>
<p>The last 12 months has demonstrated the significance of “quarantine culture” in Australia, a term first coined by cultural historian <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/722661">John Williams</a> in the 1990s. </p>
<p>The natural instinct of Australians is to close borders against outside threats, be they national or state. The only partial exception to this rule at the moment is <a href="https://theconversation.com/vic-qld-and-nsw-are-managing-covid-outbreaks-in-their-own-ways-but-all-are-world-standard-152974">New South Wales</a> — the one part of Australia that had a vigorous free trade (or internationalist) political culture in the 19th century.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wa-border-challenge-why-states-not-courts-need-to-make-the-hard-calls-during-health-emergencies-143541">WA border challenge: why states, not courts, need to make the hard calls during health emergencies</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In late 19th century and early 20th century Australia, writers such as WG Spence and magazines like The Bulletin talked about a desire to “protect” Australia against a harsh outside world and, if possible, limit the operation of international finance. The ideal was an Australia not dependent on the rest of the world.</p>
<p>In this regard, it is also worth recalling that one of the arguments often given for restricting Chinese immigration at the time was they were seen as <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/49261/39/09chapter7.pdf">carrying diseases</a> into Australia. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-clive-palmer-must-now-ask-himself-would-chinas-bastards-buy-a-mine-from-him-152966">What Clive Palmer must now ask himself: would China's 'bastards' buy a mine from him?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This was a form of populism — but one quite different to the American version. It sought to protect Australia and Australians from the outside world, not to assert their right to liberty.</p>
<p>The COVID pandemic seems to have reignited this desire to protect Australians from an outside threat. The most remarkable aspect of this development has been the way in which this desire for protection has devolved to the state level.</p>
<p>Moves to close borders and institute quite draconian measures to halt the spread of the virus have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/did-someone-say-election-how-politics-met-pandemic-to-create-fortress-queensland-144067">generally popular</a>. Australians, it would seem, are more interested in being protected than they are in asserting their rights to do as they please.</p>
<h2>What does this mean for Palmer?</h2>
<p>This makes life quite difficult for someone such as Palmer, who has pushed for freedoms and border openings. </p>
<p>No wonder he has decided not to contest the WA state election. He is not in tune with the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-21/wa-election-campaign-alp-focus-on-mark-mcgowan-popularity/12903860">popular mood</a>, which has strongly backed Labor Premier Mark McGowan’s hard border approach. It is not the time for libertarian populism.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Clive Palmer speaks to a near-empty press conference." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378700/original/file-20210114-20219-kxj3yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378700/original/file-20210114-20219-kxj3yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378700/original/file-20210114-20219-kxj3yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378700/original/file-20210114-20219-kxj3yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378700/original/file-20210114-20219-kxj3yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378700/original/file-20210114-20219-kxj3yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378700/original/file-20210114-20219-kxj3yq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Palmer has said Premier Mark McGowan can ‘breathe easy’ as UAP will not contest the March election.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darren England/AAP</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>It is difficult to know how long this protectionist attitude will last. One suspects the <a href="https://theconversation.com/china-enters-2021-a-stronger-more-influential-power-and-australia-may-feel-the-squeeze-even-more-150943">current situation with China</a> has also fed into it. The mood is one of a threatening world.</p>
<h2>… and for Morrison?</h2>
<p>From here, two comments are worth making.</p>
<p>The first is political. Prime Minister Scott Morrison will need to cultivate this threatening mood if he is to succeed at the next federal election, which could be held as early as August. He will need to convince Australians he is the leader who will protect them most effectively. This means going slowly, slowly on things such as opening the international border.</p>
<p>The second is economic. Even in the 1890s, the Australian economy depended on international trade through the sale of wool. The idea Australia could operate independently of other countries was a fantasy. </p>
<p>The same is true today. The borders will need to re-open and <a href="https://theconversation.com/2021-is-the-year-australias-international-student-crisis-really-bites-153180">students</a> and tourists let in.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Prime Minister Scott Morrison" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378704/original/file-20210114-24-1cvz092.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378704/original/file-20210114-24-1cvz092.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378704/original/file-20210114-24-1cvz092.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378704/original/file-20210114-24-1cvz092.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378704/original/file-20210114-24-1cvz092.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378704/original/file-20210114-24-1cvz092.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378704/original/file-20210114-24-1cvz092.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Prime Minister Scott Morrison could call a federal election as early as August.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Morrison will have to perform a juggling act. He must appear to be providing protection even as he appreciates protection can only go so far.</p>
<p>In the meantime, the prospects look grim for populists such as Palmer and Hanson. </p>
<p>The prime minister and his coalition have the opportunity to steal many of their supporters. The pandemic shows that to be successful in Australian politics, leaders needs to pose as the protector of the people, not promise more freedom and more openness. </p>
<p>I suspect Morrison understands this very well.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/2021-is-the-year-australias-international-student-crisis-really-bites-153180">2021 is the year Australia's international student crisis really bites</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153101/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory Melleuish receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is a member of the academic advisory board of the Menzies Research Centre.</span></em></p>Australia has its own populist tradition. Unlike the US, it is about protecting Australians from the outside world, not asserting their liberties.Gregory Melleuish, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1515762020-12-31T20:19:58Z2020-12-31T20:19:58ZCabinet papers 2000: the Coalition before climate denialism, but on the path to offshore detention<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376059/original/file-20201220-15-jsysuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> </figcaption></figure><p>Australian Cabinet papers from 2000, released today, reflect a relatively quiescent Australia where Islamic militancy and offshore detention were barely glimpses on the horizon, and climate science denialism was not a factor in cabinet considerations at all. </p>
<p>It was the year before the “<a href="https://insidestory.org.au/the-year-of-living-anxiously/">year that changed everything</a>”: 2001, when <a href="https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/defining-images-from-the-9-11-attacks-idUSRTS2Q0UX">Al-Qaeda attacked the United States on September 11</a>, and the Howard government created its “<a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/about_parliament/parliamentary_departments/parliamentary_library/pubs/bn/2012-2013/pacificsolution">Pacific Solution</a>” asylum-seeker deterrent. They would both become prisms through which Australian politics would be refracted for many years to come.</p>
<p>In contrast, in 2000, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=ZD4">John Howard</a> (prime minister 1996-2007) later mused, “we had no conception of the challenges which would engulf the world in the next few years”.</p>
<p>The government’s concerns half-way through its second term, with a 14-seat majority, were overwhelmingly domestic. The approach to global issues mostly prioritised local implications over international obligations. </p>
<h2>Minchin throws a stick in the wheel of an ETS</h2>
<p>On climate change, the papers reveal a working consensus among cabinet ministers, with one exception, that an emissions trading scheme (ETS) was not only a possible but a likely route by which Australia would eventually fulfil its international environmental obligations.</p>
<p>The market-based nature and sectoral neutrality of an ETS made it the quality choice, cabinet submissions and departmental co-ordination comments make clear. The papers show early work being done on an ETS within the government. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376060/original/file-20201220-15-1u1fz3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376060/original/file-20201220-15-1u1fz3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376060/original/file-20201220-15-1u1fz3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376060/original/file-20201220-15-1u1fz3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376060/original/file-20201220-15-1u1fz3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=645&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376060/original/file-20201220-15-1u1fz3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=645&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376060/original/file-20201220-15-1u1fz3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=645&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Senator Nick Minchin stood alone in his objection to an ETS to tackle climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alan Porritt/AAP</span></span>
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<p>Industry and Resources Minister Nick Minchin stood out against the ETS consensus. Advocating a massive expansion of the gas industry, Minchin pushed for compensation for carbon-intensive industries so large and across so many sectors that it would have massively blunted an ETS’s impact. This drew sharp adverse comments from across the key departments. </p>
<p>Treasurer Peter Costello and his department supported expansion of the gas industry, but drew the line at Minchin’s proposed emasculation of a future ETS. Costello would unsuccessfully bring an ETS proposal to cabinet three years later, in 2003. Howard announced one in the lead-up the 2007 election. </p>
<p>So the 2000 papers contain foundational documents at the heart of this policy arc. They show Minchin as central in swerving cabinet from its consensus ETS support in 2000, to hostility by the time he helped install Tony Abbott as Liberal opposition leader in 2009.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bushfires-wont-change-climate-policy-overnight-but-morrison-can-shift-the-coalition-without-losing-face-129354">Bushfires won't change climate policy overnight. But Morrison can shift the Coalition without losing face</a>
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<h2>The GST takes flight</h2>
<p>Costello’s implementation of the <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-03/Whitepaper.pdf">goods and services tax (GST)</a> was the centre of heavy cabinet deliberations ahead of its implementation on July 1 2000.</p>
<p>It was the culmination of a textbook exercise in conceiving, publicly advocating for and then successfully implementing a major, complex public policy – an object lesson for governments today. </p>
<p>It begs the question whether, had the Coalition won the 2007 election, an ETS might now be an unremarked-upon aspect of public finance in Australia too, just like the once controversial GST.</p>
