tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/australian-politics-32/articlesAustralian politics – The Conversation2024-02-15T02:32:37Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2235462024-02-15T02:32:37Z2024-02-15T02:32:37ZThe government wants to criminalise doxing. It may not work to stamp out bad behaviour online<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575741/original/file-20240214-26-jtev2h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C9%2C6510%2C4337&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/12/albanese-government-to-propose-legislation-to-crack-down-on-doxing">announced</a> the government was seeking to strengthen laws to combat doxing. Its ongoing review into Australian privacy law will now be expanded to include doxing, as will other laws covering hate crime and hate speech. </p>
<p>Doxing (sometimes doxxing) is shorthand for “document drop” and is the act of publishing identifying material about someone publicly, without their consent. </p>
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<p>Doxing someone can lead to real-life harms, potentially including job loss, violence against the person, their family members and pets, and serious mental health issues.</p>
<p>What any legislation from that review will look like is hard to say at this point. But how has it worked internationally, and would it work here?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/doxing-or-in-the-public-interest-free-speech-cancelling-and-the-ethics-of-the-jewish-creatives-whatsapp-group-leak-223323">Doxing or in the public interest? Free speech, 'cancelling' and the ethics of the Jewish creatives' WhatsApp group leak</a>
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<h2>What are other countries doing?</h2>
<p>New laws around doxing came into effect in <a href="https://www.government.nl/latest/news/2023/07/12/use-of-personal-data-for-the-objective-of-harassment-to-become-criminal-offence">The Netherlands</a> at the start of the year. This makes it illegal for Dutch citizens to obtain and share other people’s personal information without their permission and then use it to harass or target them. </p>
<p>Dutch conspiracy theorist Huig Plug was <a href="https://nltimes.nl/2024/02/02/conspiracy-theorist-huig-plug-arrested-doxxing-prosecution-office-staffer">arrested</a> earlier this month under the new legislation for allegedly doxing a member of the public prosecutor’s staff.</p>
<p>In the United States, laws like this are state-based. <a href="https://www.simmrinlawgroup.com/california-penal-code-section-653-2/">California</a> has a special part of its law around so-called “indirect cyber harassment”, which is defined essentially as doxing. </p>
<p>In both of these examples, the doxer has to have intent to harm. They are posting the information because they want someone to, say, lose their job or be opened up to harassment. </p>
<p>The Dutch law goes slightly further in that it is also an offence to make someone’s job harder, as opposed to causing them to lose their job completely. The Dutch laws also carry harsher punishments for doxing people such police, lawyers and politicians. </p>
<p>From a legal perspective, showing intent to do someone harm can actually be a harder bar to pass than people might think. So, if Australian law follows this pattern, it could be difficult for plaintiffs to prove that being doxed has caused them genuine harm.</p>
<h2>Not a new problem</h2>
<p>Doxing isn’t a new phenomenon and there have been some high-profile doxing cases over the past few years. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-doxing-and-how-can-you-protect-yourself-223428">What is doxing, and how can you protect yourself?</a>
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<p>One of the most famous global events was the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/09/organizational-doxing-ashley-madison-hack/403900/">Ashley Madison</a> data breach in 2015, which resulted in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/28/what-happened-after-ashley-madison-was-hacked">job losses and suicides</a>. The current discussion, however, hinges around the <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/hundreds-of-jewish-creatives-have-names-details-taken-in-leak-published-online-20240208-p5f3if.html">sharing of information</a> from a private WhatsApp group of 600 people and in the context of the ongoing war in Gaza.</p>
<p>We’ve seen the hasty introduction of legislation in these types of circumstances in the past, most notably the Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material Act, which legal scholars <a href="https://theconversation.com/livestreaming-terror-is-abhorrent-but-is-more-rushed-legislation-the-answer-114620">criticised</a> at the time for a lack of detail and it’s rushed introduction to parliament.</p>
<p>We saw similar concerns when the Morrison government introduced anti-trolling laws in 2021. I wrote at the time the law <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-governments-planned-anti-troll-laws-wont-help-most-victims-of-online-trolling-172743">wouldn’t help victims that much</a>, partly because it was practically impossible to police.</p>
<p>While the current discussion into changes in the law around doxing are happening, it’s worth revisiting some of these issues.</p>
<h2>How can we police the internet?</h2>
<p>The first thing to note is that it’s really hard to police what happens on the internet. There are several reasons for this.</p>
<p>The main one is that the internet is what we call inter-jurisdictional. There’s a mess of different laws around the world, and no real way to use them if you’re in a different country. This means if someone in The Netherlands doxes you in Australia, you can’t sue them under their laws, because you aren’t a citizen there. You also can’t do anything under Australia’s laws, because the perpetrator is not a citizen here. In short, to make this work, we would need global cooperation akin to Interpol.</p>
<p>The second reason is because Australian laws apply only to people currently in the country, there are many ways to get around them online. People can use anonymous accounts and virtual private networks (VPNs) to hide and make it hard to trace exactly who the culprit is and where they are.</p>
<p>The third comes down to the definition of what’s considered “public”. For example, a lot of doxing is done in smaller private groups with the express purpose of that community attacking specific people. That private information is still being shared without the consent or knowledge of the victims. In fact, as the journalist Ginger Gorman <a href="https://www.amazon.com.au/Troll-Hunting-Ginger-Gorman-ebook/dp/B07MC4C851">notes</a> this is the type of behaviour that “predatory trolls” often engage in.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trolling-and-doxxing-graduate-students-sharing-their-research-online-speak-out-about-hate-210874">Trolling and doxxing: Graduate students sharing their research online speak out about hate</a>
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<p>Finally, do we really need these laws when existing ones already cover many of the behaviours associated with doxing?</p>
<p>The biggest of these are found in the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A04868/2022-11-10/text/2">federal criminal code</a>, a piece of legislation that deals with the use of telecommunications for crimes. It outlines the “use a carrier service” to threaten, harass or menace someone. This includes “hoax threats”. Penalties for these behaviours range from five to ten years in jail. There’s similar wording in the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2021A00076/latest/text">Online Safety Act</a>.</p>
<p>While it’s great to see the government working to reform and strengthen existing legislation, I’m not convinced that these types of laws will have much impact given the complexity of policing online behaviours.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223546/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Beckett receives funding from the Australian Research Council, through the Discovery grants scheme for work on online hostility in Australia. </span></em></p>Anthony Albanese has flagged a crack-down on people’s personal details being shared online without consent. But like so much of the internet, it’s hard to police.Jennifer Beckett, Lecturer in Media and Communications, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2221542024-02-08T19:17:44Z2024-02-08T19:17:44ZAustralians love to talk about a ‘fair go’. Here’s what it meant before we became a nation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573697/original/file-20240206-24-mn43my.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C8%2C989%2C785&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-148533449/view">National Library of Australia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Fair go” is an expression we hear a lot in Australia. Activists use it to demand social justice, companies use it to promise customers a good deal, and politicians invoke it to persuade us that they understand the plight of ordinary people. </p>
<p>Most political commentators and academics who write about the fair go associate the phrase with Australia’s famed <a href="https://www.dca.org.au/news/opinion-pieces/land-of-the-fair-go">egalitarian traditions</a>, including equality of economic opportunity, universal political rights and the provision of a safety net via minimum wages and welfare programs. </p>
<p>Yet the fair go expression is sometimes used in ways that are distinctly inegalitarian. Former prime minister Scott Morrison repeatedly declared his belief in “a fair go for those who have a go”, suggesting the concept only applies to hardworking, “deserving” Australians. Morrison’s comments <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/apr/17/the-meaning-of-morrisons-mantra-about-getting-a-fair-go-is-clear-its-conditional">drew the ire</a> of critics who argued he was subverting the original egalitarian meaning of the fair go phrase, along with the Australian culture of benevolence to the needy. </p>
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<p>So who is right about what a fair go means to Australians? Are some uses more faithful to our “fair go traditions” than others? </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-australia-land-of-the-fair-go-not-everyone-gets-an-equal-slice-of-the-pie-70480">In Australia, land of the 'fair go', not everyone gets an equal slice of the pie</a>
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<h2>Origins in the sports pages</h2>
<p>In our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10361146.2023.2170211">research project</a>, we went back to the earliest recorded mentions of the fair go phrase in colonial-era newspapers to understand the original uses and meanings of this phrase, focusing on the period between 1860 and 1901. </p>
<p>We found the most common uses of the fair go expression did not refer to equality, benevolence and social justice. Instead, the phrase was mainly used to describe spirited efforts in competitive sports such as horse racing, boxing and sprinting. We found this in an <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/227936298">article</a> published in New South Wales in 1889:</p>