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<p>Rural and regional Australia was a major focus, with cabinet submissions generally including rural impact statements. </p>
<p>Howard benefited from a congenial relationship with the National Party leader and deputy prime minister, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=4K4">John Anderson</a>. </p>
<p>Anderson was the best-educated Nationals leader since <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/page-sir-earle-christmas-7941">Earle Page</a>. He was aligned with the National Farmers Federation (NFF) push for market-oriented policy over the old Country Party “deal-making” policy style, to which the Nationals later reverted. </p>
<p>Howard could count on Anderson’s support in cabinet. In exchange, Anderson ran a massive infrastructure program bringing concrete benefits to the bush and regions and kept its voters welded to the Coalition.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376061/original/file-20201220-13-n7xg18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376061/original/file-20201220-13-n7xg18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376061/original/file-20201220-13-n7xg18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376061/original/file-20201220-13-n7xg18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376061/original/file-20201220-13-n7xg18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376061/original/file-20201220-13-n7xg18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376061/original/file-20201220-13-n7xg18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Howard had a strong relationship with Nationals leader John Anderson (right), which offered advantages to both men.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Alan Porritt</span></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cabinet-papers-1998-99-how-the-gst-became-unstoppable-128844">Cabinet papers 1998-99: how the GST became unstoppable</a>
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<h2>On many issues, little has changed in 20 years</h2>
<p>Women are barely mentioned in the papers and were almost non-existent in Howard government decision-making. There was only one woman in the 17 strong cabinet: the family and community services minister, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=BE4">Senator Jocelyn Newman</a>. </p>
<p>In the outer ministry, the aged care minister, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=SE4">Bronwyn Bishop</a>, came under pressure when it emerged <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/kerosene-bath-nurses-banned-20020329-gdu35d.html">residents at Riverside Home in Melbourne were being subjected to kerosene baths</a>, with lethal consequences. Problems in other aged care homes quickly emerged.</p>
<p>Bishop’s cabinet submission in the wake of the crisis trumpeted the government’s Aged Care Act 1997 as “the basis for a sound and sustainable aged care system” and “the most significant change for the industry in its history”.</p>
<p>There was no need to restore nursing ratios, she argued. A “return to ratios would return the industry to detailed input regulation and reduce its efficiency” the submission, which cabinet backed, said.</p>
<p>Indigenous Australians are little mentioned other than in relation to workforce disadvantage and the Northern Territory’s move to mandatory detention for minors.</p>
<p>Cabinet supported only a fraction of the assistance requested by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Minister <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=VW4">John Herron</a> to address deep and worsening Indigenous unemployment.</p>
<p>The government decided not to override the NT government’s mandatory detention move. Instead, it asked Attorney-General <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=7V5">Daryl Williams</a> to write to his NT counterpart about its concerns. A week later, cabinet was outraged when it found a United Nations committee investigating potential human rights breaches in Australia against Indigenous citizens, without consultation.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376063/original/file-20201220-13-o4dtrb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376063/original/file-20201220-13-o4dtrb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376063/original/file-20201220-13-o4dtrb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376063/original/file-20201220-13-o4dtrb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376063/original/file-20201220-13-o4dtrb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376063/original/file-20201220-13-o4dtrb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376063/original/file-20201220-13-o4dtrb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Indigenous Australians receive little mention in the 2000 cabinet papers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Marianna Massey</span></span>
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<p>What the 2000 cabinet papers reveal concerning the growing issue of unauthorised boat arrivals in Australia, and in particular the “deterrent” approach Immigration and Multicultural Affairs Minister <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=0J4">Philip Ruddock</a> recommended, and cabinet adopted, is historically significant. </p>
<p>They show a government under increasing pressure and moving quickly down a particular path. Departmental comments show this rang increasingly loud alarm bells in the major departments, even as they broadly supported the “deterrent” approach. </p>
<p>There are, and likely always will be, different opinions about the deterrent strategy, and public discussion usually turns on the binary question of whether it was right or wrong.</p>
<p>The 2000 papers are important, not least because they open up critical additional questions, even for its supporters, about whether this strategy could have been implemented differently and better.</p>
<p>Anglosphere politics had begun to make a particular kind of shift to the right, and the Howard government was in the vanguard. It was still relatively early days in that shift, as the fact the government had a cabinet position that included “multicultural affairs” in its title attests.</p>
<p>To put this shift into international context, media mogul Rupert Murdoch would not appoint Roger Ailes CEO of his Fox News channel in the United States until the following year.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376062/original/file-20201220-57963-z5xrgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376062/original/file-20201220-57963-z5xrgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376062/original/file-20201220-57963-z5xrgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376062/original/file-20201220-57963-z5xrgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376062/original/file-20201220-57963-z5xrgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1280&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376062/original/file-20201220-57963-z5xrgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1280&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376062/original/file-20201220-57963-z5xrgn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1280&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Pauline Hanson’s arrival in Canberra in 1996 marked a shift to explicitly nativist politics in Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Alan Porritt</span></span>
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<p>Australia’s insurgency of explicitly nativist politics was marked by the arrival in Canberra in 1996 of One Nation’s <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=BK6">Pauline Hanson</a> as the member for Oxley. Internationally, this wave may have peaked in the election of another nativist redhead, US President Donald Trump, 20 years later. </p>
<p>The fierce conduct of the “<a href="https://www.evatt.org.au/post/the-history-wars">history wars</a>” in Australia from the 1990s, the prominent role of <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-friends-like-these-just-how-close-are-the-liberal-party-and-ipa-60442">conservative think tanks</a> in it, and the early challenge and ongoing political consequences of unauthorised boat arrivals in Australia – which has only relatively recently emerged as an issue in Europe – make Australia an early example of a phenomenon that shifted mainstream conservative politics to a distinctly different place from that occupied before.</p>
<p>In 2000, elements of it were evident but not yet fully activated. The following year, from September 11, they would be supercharged.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pauline-hanson-built-a-political-career-on-white-victimhood-and-brought-far-right-rhetoric-to-the-mainstream-134661">Pauline Hanson built a political career on white victimhood and brought far-right rhetoric to the mainstream</a>
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<p><em>Chris Wallace is the official historian for the 2000-2001 cabinet papers release from the National Archives of Australia. You can read her full essay on the 2000 papers <a href="https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/cabinet/latest-cabinet-release">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151576/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Wallace has received funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>In the Howard government, there was near-consensus in Cabinet that an ETS was eventually likely. A spike in asylum-seeker arrivals stimulated the hard “deterrent’ strategy” that would morph into the “Pacific Solution” in 2001.Chris Wallace, Associate Professor, 50/50 By 2030 Foundation, Faculty of Business Government & Law, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1469272020-10-04T18:55:31Z2020-10-04T18:55:31ZQueensland’s unpredictable election begins. Expect a close campaign focused on 3 questions<p>The Queensland election campaign officially begins this week, with the government entering <a href="https://www.forgov.qld.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/procurement/pan-22-caretaker-conventions.pdf?v=1599437891">caretaker mode</a> on Tuesday, and the election set for <a href="https://www.ecq.qld.gov.au/elections/election-events/2020-state-general-election">October 31</a>. </p>
<p>But the crystal ball for this election, which will see a number of significant firsts, is frustratingly cloudy. </p>
<h2>Palaszczuk vs Frecklington</h2>
<p>This is the state’s first election for a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-05/four-year-fixed-parliamentary-term-referendum-declared-yes-ecq/7299386">four-year fixed term</a> of parliament since 1893. It’s also the first occasion at which the leaders of the two major parties — Labor’s Annastacia Palaszczuk and the Liberal-National Party’s (LNP) Deb Frecklington — are women.</p>
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<img alt="People voting at polling booths in school hall." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361001/original/file-20201001-18-clf7gh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361001/original/file-20201001-18-clf7gh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361001/original/file-20201001-18-clf7gh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361001/original/file-20201001-18-clf7gh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361001/original/file-20201001-18-clf7gh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361001/original/file-20201001-18-clf7gh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361001/original/file-20201001-18-clf7gh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Queenslanders will be voting in a government for four years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Albert Perez/AAP</span></span>
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<p>Meanwhile, apart from August’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/nt-election-is-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative-the-answer-to-a-struggling-economy-144274">Northern Territory election</a>, Queensland’s poll will be the first major electoral test of any Australian jurisdiction since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p>All of this makes the election extremely difficult to forecast, especially given the <a href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/queensland-government/yougov-poll-queensland-labor-governments-vote-shrivels/news-story/04e693d3de28af07ec51dad6d4b58728">marked difference</a> in how voters rate the parties, as opposed to their leaders. </p>
<p>That’s before you throw in the pull of four significant minor parties and their unpredictable preference flows.</p>