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<p>They were stripped of shoes and everything and had a fair go with the hurdles out about 18 yards.</p>
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<p>In sport, a fair go could also mean trying your hardest, as opposed to “pulling” a race or “throwing” a match, such as in <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article120653023">this piece</a> from 1892: </p>
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<p>With a dishonest jockey aboard […] an owner never knows whether he is to get ‘a fair go’ or not.</p>
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<p>A fair go could also refer to a thrilling, close match that entertained spectators, or a lucky win for gamblers, as in the expression “having a fair go for their money”. The fair go phrase was also used in politics in the context of closely
fought elections, such as in <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article155981003">Western Australia in 1900</a>: </p>
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<p>[…] he can depend on a fair go for it, for it’s a dead certainty he won’t gain the seat unopposed.</p>
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<p>“Fair go” could also refer to violent power struggles. In an <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3524500">1891 telegram</a> sent during the Shearers Strike in Queensland, a union leader advocated achieving a fair go by force: </p>
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<p>[…] if a little more devil was put into our actions the better it would be for us in the end. We have tried passive resistance and it appears to have failed. Let us try the other now, and have a fair go.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573908/original/file-20240206-28-4temqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo of a group of men standing in a bush campsite." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573908/original/file-20240206-28-4temqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573908/original/file-20240206-28-4temqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573908/original/file-20240206-28-4temqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573908/original/file-20240206-28-4temqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573908/original/file-20240206-28-4temqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573908/original/file-20240206-28-4temqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573908/original/file-20240206-28-4temqb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&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">The term ‘fair go’ was used during the Queensland Shearer’s Strike in 1891.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collections.slq.qld.gov.au/viewer/IE316889">State Library of Queensland</a></span>
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<p>The expression was sometimes used to refer to fistfights in politics and beyond, such as <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/216692383">this piece</a> in 1897: </p>
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<p>Fights between members of Parliament or city or municipal councillors are not of rare occurrence in Australia, but a fair “go” between lawyers with the “bare bones” is not often chronicled.</p>
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<p>It was even used to describe violence in wartime, such as when an Australian soldier in the Boer war <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page12085571">expressed a hope</a> to a reporter that the enemy would “let him have a fair go […] with the bayonet”. </p>
<h2>Different contexts, different meanings</h2>
<p>While the dominant meanings of the fair go in the 19th century referred to competition and power struggles, we also found uses that resonate more with egalitarianism, social justice and procedural rights. In an 1891 article about politics, a fair go could mean the right to speak:</p>
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<p>You are a liar and the father of a liar. Why don’t you let me speak? This is my maiden speech and you might let me have a fair go.</p>
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<p>The fair go phrase was also used to <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/216907224">advocate for</a> the principle of one person, one vote, as well as <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page7513252">ranked voting</a>. </p>
<p>In sport, a fair go was said to require <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19024103">impartial umpires</a> who didn’t favour one side over the other. In the legal system, a fair go required the right to <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article114314382">due process</a>, such as the provision of warrants for arrests and adequate defence in the courtroom. </p>
<p>While these ideas resonate with contemporary concerns about equal rights, non-discrimination, and proper process in government, they represented the minority of uses of the fair go phrase in the 19th century. Uses of “fair go” to refer to benevolence to the poor and the need for a safety net were virtually absent in the period we studied. </p>
<p>These findings highlight that the fair go originally meant different things to different people, and in different contexts. In our <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8500.12624">recent research</a>, we show that 19th-century uses of the fair go can be organised into six distinct meanings. These reflect the fact that the words “fair” and “go” have multiple meanings associated with both “justice” and “strength”.</p>
<p><iframe id="84J3U" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/84J3U/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>These different interpretations are alive and well today, and can be used to critically <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8500.12624">assess public policies</a> on contentious issues such as housing affordability and immigration. </p>
<p>Who is right about the true historical and contemporary meaning of the fair go? Our research shows no political ideology or party has a monopoly on the fair go. How we talk about the fair go reveals the ideas that shaped us as a nation, and the values that influence our political debates.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222154/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cosmo Howard receives funding from the Australian Research Council. This article was funded under the ARC Discovery Project: DP220101911 – Understanding the Antipodean 'Fair Go'.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pandanus Petter receives funding from the Australian Research Council. This article was funded under ARC Discovery Project: DP220101911 – Understanding the Antipodean 'Fair Go'.</span></em></p>Politicians often wheel out the phrase, but what does it really mean? We examined newspaper articles from before Federation to track how it was used.Cosmo Howard, Associate Professor School of Government and International Relations, Griffith UniversityPandanus Petter, Research Fellow Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2213002024-01-17T05:01:07Z2024-01-17T05:01:07ZAustralians are concerned about AI. Is the federal government doing enough to mitigate risks?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569696/original/file-20240116-29-7xvn45.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=325%2C61%2C1785%2C1375&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://betterimagesofai.org/images?artist=WesCockx&title=AIlargelanguagemodels">Wes Cockx & Google DeepMind</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today, the federal Minister for Industry and Science Ed Husic <a href="https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/husic/media-releases/action-help-ensure-ai-safe-and-responsible">revealed an interim response</a> from the Australian government on the safe and responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI).</p>
<p>The public, especially the Australian public, have real concerns about AI. And it’s appropriate that they should.</p>
<p>AI is a powerful technology entering our lives quickly. By 2030, it <a href="https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/husic/speeches/unlocking-potential-ai-australian-industry">may increase the Australian economy by 40%</a>, adding A$600 billion to our annual gross domestic product. A recent International Monetary Fund report estimates AI might also impact 40% of jobs worldwide, and <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2024/01/14/ai-will-transform-the-global-economy-lets-make-sure-it-benefits-humanity">60% of jobs in developed nations like Australia</a>.</p>
<p>In half of those jobs, the impacts will be positive, lifting productivity and reducing drudgery. But in the other half, the impacts may be negative, taking away work, even eliminating some jobs completely. Just as lift attendants and secretaries in typing pools had to move on and find new vocations, so might truck drivers and law clerks. </p>
<p>Perhaps not surprisingly then, in a recent market researcher Ipsos survey of 31 countries, <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en/ai-making-world-more-nervous">Australia was the nation most nervous about AI</a>. Some 69% of Australians, compared to just 23% of Japanese, were worried about the use of AI. And only 20% of us thought it would improve the job market.</p>
<p>The Australian government’s new interim response is therefore to be welcomed. It’s a somewhat delayed reply to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-should-australia-capitalise-on-ai-while-reducing-its-risks-its-time-to-have-your-say-206863">last year’s public consultation on AI</a>. It received over 500 submissions from business, civil society and academia. I contributed to multiple of these submissions. </p>
<h2>What are the main points in the government’s response on AI?</h2>
<p>Like any good plan, the government’s response has three legs. </p>
<p>First, there’s a plan to work with industry to develop voluntary AI Safety Standards. Second, there’s also a plan to work with industry to develop options for voluntary labelling and watermarking of AI-generated materials. And finally, the government will set up an expert advisory body to “support the development of options for mandatory AI guardrails”.</p>
<p>These are all good ideas. The International Organisation for Standardisation <a href="https://www.iso.org/sectors/it-technologies/ai">have been working on AI standards</a> for multiple years. For example, Standards Australia just helped launch <a href="https://www.standards.org.au/news/standards-australia-welcomes-the-new-iso-iec-42001-2023-information-technology-artificial-intelligence-management-system-standard">a new international standard</a> that supports the responsible development of AI management systems.</p>
<p>An industry group containing Microsoft, Adobe, Nikon and Leica has developed open tools for labelling and watermarking digital content. Keep a look out for the new “<a href="https://contentcredentials.org/">Content Credentials</a>” logo that is starting to appear on digital content.</p>