<h2>A change of government is possible</h2>
<p>Even so, we might say Labor is Queensland’s “natural” party of government, given it has held office for 26 of the past 31 years, and for 70 of the past 105 years (since the birth of the modern party system).</p>
<p>This stands in sharp contrast to Queenslanders’ predilection to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-19/election-results-how-labor-lost-queensland/11122998">back conservative parties </a> at federal elections. In 2019, for example, the state <a href="https://results.aec.gov.au/24310/Website/HouseStateFirstPrefsByParty-24310-QLD.htm">swung toward</a> the Morrison-led Coalition at a rate about four times the Australian average.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/queensland-to-all-those-quexiteers-dont-judge-try-to-understand-us-117502">Queensland to all those #Quexiteers: don't judge, try to understand us</a>
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<p>Heading into the election, Labor holds a razor-thin buffer, with just 48 seats in the 93-seat parliament. A tiny after-preference <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/qld/2020/guide/pendulum#Labor">swing of 0.7%</a> would see Labor lose two seats and its majority. </p>
<p>The LNP, currently on 38 seats, must win nine additional seats, via a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/qld/2020/guide/pendulum#Liberal%20National">3.4% swing</a> to form majority government. </p>
<p>Ironically, that’s virtually identical to the <a href="https://antonygreen.com.au/northern-territory-election-analysis-of-results/">3.5% swing</a> against the NT Labor government last month.</p>
<p>In June, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/polls-latest-labor-trails-federally-and-in-queensland-biden-increases-lead-over-trump-140247">YouGov</a> poll had the LNP in front of Labor, 52% to 48%, two-party preferred. In July, <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/newspoll">Newspoll</a> had the LNP ahead, 51% to 49%. </p>
<p>The implications are clear: victory for the LNP is eminently possible. </p>
<h2>A hung parliament is also on the cards</h2>
<p>With polls putting Labor’s primary vote <a href="https://theconversation.com/polls-latest-labor-trails-federally-and-in-queensland-biden-increases-lead-over-trump-140247">as low as 32%</a>, preferences will be crucial and minor parties will once again play a significant role. </p>
<p>Because of recently introduced <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-18/political-donations-capped-queensland-lnp-labor-laws-elections/12368128">election spending caps</a>, Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party is expected to walk away empty-handed. This comes after Palmer donated <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-big-money-influenced-the-2019-federal-election-and-what-we-can-do-to-fix-the-system-131141">almost $84 million</a> to his own campaign during the 2019 federal election. </p>
<p>But with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation likely to maintain its lone seat, Katter’s Australian Party its three, and the Greens almost certain to double their representation to two, a hung parliament – a repeat of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/hung-parliament-for-queensland-expect-more-nuance-than-chaos-37038">2015-17 term</a> – is also a real possibility.</p>
<h2>Referendum on three questions</h2>
<p>For these reasons and more, the political eyes of Australia will be on Queensland on October 31. And it will invariably be a referendum on three questions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361003/original/file-20201001-16-nspkao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361003/original/file-20201001-16-nspkao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361003/original/file-20201001-16-nspkao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361003/original/file-20201001-16-nspkao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361003/original/file-20201001-16-nspkao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361003/original/file-20201001-16-nspkao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361003/original/file-20201001-16-nspkao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Annastacia Palaszczuk has been premier since 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darren England/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The first is whom Queenslanders trust more as their premier for the next four years. </p>
<p>In late July, <a href="https://theconversation.com/coalition-maintains-newspoll-lead-federally-and-in-queensland-bidens-lead-over-trump-narrows-144193">Newspoll found</a> 81% of those surveyed approved of Palaszczuk’s handling of the pandemic, with 57% preferring her as premier. Just 26% preferred Frecklington. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Queensland opposition leader Deb Frecklington." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361005/original/file-20201001-24-2akze7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361005/original/file-20201001-24-2akze7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361005/original/file-20201001-24-2akze7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361005/original/file-20201001-24-2akze7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361005/original/file-20201001-24-2akze7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361005/original/file-20201001-24-2akze7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361005/original/file-20201001-24-2akze7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deb Frecklington took over as opposition leader in December 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Peled/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But a late September, Newspoll saw a <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/twothirds-of-queenslanders-back-annastacia-palaszczuk-as-state-election-looms/news-story/46b9fb24eb42bf41a50719db7f132094">marked dip</a> in Palaszczuk’s ratings, with 69% of respondents saying the premier was performing well over coronavirus. </p>
<h2>Health vs economy</h2>
<p>A second question is which public policy frame — public health or economic buoyancy — do Queenslanders rate more highly? This comes down to simple arithmetic. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/did-someone-say-election-how-politics-met-pandemic-to-create-fortress-queensland-144067">Did someone say 'election'?: how politics met pandemic to create 'fortress Queensland'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If those angry at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/aug/05/queensland-to-enforce-hard-border-closure-with-nsw-and-act-from-saturday">hard border closures</a> and damaged hospitality, <a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/queensland/tourism-industry-warns-second-queensland-lockdown-would-break-our-spirit-20200727-p55fsu.html">tourism</a> and other small businesses outweigh those grateful for a government that has overseen just <a href="https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19/current-status/statistics">1,160 coronavirus cases</a> and six deaths, then Palaszczuk has a problem. </p>
<p>But with border and pub relaxations <a href="https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/health-safety/qld-announces-immediate-easing-of-restrictions-as-road-map-to-normal-is-released/news-story/34a2f6de1243a54cfc3b7d1abaf7db98">introduced last week</a>, even that anger might be quelled by election day. </p>
<h2>COVID recovery</h2>
<p>If not, these concerns would be compounded by a third question: which party do Queenslanders trust more to navigate the state out of the COVID-19 economic quagmire? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Hand sanitisers on a table at a polling booth." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361002/original/file-20201001-24-tnugx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/361002/original/file-20201001-24-tnugx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361002/original/file-20201001-24-tnugx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361002/original/file-20201001-24-tnugx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361002/original/file-20201001-24-tnugx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361002/original/file-20201001-24-tnugx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/361002/original/file-20201001-24-tnugx1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Queensland will be voting in the middle of a pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Albert Perez/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Labor has reason to feel secure here, despite state debt <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-07/queensland-treasurer-delivers-fiscal-budget-outlook-coronavirus/12628358">nearing $100 billion</a> and an <a href="https://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP%2FLFR_SAFOUR%2FLFR_UnemploymentRate">unemployment rate</a> above the national average. In June, a YouGov poll found Labor enjoyed an <a href="https://www.pollbludger.net/2020/06/06/yougov-galaxy-52-48-lnp-queensland/">11 point lead</a> on the question of preferred economic managers. That figure alone has panicked LNP strategists. </p>
<p>But since then, the LNP has come out with economic guns blazing. It has re-embraced the <a href="https://www.deb2020.com.au/new-bradfield-scheme-will-supercharge-the-north/">1930s Bradfield Scheme</a> — a largely debunked populist dream to divert northern rivers westward. More pragmatically, the LNP also launched a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-27/lnp-promises-33-billion-spend-on-15-year-bruce-highway-plan/12708342">$33 billion plan</a> to upgrade the entire Bruce Highway from Gympie to Cairns. </p>
<p>Given more than half the state’s seats are outside Greater Brisbane, this policy pays the sort of regional homage that wins elections in Queensland. </p>
<h2>The Prime Minister will be watching</h2>
<p>Beyond Queensland, who will be watching the Queensland poll most closely? </p>
<p>Morrison found his <a href="https://news.griffith.edu.au/2020/07/07/how-qld-delivered-scott-morrisons-miracle-election/">way back to government</a> last year via regional Queensland, which is now torn between border closures and economic survival. He will certainly be keeping a close eye on the contest, even if it is <a href="https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/health-wellbeing/queensland-government-finally-sets-date-for-opening-of-nsw-border--but-theres-a-catch-c-1359240">impossible</a> to visit in person.</p>
<p>There are just four weeks to go.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146927/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Williams is a Research Associate with the T.J. Ryan Foundation</span></em></p>As Labor’s Annastacia Palaszczuk and the LNP’s Deb Frecklington vie for Queenslanders’ votes, leadership, COVID and economic recovery are set to dominate debate.Paul Williams, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1459212020-09-11T01:58:29Z2020-09-11T01:58:29ZWhy would Australia Post go out of its way to deliver Pauline Hanson’s stubby holders?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357563/original/file-20200910-20-esetx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Back in July, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson appeared in her <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jul/06/today-show-dumps-pauline-hanson-for-divisive-remarks-about-melbourne-public-housing-residents">then-regular</a> spot on Channel Nine’s Today program. </p>
<p>During a discussion about the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-04/coronavirus-victoria-melbourne-public-housing-estates-lockdown/12423042">hard lockdown</a> of Melbourne’s public housing towers <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/pauline/12450972">Hanson said</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>A lot of these people are from non-English speaking backgrounds, probably English as their second language, who haven’t adhered to the rules of social distancing</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hanson added “a lot of them are drug addicts,” and “alcoholics” before noting if people were from “war torn countries” they “know what it’s like to be in tough conditions”.</p>
<p>The comments - and the way Channel Nine presented them - caused a storm of controversy. And Hanson <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jul/06/today-show-dumps-pauline-hanson-for-divisive-remarks-about-melbourne-public-housing-residents">lost her regular spot</a> on the program. </p>