<p>And the New South Wales government <a href="https://www.digital.nsw.gov.au/policy/artificial-intelligence">set up an 11-member advisory committee</a> of experts to advise it on the appropriate use of artificial intelligence back in 2021.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569711/original/file-20240117-19-bvurf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Person holding phone with ChatGPT logo displayed" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569711/original/file-20240117-19-bvurf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569711/original/file-20240117-19-bvurf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569711/original/file-20240117-19-bvurf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569711/original/file-20240117-19-bvurf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569711/original/file-20240117-19-bvurf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569711/original/file-20240117-19-bvurf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569711/original/file-20240117-19-bvurf7.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"></a>
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<span class="caption">OpenAI’s ChatGPT is one of the large language model applications that sparked concerns regarding copyright and mass production of AI-generated content.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/a-person-holding-a-cell-phone-in-front-of-a-logo-ZrjDnyiP26Q">Mojahid Mottakin/Unsplash</a></span>
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<h2>A little late?</h2>
<p>It’s hard not to conclude then that the federal government’s most recent response is a little light and a little late.</p>
<p>Over half the world’s democracies get to vote this year. Over <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-4-billion-people-are-eligible-to-vote-in-an-election-in-2024-is-this-democracys-biggest-test-220837">4 billion people</a> will go to the polls. And we’re set to see AI transform those elections.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-ai-could-take-over-elections-and-undermine-democracy-206051">How AI could take over elections – and undermine democracy</a>
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<p>We’ve already seen deepfakes used in recent elections in <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/11/22/world/politics/ai-javier-milei-argentina-presidency/">Argentina</a> and <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/slovakia-election-deepfakes">Slovakia</a>. The Republican party in the US have put out a campaign advert that uses <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattnovak/2023/04/25/gop-releases-first-ever-ai-created-attack-ad-against-president-biden/?sh=290ee820219a">entirely AI-generated imagery</a>.</p>
<p>Are we prepared for a world in which everything you see or hear could be fake? And will voluntary guidelines be enough to protect the integrity of these elections? Sadly, many of the tech companies <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/8/tech-firms-failing-to-walk-the-walk-on-ethical-ai-report-says">are reducing staff</a> in this area, just at the time when they are needed the most.</p>
<p>The European Union <a href="https://theconversation.com/eu-approves-draft-law-to-regulate-ai-heres-how-it-will-work-205672">has led the way</a> in the regulation of AI – it started drafting regulation back in 2020. And we are still a year or so away before the EU AI Act comes into force. This emphasises how far behind Australia is.</p>
<h2>A risk-based approach</h2>
<p>Like the EU, the Australian government’s interim response proposes a risk-based approach. There are plenty of harmless uses of AI that are of little concern. For example, you likely get a lot less spam email thanks to AI filters. And there’s little regulation needed to ensure those AI filters do an appropriate job. </p>
<p>But there are other areas, such as the judiciary and policing, where the impact of AI could be more problematic. What if AI discriminates on who gets interviewed for a job? Or bias in facial recognition technologies result in even more Indigenous people being incorrectly incarcerated?</p>
<p>The interim response identifies such risks but takes few concrete steps to avoid them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569706/original/file-20240116-29-ji5o82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569706/original/file-20240116-29-ji5o82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569706/original/file-20240116-29-ji5o82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569706/original/file-20240116-29-ji5o82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569706/original/file-20240116-29-ji5o82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569706/original/file-20240116-29-ji5o82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569706/original/file-20240116-29-ji5o82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569706/original/file-20240116-29-ji5o82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Diagram of impacts through the AI lifecycle, as summarised in the Australian government’s interim response.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://consult.industry.gov.au/supporting-responsible-ai">Australian Government</a></span>
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<p>However, the biggest risk the report fails to address is the risk of missing out. AI is a great opportunity, as great or greater than the internet. </p>
<p>When the United Kingdom government put out <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/frontier-ai-capabilities-and-risks-discussion-paper">a similar report on AI risks</a> last year, they addressed this risk by announcing another 1 billion pounds (A$1.9 billion) of investment to add to the more than 1 billion pounds of previous investment. </p>
<p>The Australian government has so far announced <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/news/action-plan-artificial-intelligence-australia">less than</a> <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/news/investments-grow-australias-critical-technologies-industries">A$200 million</a>. Our economy and population is around a third of the UK. Yet the investment so far has been 20 times smaller. We risk missing the boat.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-the-real-threat-may-be-the-way-that-governments-choose-to-use-it-216660">AI: the real threat may be the way that governments choose to use it</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221300/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Toby Walsh receives funding from the Australian Research Council and Google.org on grants to build trustworthy AI. </span></em></p>The Australian government has finally released a response to last year’s public consultation on the safe and responsible use of AI. Here’s what it entails.Toby Walsh, Professor of AI, Research Group Leader, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2202862024-01-15T02:13:08Z2024-01-15T02:13:08ZFreshwater national poll holds steady at a 50–50 tie between Labor and the Coalition as Trump set for big win in Iowa caucus<p>A national <a href="https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/shock-poll-we-dont-trust-albo-to-help-us-with-costs-of-living/news-story/e8b7e7b39bedcd2e4c8d14746d6c0a50">Freshwater poll</a> for The Sunday Telegraph had a 50–50 tie between Labor and the Coalition, unchanged from a <a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-regains-lead-in-newspoll-after-tie-but-freshwater-has-a-50-50-tie-219404">Freshwater poll for The Financial Review</a> in mid-December.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.pollbludger.net/2024/01/15/freshwater-strategy-50-50-open-thread/">Poll Bludger</a> reported that primary votes were 39% Coalition (steady since December), 31% Labor (steady), 14% Greens (up one) and 15% for all Others (down one). This poll was conducted January 10–11 from a sample of 1,007.</p>
<p>Freshwater has had better results for the Coalition than other polls, so Labor would probably have led if there was a Newspoll.</p>
<p>Anthony Albanese led Peter Dutton by 47–38 as preferred PM (43–39 in December). On Labor’s target to achieve 82% renewables by 2030, 51% said it would mean higher energy costs while 16% thought their bills would be reduced. On the cost of living, 81% said Labor had not done enough and 68% said they would not do enough in the next six months.</p>
<h2>Morgan polls, Resolve likeability and Newspoll aggregate data</h2>
<p>In my last polls article I reported that Labor led by 51–49 in the Morgan poll conducted December 4–10. In the Morgan poll <a href="https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/9418-federal-voting-intention-december-17-2023">conducted December 11–17</a> there was a 50–50 tie. In <a href="https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/9419-federal-voting-intention-january-8-2024">the poll conducted</a> January 2–7 from a sample of 1,716, the Coalition led by 51–49. </p>
<p>Primary votes were 39% Coalition (up one since mid-December), 29% Labor (down three), 13% Greens (up 1.5), 5% One Nation (up 0.5) and 14% for all Others (steady).</p>
<p>Nine newspapers released <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/wong-tops-list-of-popular-politicians-and-a-former-hero-now-comes-last-20231227-p5ett8.html">likeability ratings for various politicians</a> from the early December federal Resolve poll on December 28. The most popular politicians were Foreign Minister Penny Wong (net +14 likeability), Tasmanian independent senator Jacqui Lambie (net +10), Nationals senator Jacinta Price (net +6), ACT independent senator David Pocock (net +5) and Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek (net +2).</p>
<p>The most unpopular politicians were former PM Scott Morrison (net -35), ex-Greens senator Lidia Thorpe (net -29), former deputy PM Barnaby Joyce (net -27) and Pauline Hanson (net -25).</p>
<p>Albanese had a net -3 likeability, much better than his <a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-down-but-still-has-large-lead-in-federal-resolve-poll-its-close-in-queensland-219012">net approval</a> of -11 in the same poll, while Dutton’s net likeability was -12 (-8 net approval). Greens leader Adam Bandt was at -10 net likeability while Treasurer Jim Chalmers was at net zero.</p>
<p>Newspoll aggregate data for its three federal polls conducted from early November to mid-December was released on December 27. The overall sample was 3,655. In the <a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-recovers-in-morgan-after-post-referendum-slump-lnp-leads-in-queensland-216164">previous aggregate data</a>, from Newspolls conducted before the October 14 Voice referendum, Labor led by 54–46. In this release, Labor’s overall lead was down to 52–48.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.pollbludger.net/2023/12/27/newspoll-aggregates-october-to-december-open-thread/">Poll Bludger</a> said Labor’s lead or deficit in the various states was close to the margins at the 2022 federal election. Labor led by 51–49 in New South Wales, 55–45 in Victoria, 54–46 in Western Australia and 55–45 in South Australia. Queensland was the only state with a Coalition lead, by 54–46.</p>
<h2>Trump set for big win in Iowa Republican caucus</h2>