<p>But the episode didn’t stop there. Hanson then sent a gift to each of the residents of one of the towers in North Melbourne. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-the-today-show-gave-pauline-hanson-a-megaphone-it-diminished-australias-social-capital-142156">When The Today Show gave Pauline Hanson a megaphone, it diminished Australia's social capital</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>What is even more perplexing, the head of Australia Post reportedly <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-post-pauline-hanson-and-the-locked-down-public-housing-tower-20200909-p55u01.html">intervened</a> to make sure Hanson’s mail was delivered to their intended recipients.</p>
<h2>Hanson’s ‘gift’</h2>
<p>For $A7 you can buy your very own branded stubby holder from the One Nation website. </p>
<p>Featuring Hanson’s image against a sunset orange background it is emblazoned with the words: “I’ve got the guts to say what you’re thinking”.</p>
<p>These were the stubby holders sent to the tower’s residents, which came with a note saying “<a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6919413/post-saga-storm-in-a-stubby-holder-hanson/?cs=14231">no hard feelings</a>”. </p>
<p>It’s difficult to imagine what kind of reasoning was behind this “gift”.</p>
<p>To their credit, the people managing deliveries to the tower discovered what was in the parcels, each addressed only “to the householder”. Fearing, quite reasonably, the deliveries would inflame an “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-post-pauline-hanson-and-the-locked-down-public-housing-tower-20200909-p55u01.html">emotional tinder box</a>”, the deliveries were withheld.</p>
<h2>Australia Post gets involved</h2>
<p>If one’s political suspicion was roused by the stubby holder stunt, things became even more unbelievable when Australia Post chief executive Christina Holgate, was implicated in trying to make sure the parcels were delivered.</p>
<p>On hearing the people managing the locked down tower had intercepted the deliveries, Holgate’s legal counsel reportedly sent a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-post-pauline-hanson-and-the-locked-down-public-housing-tower-20200909-p55u01.html">threatening email</a> to Melbourne City Council. </p>
<p>The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, who saw the email, reported it gave Melbourne City Council five hours to deliver the parcels, or said police might be notified. </p>
<h2>Australia Post under pressure</h2>
<p>Holgate has come under <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/australia-post-on-track-to-break-delivery-records/12615476">additional scrutiny</a> of late. Australia Post has been breaking delivery records during the pandemic. But has also faced concerns about delays and service cuts. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-hands-australia-post-opportunity-to-end-daily-delivery-140848">COVID hands Australia Post opportunity to end daily delivery</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Holgate is the highest paid public servant in the country, earning more than <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/australia-s-best-paid-bureaucrat-rakes-in-2-5m-20191017-p531hy#:%7E:text=Australia%20Post%20boss%20Christine%20Holgate,from%20%241.646%20million%20last%20year">$2.5 million</a> in pay and bonuses in the 2018-2019 financial year. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate at a Senate inquiry" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357564/original/file-20200910-18-k46lcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357564/original/file-20200910-18-k46lcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357564/original/file-20200910-18-k46lcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357564/original/file-20200910-18-k46lcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357564/original/file-20200910-18-k46lcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357564/original/file-20200910-18-k46lcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357564/original/file-20200910-18-k46lcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australia Post head Christine Holgate is the highest paid public servant in Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>OK, CEOs earn a lot. But at a time when Australia Post is <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/auspost-invites-volunteer-parcel-deliveries-while-executives-eye-bonuses-20200901-p55rf7.html">asking staff</a> to work extra hours and use their own cars to deliver a backlog of parcels, its executives have still been eyeing up huge bonuses. </p>
<p>Following a heated debate, they will <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/auspost-board-poised-to-back-down-on-executive-bonuses-amid-backlash-20200902-p55ron.html">not have bonuses for 2020</a>. But there is still a pool of <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/leadership/australia-posts-board-blocks-christine-holgates-1m-bonus/news-story/c310d58ac64f68d8cee3e4bfa3221868">more than $825,000</a> in payments coming from 2019.</p>
<h2>Corporate politics</h2>
<p>It is difficult to understand why Australia Post got involved in the stubby holder saga. Why would it want to stand up for a political stunt aimed at people in a hard lockdown?</p>
<p>Several <a href="https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/thebriefing/max-opray/2020/09/10/australia-post-delivers-hanson">media outlets</a> have been quick to point out that at the time, One Nation senators were considering whether to support <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-post-pauline-hanson-and-the-locked-down-public-housing-tower-20200909-p55u01.html">overturning a temporary relaxation</a> of postal delivery rules.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Postie on a motorbike" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357565/original/file-20200911-20-1hn0ets.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/357565/original/file-20200911-20-1hn0ets.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357565/original/file-20200911-20-1hn0ets.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357565/original/file-20200911-20-1hn0ets.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357565/original/file-20200911-20-1hn0ets.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357565/original/file-20200911-20-1hn0ets.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/357565/original/file-20200911-20-1hn0ets.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Parcel deliveries have skyrocketed during COVID.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Australia Post</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Back in April, Australia Post’s regulatory requirements <a href="https://www.financeminister.gov.au/media-release/2020/04/21/supporting-australia-post-throughout-covid-19">were adjusted</a> due to COVID-19, allowing them to focus on parcel rather than letter delivery. The changes, <a href="https://auspost.com.au/general/government-supports-australia-posts-plan-to-reform-its-letters-service">backed by Australia Post</a>, are due to end in June 2021.</p>
<p>This was a political hot potato, with the <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/labor-to-oppose-cheap-shot-australia-post-cuts-20200609-p550wy">two major parties taking opposite sides</a> and Labor <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6789387/minister-hits-back-at-labor-australia-post-push/">pushing to “disallow”</a> the changes in the Senate, amid union concerns about job losses. </p>
<h2>More than a storm in a stubby holder</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6919413/post-saga-storm-in-a-stubby-holder-hanson/?cs=14231">statement</a>, Australia Post said Holgate did not personally intervene in the stubby holder deliveries. </p>
<p>“Australia Post confirms that Ms Holgate did not speak to Senator Hanson or One Nation on this matter, nor did she threaten Melbourne City Council.”</p>
<p>Australia Post’s response has been to justify their actions purely on their <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6919413/post-saga-storm-in-a-stubby-holder-hanson/?cs=14231">legal obligation</a> to prevent interference with the mail. No politics at play here, they claim, they were just doing their job. </p>
<p>As for Hanson, she was unconcerned, describing the whole thing as a “<a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6919413/post-saga-storm-in-a-stubby-holder-hanson/?cs=14231">storm in a stubby cooler</a>”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/melbourne-tower-lockdowns-unfairly-target-already-vulnerable-public-housing-residents-142041">Melbourne tower lockdowns unfairly target already vulnerable public housing residents</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But nobody said anything about the well-being of residents of the towers, who were the target of this terrible exercise in populist publicity. </p>
<p>Those residents, many of them vulnerable, were treated as collateral damage in this episode.</p>
<p>It doesn’t take a lot of guts to say Australia should expect much more from its politicians, its business leaders and major service providers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145921/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carl Rhodes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When the One Nation leader sent ‘gifts’ to public housing residents, Australia Post stepped in to make sure they arrived.Carl Rhodes, Professor of Organization Studies, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1346612020-06-22T01:15:03Z2020-06-22T01:15:03ZPauline Hanson built a political career on white victimhood and brought far-right rhetoric to the mainstream<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340484/original/file-20200609-165389-d0sojm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The Conversation is running a series of explainers on key figures in Australian political history, looking at the way they changed the nature of debate, its impact then, and its relevance to politics today. You can also read the rest of our pieces <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/key-figures-in-australian-political-history-86822">here</a>.</em></p>
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<p>Pauline Hanson and her party have only achieved modest electoral successes. Yet, she is undoubtedly Australia’s most successful populist politician and has had a profound impact on the way the country talks about issues like multiculturalism and immigration.</p>
<p>Hanson’s entire political career can be seen as a denial and rejection of the realities of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1341787.pdf">whiteness</a> in Australia – that is, the unearned <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/the-white-possessive">benefits and privileges</a> afforded to white people in settler-colonial countries. </p>
<p>Hanson has benefited from – and helped to shape – the normalisation of racism and xenophobia in Australia. She has pushed the boundaries of what can be “acceptably said” in public discourse and has had a disproportionate influence on the national debate. </p>
<p>In doing so, she has also created the political space for other far-right figures like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5pxE4RXpjc">Fraser Anning</a> to emerge and become more a part of the political mainstream. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340486/original/file-20200609-165389-ivl4b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340486/original/file-20200609-165389-ivl4b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340486/original/file-20200609-165389-ivl4b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340486/original/file-20200609-165389-ivl4b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340486/original/file-20200609-165389-ivl4b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340486/original/file-20200609-165389-ivl4b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340486/original/file-20200609-165389-ivl4b3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Hanson’s political fortunes have come and gone, but she’s remained a fixture in the public consciousness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
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<h2>The birth of One Nation</h2>
<p>Hanson first emerged on the political landscape in 1996 when <a href="https://australianpolitics.com/1998/03/01/background-information-on-pauline-hanson.html">she was disendorsed</a> as the Liberal Party candidate for Oxley following racist comments she made about Indigenous people in a letter to the Queensland Times.</p>
<p>She contested the election anyway, running as an independent on a self-described nationalist, populist and protectionist platform, and won the seat with a large swing against the Labor incumbent. </p>
<p>In her <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/pauline-hansons-1996-maiden-speech-to-parliament-full-transcript-20160915-grgjv3.html">maiden speech</a> to the House of Representatives, Hanson claimed to speak on behalf of “mainstream Australians” and promised a “common sense” approach to politics.</p>
<p>Most controversially, Hanson warned Australia was “in danger of being swamped by Asians”, called for the abolition of multiculturalism and railed against Indigenous rights, so-called “political correctness” and “reverse-racism”.</p>
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<p>The times suited Hanson. After 13 years of Labor government, John Howard and the Liberal Party looked to exploit a sense of resentment and grievance on the issues of multiculturalism and immigration, which arguably opened up the space for Hanson and helped to legitimise her views. </p>
<p>Indeed, in a 1996 speech delivered to the Queensland Liberal Party, Howard <a href="https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-10114">celebrated</a> the idea people felt able to speak a little more freely and could do so </p>
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<p>without living in fear of being branded as a bigot or racist. </p>
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<p>Hanson’s One Nation party <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-10/timeline-rise-of-pauline-hanson-one-nation/7583230?nw=0">was formed the following year</a> and performed well at the 1998 Queensland state election, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/CIB/cib9899/99CIB02">winning 11 seats</a>.</p>
<h2>Hanson’s downfall and political resurrection</h2>
<p>One Nation’s initial success, however, was short-lived. Hanson <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/the-rise-and-fall-of-pauline-hanson-20030821-gdw80v.html">failed to win</a> the newly redistributed seat of Blair at the 1998 federal election. Her party then began to suffer from <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/please-explain-the-rise-fall-and-rise-again-of-pauline-hanson-9780143784678">internal divisions, poor leadership and Hanson’s personal and financial scandals</a>. </p>
<p>She was subsequently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/aug/20/australia.thefarright">convicted</a> of electoral fraud in 2003. (It was later overturned on appeal.)</p>
<p>After a number of <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/hansons-senate-bid-im-the-redhead-voters-can-trust-20130603-2nl21.html">failed federal and state campaigns</a> (including under the rebranded <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20071014012637/http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22450691-1248,00.html">Pauline’s United Australia Party</a>), Hanson finally succeeded in being elected to the Senate in 2016, along with three other One Nation candidates. </p>
<p>This represented a high point for the party at the federal level and gave it considerable influence over government policy. </p>
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<p>
<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/henry-parkes-had-a-vision-of-a-new-australian-nation-in-1901-it-became-a-reality-131453">Henry Parkes had a vision of a new Australian nation. In 1901, it became a reality</a>
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<h2>Hanson’s populist, nativist beliefs</h2>
<p>Hanson can best be described as a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/populist-radical-right-parties-in-europe/244D86C50E6D1DC44C86C4D1D313F16D">populist radical right politician</a>, alongside such figures as Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen and Viktor Orbán.</p>
<p>For populist figures, politics are seen as a struggle between everyday, ordinary people and a <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/government-and-opposition/article/populist-zeitgeist/2CD34F8B25C4FFF4F322316833DB94B7">corrupt, illegitimate and out-of-touch elite</a>.</p>
<p>But more importantly, the populist radical right also uses the language of “us-versus-them” and portrays immigrants and refugees as existential threats to the safety, security and “culture” of a particular society.</p>
<p>In Hanson’s view, non-natives must either assimilate and embrace “Australian culture and values” or <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-15/pauline-hanson-maiden-speech-2016/7847136">“go back to where they came from”</a>.</p>
<p>Hanson has consistently drawn on a sense of grievance and victimhood – in particular, white victimhood. She has espoused a belief in the existence of so-called “reverse-racism” or “anti-white” racism since the outset of her political career.</p>
<p>Hanson has even gone so far as to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/artless-and-angry-pauline-hanson-demonstrates-lack-of-fitness-for-crucial-role-20190920-p52tes.html">claim</a> the </p>
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<p>most downtrodden person in this country is the white Anglo-Saxon male.</p>
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<h2>The mainstreaming of the far-right</h2>
<p>Hanson’s resurgence in 2016 occurred in a very different political climate than her first stint in parliament in the late 1990s. </p>
<p>Political scientist Cas Mudde refers to the 21st century as the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global/commentisfree/2019/nov/12/nativism-is-driving-the-far-right-surge-in-europe-and-it-is-here-to-stay">fourth wave of the far-right</a>”. It is a time when far-right ideas are becoming increasingly tolerated, debated and normalised in the mainstream and the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0957926519889109">boundaries of what can be said are shifting</a>.</p>
<p>Emboldened by years of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870.2017.1312008">normalised Islamophobia</a> in Australia and the electoral successes of far-right parties globally, Hanson’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-15/pauline-hanson-maiden-speech-2016/7847136">maiden Senate speech</a> warned Australia was now</p>
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<p>in danger of being swamped by Muslims, who bear a culture and ideology that is incompatible with our own. </p>
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<p>She called for a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/17/pauline-hanson-wears-burqa-in-australian-senate-while-calling-for-ban">“Trump style” immigration ban</a>, <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/pauline-hanson-plans-to-ban-the-burqa-and-call-royal-commission-into-islam">a Royal Commission into Islam</a> and the “<a href="https://www.onenation.org.au/pauline-hanson-moves-to-ban-burqa-voted-down-by-out-of-touch-politicians/">banning of the burqa</a>”.</p>
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<p>Hanson’s resurgence has clearly cemented Muslims as the new “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/22041451.2020.1729970">dangerous other</a>”, though her racist attitudes towards First Nations people and Asian immigrants have also remained a constant.</p>
<p>Her claims of “anti-white racism” have also gained traction in the mainstream. For example, when Hanson put forth a Senate motion declaring <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/15/ok-to-be-white-australian-government-senators-condemn-anti-white-racism">“it’s OK to be white”</a> in 2018, a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/oct/16/government-blames-administrative-error-for-its-support-for-its-ok-to-be-white-vote">surprising number of Coalition members voted for it</a> and later defended it on Twitter. </p>
<p>It was only later, after a vocal outcry, that the Coalition backed down and claimed the votes were made in error.</p>
<p>The media have played a key role in the mainstreaming of Hanson and One Nation by consistently giving them a platform to voice far-right ideas. </p>
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<h2>Hanson’s legacy and impact on society</h2>
<p>There are a couple of ways to think about Hanson’s legacy and impact on society. </p>
<p>The first is to gauge her direct influence on government policy through her role as a parliamentarian. There’s no doubt she has wielded considerable influence as one of a number of senators to hold the balance of power in recent years. </p>
<p>Yet, despite some success in influencing legislation and her recent appointment as deputy chair of the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-18/rosie-batty-family-law-inquiry-pauline-hanson-bias/11523914">family law inquiry</a>, Hanson has been largely unsuccessful in seeing her <a href="https://www.onenation.org.au/policies/">signature policies</a> realised.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-julia-gillard-forever-changed-australian-politics-especially-for-women-138528">How Julia Gillard forever changed Australian politics - especially for women</a>
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<p>And while acknowledging Hanson’s role in mainstreaming far-right ideas, it’s important to note these ideas have existed before her maiden speeches and will exist well beyond her time in politics.</p>
<p>Exclusively focusing on Hanson’s individual acts ignores the <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-systemic-racism-and-institutional-racism-131152">systemic nature</a> of racism and the role of the mainstream political class in reproducing and upholding these racist structures.</p>
<p>When assessing Hanson’s legacy, it may be comforting to view her as an aberration and reflection of a bygone era, but she remains very much a product of the Australian settler-colonial story.</p>
<p>It’s perhaps more accurate to think of Hanson as a symptom of racism and xenophobia in Australia, rather than its cause.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134661/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kurt Sengul does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hanson has been largely unsuccessful in seeing her signature policies realised. But she has helped normalise xenophobia and racism and thus had a disproportionate influence on the national debate.Kurt Sengul, Doctoral Researcher, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1316702020-02-12T06:26:02Z2020-02-12T06:26:02ZPauline Hanson stymies bid to hobble Mathias Cormann<p>A bid to hobble Senate leader Mathias Cormann in retaliation for the government’s refusal to produce the report from top public servant Phil Gaetjens on Bridget McKenzie failed after Pauline Hanson withdrew her support and Centre Alliance split.</p>
<p>Under the plan, Cormann would not have been allowed to answer questions in the Senate on behalf of the prime minister, represent him at estimates, or sit at the centre table in the chamber. The ban would have applied until March 6 unless the government tabled the report.</p>
<p>Initially Pauline Hanson signed up to the motion but then at the last moment withdrew her support. One Nation was the decider - if its two votes had stayed with the Labor-initiated motion, it would have passed.</p>
<p>With one Centre Alliance senator abstaining, the vote was lost 35-36.</p>
<p>Centre Alliance’s Rex Patrick spoke strongly in favor of the motion, saying the Senate needed to push back against the government running to a bunker called “cabinet”.</p>
<p>His party colleague Stirling Griff, explaining his abstention, said later he supported the premise behind the motion but the penalty would have had no real consequences other than humiliating Cormann. </p>
<p>Hanson told the Senate on reflection she was against setting a precedent. “Senator Cormann is an elected member of this chamber. He has a right to his place in this chamber,” she said. “It is not up to us to take away that right that was given to him by the Australian people when they voted for him.”</p>
<p>Cormann said the ban proposal was completely unprecedented in the Senate’s history and claimed it exceeded the Senate’s powers.</p>
<p>Earlier this week the government defied a call from the Senate to produce the Gaetjens report on McKenzie’s conduct in the sports rorts affair.</p>
<p>Morrison asked Gaetjens, the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (and his one-time chief of staff), to advise him on whether she had breached ministerial standards. </p>
<p>This followed an Auditor-General report finding her decisions on grants were politically skewed. </p>
<p>But Gaetjens concluded political considerations had not been the primary determining factor in the grants’ allocation, although he did find she had breached ministerial standards by not declaring her association with gun organisations. On this basis she resigned from the cabinet, and the deputy leadership of the Nationals – which set off a train of events still destabilising the Nationals.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-we-need-to-see-gaetjens-report-on-mckenzie-not-least-for-gaetjens-sake-131144">View from The Hill: We need to see Gaetjens' report on McKenzie – not least for Gaetjens' sake</a>
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<p>In response to a Senate order to produce the report, the government claimed public interest immunity, saying it was a cabinet document. </p>
<p>Labor’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, accused the government of a “disgusting political coverup” in refusing to table the Gaetjens report and other documents.</p>
<p>“This is all about protection of the prime minister, who is up to his neck in the sports rorts scandal,” Wong said.</p>
<p>“We’re being asked to accept that the findings of an independent statutory officer, the Auditor-General, should be overridden by a secret report authored by someone of dubious credibility - because Mr Gaetjens is Mr Morrison’s mate, his former chief of staff, and that inquiry was commissioned by Mr Morrison to get exactly the advice he wanted so that he could do what he had already decided,” Wong said.</p>
<p>Earlier this week, crossbencher Jacqui Lambie launched a scathing attack on the government’s refusal to release the report. </p>
<p>“We’re supposed to trust this so-called independent process that found that senator McKenzie made a mistake in not declaring her shooting club membership, but not that she misused taxpayer funds. </p>
<p>"According to the prime minister, we’re supposed to trust that there was no basis for the suggestion that political considerations were the primary determining factor,” she told the Senate. </p>
<p>“Does he take millions of Australians out there for absolute morons?”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131670/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An attempt to hobble Mathias Cormann in retaliation for the government’s refusal to produce the Gaetjens Report on Bridget McKenzie failed after Pauline Hanson withdrew her support.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1283032019-12-04T00:41:36Z2019-12-04T00:41:36ZMedevac repealed after government comes to secret arrangement with Jacqui Lambie<p>The government has finally secured the repeal of medevac by coming to an arrangement with crossbencher Jacqui Lambie, the terms of which she refused to disclose to the Senate because of “national security concerns”.</p>
<p>The repeal was carried 37-35 after Lambie – on whose vote the result depended – said she was satisfied with her negotiations with the government.</p>
<p>But Senate leader Mathias Cormann had previously unequivocally denied any deal.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison personally negotiated with Lambie over the repeal, a sign of the government’s determination to quash the medevac law.</p>
<p>Medevac – which facilitated medical transfers of people from Papua New Guinea and Nauru - was passed against the Coalition’s opposition when it was briefly in minority late in the last parliamentary term.</p>
<p>Lambie had indicated previously that her vote for the repeal would be conditional on the government meeting a condition which she would not specify. She suggested security matters were involved.</p>
<p>In an emotional speech Lambie, breaking down in tears, told the Senate: “I’m not being coy or silly when I say I genuinely can’t say what I proposed. I know that’s frustrating to people. And I get that. I don’t like holding things back like this. </p>
<p>"But when I say I can’t discuss it publicly due to national security concerns, I am being 100% honest to you. My hand is on my heart and I can stand here and say that I would be putting at risk Australia’s national security and national interest if I said anything else about this,” she said.</p>
<p>“I put a proposal to the government, and since then we have worked together really hard to advance that proposal. We’ve worked to an outcome I believe we both want, which is an outcome where our borders are secure, the boats have stopped and sick people aren’t dying while waiting for treatment. </p>
<p>"And as a result of that work, I am satisfied, I am more than satisfied, that the conditions are now in place to allow medevac to be repealed.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/peter-dutton-is-whipping-up-fear-on-the-medevac-law-but-it-defies-logic-and-compassion-119297">Peter Dutton is whipping up fear on the medevac law, but it defies logic and compassion</a>
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<p>But Cormann earlier said: “There is no secret deal. There will be no change to our strong border protection arrangements. There will be no change to our strong national security arrangements. And there will be no change in the way we deal with the legacy caseload that Labor left behind.”</p>
<p>Greens leader Richard Di Natale demanded to know who was lying. “Who’s lying, minister Cormann? Are you lying? Or is senator Lambie lying?”</p>
<p>He said Cormann had “walked over to senator Lambie and said, ‘Is it OK if I say there’s no deal?’ We heard you say it”.</p>
<p>One Nation’s Pauline Hanson told the Senate she had just had “a quick talk with senator Lambie”. It was “extremely hard for her. … I do trust her judgement”.</p>
<p>When the Senate resumed on Wednesday morning, the government immediately moved to bring on the repeal bill. Labor demanded the terms of the deal, declaring the vote should be delayed until they were revealed.</p>
<p>Labor’s leader in the Senate Penny Wong said: “We have cabinet ministers coming in here like lemmings, voting on a legislation based on a deal you haven’t seen.”</p>
<p>Labor spokeswoman on home affairs Kristina Keneally said the Australian public supported medevac, quoting a poll showing 62% in favour. She said medevac had nothing to do with Operation Sovereign Borders which Labor supported. Repeal would deny people treatment, she said.</p>
<p>Under the offshore arrangements, there are currently just over 200 people in Papua New Guinea and more than 250 on Nauru.</p>
<p>At a joint news conference with Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, Morrison said: “The only undertaking we’ve given is to implement our policies, that is it”.</p>
<p>Amid speculation about some resettlement undertakings, Morrison said the government’s policies sought to resettle people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128303/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After securing a condition which she cannot disclose “due to national security concerns”, Jacqui Lambie has voted with the government on the repeal of the medevac laws.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1280552019-11-29T03:04:14Z2019-11-29T03:04:14ZVIDEO: Michelle Grattan on the defeat of the government’s union legislation<figure>
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<p>University of Canberra Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Leigh Sullivan and Michelle Grattan discuss the “unexpected” loss of the government’s union legislation. They also talk about the ongoing saga with Angus Taylor’s letter to the Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore. They then look towards the last parliamentary sitting week of the year, where the government will have another challenging legislation to pass through the Senate - the repeal of the Medevac bill.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128055/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>University of Canberra Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Leigh Sullivan and Michelle Grattan discuss this week in politics, and talk about what to expect in the year’s final parliamentary sitting week.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1242902019-11-11T19:02:10Z2019-11-11T19:02:10ZThe milk, the whole milk and nothing but the milk: the story behind our dairy woes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301045/original/file-20191111-194675-156dl7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=604%2C7%2C4315%2C3268&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A dairy cow grazes on the lawns in front of Parliament House in Canberra in 2015, as part of an industry event.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The plight of Australia’s dairy farmers is on the political agenda this week, after One Nation leader Pauline Hanson <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/nationals-no-longer-party-of-the-bush-pauline-hanson-lashes-out-after-milk-price-floor-push-fails/news-story/22a49ee1caefef5e504f8c306254700f">narrowly failed in her Senate bid</a> for a minimum milk price. But getting fair payment for their goods is far from the only challenge dairy farmers face.</p>
<p>Pressure has been mounting on the industry for the past decade. Existing milk alternatives are growing their market share, helped by a rise in veganism and public concern around animal welfare. The agriculture sector is under pressure to reduce its contribution to climate change, and technology advances mean milk may one day be produced without cows at all. </p>
<p>All this has been compounded by devastating and prolonged drought. So here’s the full story of the hurdles farmers face, now and in the future, to get milk into your fridge.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301053/original/file-20191111-194637-rnr31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301053/original/file-20191111-194637-rnr31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301053/original/file-20191111-194637-rnr31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301053/original/file-20191111-194637-rnr31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301053/original/file-20191111-194637-rnr31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301053/original/file-20191111-194637-rnr31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301053/original/file-20191111-194637-rnr31a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dairy cattle at milking time at a farm in Rochester, Victoria.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Tracey Nearmy</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Fluctuating farm gate price</h2>
<p>The rate at which processors pay farmers for milk is known as the <a href="https://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/industry/prices/farmgate-milk-price">farm gate price</a>. The prices are not regulated and are set by market forces.</p>
<p>In 2016 <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2016/June/Dairy_industry_developments">the milk price crashed</a> when Australia’s two largest dairy processors, Murray Goulburn and Fonterra, lowered the price they would pay from about 48 cents a litre to as low as 40 cents.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/un-climate-change-report-land-clearing-and-farming-contribute-a-third-of-the-worlds-greenhouse-gases-121551">UN climate change report: land clearing and farming contribute a third of the world's greenhouse gases</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>This dramatically cut the incomes of milk suppliers. The number of dairy farmers in Australia fell by 600, or 9% <a href="https://www.dairyaustralia.com.au/industry/farm-facts/cows-and-farms">over four years</a>. This exit has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/feb/24/drought-and-low-milk-prices-push-dairy-farmers-to-the-brink">exacerbated by drought</a>.</p>
<p>Since then, the farm gate milk price has increased and in 2019–20 is <a href="http://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/agricultural-commodities/sep-2019/dairy">expected to be 51 cents per litre</a>, due to a weaker Australian dollar and demand from export markets. But forecast global prices for butter, cheese and whole milk powder this financial year remain below that of previous years.</p>
<p><iframe id="l0KkW" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/l0KkW/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Methane, and milk alternatives</h2>
<p>Methane and other livestock emissions <a href="http://www.agriculture.gov.au/ag-farm-food/climatechange/australias-farming-future/livestock-emissions">comprise about 10%</a> of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. </p>
<p>As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made clear in its <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/srccl-report-download-page/">land use report in August</a>, changes must be made across the food production chain if the world is to keep global warming below the critical 1.5°C threshold. For beef and dairy livestock, this means changes such as land and manure management, higher-quality feed and genetic improvements. Meeting this challenge cost-effectively, while improving productivity, is no small task.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/crying-over-plant-based-milk-neither-science-nor-history-favours-a-dairy-monopoly-123852">Crying over plant-based milk: neither science nor history favours a dairy monopoly</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Technology may help in curbing greenhouse gas emissions from cows, but it also threatens to replace the dairy industry altogether. Advances in biotech may enable liquid analogous to milk to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/lab-grown-dairy-the-next-food-frontier-117963">produced through bioculture systems</a>, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/10/141022-lab-grown-milk-biotechnology-gmo-food-climate/">without a cow in sight</a>. </p>
<p>Elsewhere, the rise of plant-based alternatives derived from soybeans, almonds, oats and other sources threatens traditional milk products. This can partly be attributed to increasing numbers of people adopting a vegan diet. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301047/original/file-20191111-194661-1t0vqpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301047/original/file-20191111-194661-1t0vqpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301047/original/file-20191111-194661-1t0vqpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301047/original/file-20191111-194661-1t0vqpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301047/original/file-20191111-194661-1t0vqpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301047/original/file-20191111-194661-1t0vqpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301047/original/file-20191111-194661-1t0vqpp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Farmers must overcome a host of challenges to deliver milk to consumers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Miller/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Taking calves away from cows</h2>
<p>For a mammal to produce milk, it must usually become pregnant and produce offspring. Female calves generally go into a farm’s pool of replacement animals, while male dairy calves are sold.</p>
<p>Pure-breed male dairy calves do not naturally lay down a lot of muscle and so do not generally make good beef livestock. Many are sent to the abattoir for slaughter, typically between 5 and 30 days of age. This practice has prompted welfare concerns and means the industry must carefully manage the handling and transport of vulnerable young calves.</p>
<p>Potential solutions include artificial insemination of cows using only semen that will produce female calves. The use of this technology is limited because it reduces conception rates.</p>
<p>There is also growing public concern about the separation of cows and calves not sent to the abbatoir. The calves are typically taken within the first 12-24 hours and reared together in a shed, where they are fed milk or milk replacer. This is thought to maximise the amount of saleable milk and minimise disease transfer from cow to calf, <a href="https://www.animalhealthaustralia.com.au/what-we-do/endemic-disease/johnes-disease/jd-and-dairy-cattle/three-step-calf-rearing-plan/">particularly Johne’s Disease</a>. However, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030219304175">recent research</a> has found <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030219304369">little evidence</a> to support these practices. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030219304369">Research has shown</a> that calf-cow separation in the first day of life causes lower distress than abrupt separation at a few weeks of age or older, when the bond is stronger. This is not to say that early separation is not a concern. Rather, in the face of consumer demands for certain ethical standards, simple fixes may be hard to implement. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301049/original/file-20191111-194661-1s8mybs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301049/original/file-20191111-194661-1s8mybs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301049/original/file-20191111-194661-1s8mybs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301049/original/file-20191111-194661-1s8mybs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301049/original/file-20191111-194661-1s8mybs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301049/original/file-20191111-194661-1s8mybs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301049/original/file-20191111-194661-1s8mybs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Topless animal welfare activists protest in Melbourne in February 2019 to raise awareness of what they claim is cruelty within the dairy industry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ellen Smith/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The message for consumers</h2>
<p>Challenges to the dairy industry will take time and effort to address. Some, such as drought, are out of farmers’ control. Dry conditions and high cost of water, fodder and electricity have <a href="http://www.agriculture.gov.au/abares/research-topics/agricultural-commodities/jun-2019/dairy">forced farmers to cull less productive dairy cows</a>, leading to a decline in production. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/supermarkets-are-not-milking-dairy-farmers-dry-the-myth-that-obscures-the-real-problem-105300">Supermarkets are not milking dairy farmers dry: the myth that obscures the real problem</a>
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<p>The pressures, and associated debt, create intense stress for farmers, increase family tensions, and have negative flow-on effects throughout rural communities.</p>
<p>Putting aside the political push for a regulated milk price, the key message for dairy consumers is clear. If we want our milk produced in a certain way, we must pay a fair market-based price to cover the costs to farmers of fulfilling our wants.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124290/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Fisher has received funding from Dairy Australia, Meat and Livestock Australia and Parmalat for research into animal welfare issues in dairy production and calf transport. </span></em></p>Pressure is mounting on Australia’s dairy farmers, from farm gate prices to animal welfare concerns, and technology that could produce milk without cows.Andrew Fisher, Professor of Cattle & Sheep Production Medicine, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1258232019-11-07T19:03:13Z2019-11-07T19:03:13Z‘Parental alienation’: the debunked theory that women lie about violence is still used in court<p>One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s unfounded claim women that lie about domestic abuse to deny fathers access to their children is what’s driving the latest <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Family_Law_System">parliamentary inquiry</a> into the family law system.</p>
<p>But this isn’t a new idea. Hanson’s claim stems from a history of discrediting women in the family court, with gendered expressions “parental alienation” and “parental alienation syndrome” emerging in the 1980s. They’re expressions you can expect to hear as the inquiry unfolds across the country over the next year. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-dont-need-another-inquiry-into-family-law-we-need-action-123758">We don't need another inquiry into family law – we need action</a>
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<p>Parental alienation is hard to define because of its contested nature. But it is generally understood as the actions of one parent to prevent a child from having an ongoing relationship with the other parent. </p>
<p>Of course, there are cases where parents engage in despicable and irrational conduct towards each other after separation – and involve their children. Both mothers and fathers are capable of this. </p>
<p>But many parents accused of alienation are mothers alleging family violence or child sexual abuse. </p>
<p>And the consequences can be serious and detrimental to children if the court requires them to visit or live with an abusive parent. </p>
<p>While the theory of parental alienation syndrome was <a href="https://xyonline.net/sites/xyonline.net/files/2019-10/O%27Donohue%2C%20Examining%20the%20validity%20of%20parental%20alienation%20syndrome%202016.pdf">exposed</a> as junk science, parental alienation is wielded by fathers’ rights groups and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/oct/03/family-law-inquiry-is-no-sop-to-hanson-its-a-deliberate-move-to-bury-previous-reviews">continues to have credibility</a> in the family law system.</p>
<h2>Parental alienation in Australian courts</h2>
<p>Recent <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0145213419302224">Australian research</a> into family law cases shows parental alienation continues to be raised by fathers as a “defence” to child sexual abuse allegations. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1189700409633329152"}"></div></p>
<p>When parental alienation is raised, mothers can experience intimidation from many angles – fathers, family report writers, judges and lawyers – all painting them as “hysterical, vindictive and manipulative women”. </p>
<p>This research is reflected in <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2015/november/1446296400/jess-hill/suffer-children">harrowing stories</a> such as those Jess Hill and other journalists have gathered from women and children caught up in alienation claims in our family courts.</p>
<p>These problems still occur in Australia partly because <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb/au/legis/cth/consol_act/fla1975114/">the legislation</a> regulating family law in Australia promotes a philosophy of “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/oct/03/family-law-inquiry-is-no-sop-to-hanson-its-a-deliberate-move-to-bury-previous-reviews">sharing children</a>” after parents separate, in terms of decision-making and time. </p>
<p>While the term “parental alienation” is not in the family law <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb/au/legis/cth/consol_act/fla1975114/">act</a>, a mother who is reluctant to send her children to their father may be perceived as obstructive in the face of this “sharing children” aspect of the law. </p>
<p>It’s a short distance from being seen as obstructive to being labelled alienating.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/forceful-and-dominant-men-with-sexist-ideas-of-masculinity-are-more-likely-to-abuse-women-125873">Forceful and dominant: men with sexist ideas of masculinity are more likely to abuse women</a>
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<p>When an alienation accusation finds support from an expert witness or a judge, the children may be sent to live with the father and the mother’s access may be severely reduced or totally denied. </p>
<p>Although such an outcome does not always follow, <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/FamCA/2001/1197.html?context=1;query=P%20v%20D;mask_path=au/cases/cth/FamCA">orders transferring</a> the residence of children to an allegedly abusive father are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0145213419302224">sometimes made</a>, often against the strong and clear views of the children.</p>
<h2>A debunked, outdated theory</h2>
<p>The term parental alienation syndrome first appeared in Australia in 1989 in a widely read <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2016542">family law journal</a>. The author, Kenneth Byrne, reported on this new concept called “parental alienation syndrome”, which had been coined by USA child psychiatrist <a href="http://www.fact.on.ca/Info/pas/gardnr85.htm">Dr Richard Gardner</a> a few years earlier. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, and incorrectly, <a href="https://www.fact.on.ca/Info/pas/byrne89.htm">Byrne informed</a> his readers that although “some” claims of child abuse </p>
<blockquote>
<p>are legitimate; many more are manifestations of [parental alienation syndrome] embedded in charges of abuse.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 1995, the term parental alienation syndrome <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/FamCA/1994/179.html?context=1;query=%22parental%20alienation%22;mask_path=au/cases/cth/FamCA">first appeared</a> in a published case from the Australian Family Court. </p>
<p>It’s no coincidence this was when the first set of legislation amendments aimed at shared parenting were <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/cth/num_act/flra1995183/s31.html">under consideration</a>. Mothers who did not willingly send their children to their fathers came under scrutiny for their “hostile” attitude. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-mothers-are-killed-by-their-partners-children-often-become-forgotten-victims-its-time-they-were-given-a-voice-124580">When mothers are killed by their partners, children often become ‘forgotten’ victims. It’s time they were given a voice</a>
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<p>Research after those mid-1990s amendments found women were often disbelieved in their claims of family violence and child sexual abuse and such claims were often responded to <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/153356700?q&versionId=173232445">with allegations</a> of alienation. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.familycourt.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/fcoaweb/reports-and-publications/reports/2000/fcoa_pr_flra_95_first_three_years">Mothers even reported</a> that their lawyers advised them not to raise violence for fear of being accused of being an alienator and potentially losing their children.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1191499332685459456"}"></div></p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16293307">research suggests</a> deliberately false allegations are rare and Gardner’s clinical theory has <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15379418.2016.1217758?journalCode=wjcc20">since been debunked</a>. </p>
<p>Despite this, parental alienation and parental alienation syndrome continue to be alleged in parenting cases. And research continues to be conducted both by <a href="https://www.utas.edu.au/latest-news/utas-homepage-news/university-of-tasmania-leads-research-into-the-complexities-of-parental-alienation">scholars who see parental alienation as valid concept</a> and by those, such as myself, who are concerned that the term is easily misused and is dangerous.</p>
<h2>Unsafe arrangements for children</h2>
<p>American researchers recently conducted a <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3448062">large study</a> of cases involving parental alienation and abuse allegations. </p>
<p>They found where the father claimed parental alienation, courts were more than twice as likely to disbelieve any claims of abuse by mothers, and almost four times more likely to disbelieve allegations of child sexual abuse.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-family-court-does-need-reform-but-not-the-way-pauline-hanson-thinks-125728">The family court does need reform, but not the way Pauline Hanson thinks</a>
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<p>In Australia, the most <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/news/family-law-inquiry-final-report-released/">recent inquiries</a> about the family law system recommend <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-family-court-does-need-reform-but-not-the-way-pauline-hanson-thinks-125728">repealing some of the sections</a> of the Family Law Act that strongly promote shared parenting because of concerns that they sometimes silenced violence and created unsafe arrangements for children. But none of the recommendations from the recent inquiries have yet been implemented.</p>
<p>The new inquiry is an unsubtle attempt to push these concerns away – until the next child is abused or dies while visiting a parent against their wishes – and a new inquiry is called into how to deal better with family violence in family law.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The National Sexual Assault, Family & Domestic Violence Counselling Line – 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for any Australian who has experienced, or is at risk of, family and domestic violence and/or sexual assault.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125823/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zoe Rathus is affiliated informally with other scholars and practitioners researching the issue of the use of parental alienation in a range of countries. She has a forthcoming article in a Special Edition of the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law on parental alienation.</span></em></p>The consequences of the parental alienation theory can lead to children getting a court order to visit or live with an abusive parent.Zoe Rathus, Senior Lecturer in Law, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1257282019-10-28T03:42:48Z2019-10-28T03:42:48ZThe family court does need reform, but not the way Pauline Hanson thinks<p>Senator Pauline Hanson has recently argued fathers get a raw deal from the family court, saying mothers often make up accusations of family violence to deny fathers contact with their children. These unsupported <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/18/pauline-hanson-sparks-fury-with-claims-domestic-violence-victims-are-lying-to-family-court">claims</a> perpetuate a form of victim blaming and may make women who have experienced family violence reluctant to speak out for fear of being disbelieved. </p>
<p>Yet this seems to be what’s pushing the latest parliamentary inquiry into family courts, of which Hanson is deputy chair. </p>
<p>It is, in fact, extremely rare for fathers to be denied contact with their children. This only happened in <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/publications/parenting-arrangements-after-separation">3% of all court orders</a> in 2014.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-dont-need-another-inquiry-into-family-law-we-need-action-123758">We don't need another inquiry into family law – we need action</a>
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<p>What’s more, there have already been two recent inquiries into family law, one ending as recent as April <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/news/family-law-inquiry-final-report-released/">this year</a> from the Australian Law Reform Commission. But the government has so far not implemented any of their combined 93 recommendations.</p>
<p>So while Hanson’s claims are wrong, there are still major issues the family court needs to fix to make sure the best interests of the child are promoted and victims of family violence are better protected.</p>
<h2>‘Equal responsibility’ doesn’t mean equal time</h2>
<p><a href="https://aifs.gov.au/publications/parenting-arrangements-after-separation">Only 3%</a> of separated parents end up in court to decide their parenting arrangements. Of those, a <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/sites/default/files/efva2012-synthesis-report.pdf">survey</a> has revealed more than half of respondents have experienced physical or emotional abuse. </p>
<p>Despite these statistics, in the overwhelming majority of cases both parents still have care or contact with their children and exercise equal shared parental responsibility. </p>
<p>In 2003, former Prime Minister John Howard initiated a House of Representatives report, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_representatives_Committees?url=fca/childcustody/report.htm">Every Picture Tells a Story</a>, which recommended the introduction of equal shared parental responsibility. This was introduced to the law in 2006. Joint parental responsibility for the care of children is also in line with an article in the <a href="https://www.unicef.org.au/Upload/UNICEF/Media/Our%20work/childfriendlycrc.pdf">United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-long-history-of-gender-violence-in-australia-and-why-it-matters-today-119927">The long history of gender violence in Australia, and why it matters today</a>
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<p>But there has been ongoing <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/FamiliesAndMarriage/Families/FamilyViolence/Documents/Family%20Courts%20Violence%20Review.pdf">misunderstanding</a> among some members of the Australian public that equal shared parental responsibility means equal time with the child between each parent. </p>
<p>In fact, the Australian Law Reform Commission recommended the Family Law Act 1975 should be amended to replace the presumption of “equal shared parental responsibility” in favour of “joint decision making about major long-term issues”. This means parents should consult each other on issues such as the child’s health, their religious upbringing, their education and the changes to their living arrangements.</p>
<p>The presumption can be rebutted if there are reasonable grounds to believe a parent has abused his or her child or engaged in family violence.</p>
<h2>Long delays and high costs</h2>
<p>Another significant problem is the high costs and long delays litigants face. According to a 2018 <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/LegalSystem/Courts/Documents/pwc-report.pdf">report</a>, litigants can spend over A$100,000 per matter in the Family Court of Australia. And the median wait time to have a case heard at trial is a whopping 17 months. </p>
<p>These are conservative figures. For some parties, the costs are even higher and the delays are longer. This causes frustration for those involved, which can not only lead to an escalation in disputes, but can also leave children and parents in unsafe situations.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/domestic-abuse-or-genuine-relationship-our-welfare-system-cant-tell-120223">Domestic abuse or genuine relationship? Our welfare system can't tell</a>
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<p>High costs can significantly erode financial security. It also makes the family justice system inaccessible, especially if the parties are ineligible for legal aid. The high costs of litigation or financial abuse against a party can force individuals to represent themselves in court.</p>
<p>To address these problems, there needs to be increased government <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-30/family-court-letting-families-down-chief-justice-says/8483858">funding</a> to relieve pressure on the under-resourced court, with money for registrars and family consultants. The family court structure must also be fundamentally reformed.</p>
<h2>Child welfare is a state issue, but the family court is national</h2>
<p>Contemporary family disputes that end up in court often involve child abuse, family violence, drug and alcohol issues and mental health problems. An effective family justice system requires information sharing and a coherent response. </p>
<p>But family violence orders and child welfare are exclusively managed by the states and territories. This means the Family Court has limited investigative powers to follow up allegations of family violence and child abuse. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-family-super-court-may-not-save-time-or-result-in-better-judgments-97454">A new family 'super court' may not save time or result in better judgments</a>
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<p>One of the major recommendations of the Australian Law Reform Commission is to abolish the federal-based Family Court in favour of creating separate family courts in each state and territory. There’s only one state-based family court in Australia, in Western Australia.</p>
<p>This is a sweeping reform that would radically transform the Australian family justice system. It has potential to improve the way courts deal with family violence and child protection by closing jurisdictional gaps, unifying both commonwealth and state jurisdiction over family law matters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125728/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henry Kha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There have already been two recent inquires into family court, but none of their recommendations have been rolled out.Henry Kha, Lecturer in Law, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1258842019-10-25T08:58:02Z2019-10-25T08:58:02ZVIDEO: Michelle Grattan on the Hanson dairy deal - and John Setka’s resignation<figure>
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<p>University of Canberra Assistant Professor Caroline Fisher and Michelle Grattan discuss the fallout from Pauline Hanson’s deal with the agriculture minister Bridget McKenzie regarding the dairy code. They also talk about John Setka’s resignation from the Labor Party, and what that means for opposition leader Anthony Albanese.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125884/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Michelle Grattan discusses this week in politics with University of Canberra Assistant Professor Caroline Fisher.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.