<p>The Iowa Republican caucus is the first <a href="https://www.thegreenpapers.com/P24/events.phtml?s=c&f=m">presidential nominating contest</a> of 2024, and it will occur Tuesday AEDT. In the <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-r/2024/iowa/">FiveThirtyEight</a> aggregate of Iowa polls, Donald Trump has 51.3%, Nikki Haley 17.3% and Ron DeSantis 16.1%. The next contest is the New Hampshire primary on January 23, where Trump is <a href="https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/president-primary-r/2024/new-hampshire/">being challenged</a> by Haley.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/us-elections-2024-a-biden-vs-trump-rematch-is-very-likely-with-trump-leading-biden-219093">US elections 2024: a Biden vs Trump rematch is very likely, with Trump leading Biden</a>
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<p>I covered the Taiwan presidential election for <a href="https://www.pollbludger.net/2024/01/13/taiwan-presidential-election-live/">The Poll Bludger</a> on Saturday, in which the centre-left and pro-independence candidate won with 40.1% of the vote (first past the post was used). Three US and UK byelections that are to be held from February 13–15 were also covered.</p>
<h2>Queensland UComms poll: 51–49 to LNP</h2>
<p>The Queensland state election will be held in October. A <a href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/qld-politics/ucomms-poll-steven-miless-ascension-makes-little-difference-to-labor-fortunes/news-story/13ff4bb2973e0ac46e941cf182f754f6">UComms poll</a> for The Courier Mail, conducted December 21–22 from a sample of 1,911, gave the Liberal National Party a 51–49 lead, from primary votes of 36.2% LNP and 34.4% Labor, with no other parties’ votes released. LNP leader David Crisafulli led new Labor premier Steven Miles by 52.2–47.8 as preferred premier.</p>
<p>An October <a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-recovers-in-morgan-after-post-referendum-slump-lnp-leads-in-queensland-216164">YouGov Queensland poll</a> gave the LNP a 52–48 lead, and a September to December <a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-down-but-still-has-large-lead-in-federal-resolve-poll-its-close-in-queensland-219012">Resolve poll</a> implied a 50–50 tie, but Resolve has been much better for Labor federally than other polls.</p>
<h2>Victorian Redbridge poll: Labor has large lead</h2>
<p>A Victorian state <a href="https://redbridgegroup.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Redbridge-Vic-public-opinion-and-vote-intention-Dec-2023.pdf">Redbridge poll</a>, conducted December 2–12 from a sample of 2,026, gave Labor a 55.9–44.1 lead, a 0.6-point gain for the Coalition since a <a href="https://redbridgegroup.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Vic-votes-survey-Sept-2023.pdf">September Redbridge poll</a>. Primary votes were 37% Labor (steady), 36% Coalition (up two), 13% Greens (steady) and 14% for all Others (down two).</p>
<p>Voters were asked their ratings of political leaders on a five-point scale, with 3 being neither approve nor disapprove. Labor Premier Jacinta Allan was at net -6, Liberal leader John Pesutto at net -13, Nationals leader Peter Walsh at net -15 and Greens leader Samantha Ratnam at net -21.</p>
<p>On the main impact of protests over the Israel-Gaza war, 30% thought they had threatened the safety of Jewish and Palestinian Australians, 21% raised awareness of the conflict and 19% pressured the Australian government to call for an end.</p>
<h2>Tasmanian YouGov poll: Lambie Network has 20%</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://au.yougov.com/politics/articles/48296-the-tasmanian-state-liberal-vote-is-down-17-since-the-last-election">Tasmanian state YouGov poll</a>, conducted December 21 to January 4 from a sample of 850, gave the Liberals 31%, Labor 27%, the Jacqui Lambie Network (JLN) 20%, the Greens 15% and independents 7%. Tasmania uses a proportional system for its lower house elections, so a two party preferred is not applicable.</p>
<p>If this were the election result, the JLN would hold the balance of power. By 53–26, voters thought it was time to give someone else a go over the Liberals deserving to be re-elected. A November <a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-down-but-still-has-large-lead-in-federal-resolve-poll-its-close-in-queensland-219012">EMRS Tasmanian poll</a> had 39% Liberals, 29% Labor, 12% Greens and 19% for all Others with no JLN option.</p>
<h2>Lawler replaces Fyles as NT chief minister</h2>
<p>Eva Lawler <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-20/eva-lawler-next-northern-territory-chief-minister/103252794">replaced Natasha Fyles</a> as Labor’s Northern Territory chief minister on December 21. Fyles had resigned two days prior owing to conflict of interest allegations, and Lawler was unanimously elected by Labor MPs. Fyles will continue as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natasha_Fyles">Member for Nightcliff</a>, so there won’t be a byelection.</p>
<p>This is the second change in NT chief minister this term after Fyles replaced Michael Gunner in May 2022. The next NT election is in August, and a <a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-down-but-still-has-large-lead-in-federal-resolve-poll-its-close-in-queensland-219012">November Redbridge poll</a> had Labor well behind the opposition Country Liberals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220286/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>The summer break hasn’t changed the Freshwater polling figures for the two major parties federally. Overseas, the former US President is in a strong position ahead of the Iowa caucus.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/2201372023-12-19T04:50:22Z2023-12-19T04:50:22ZNorthern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles has resigned. How did we get here?<p>When it was announced this afternoon that the Northern Territory’s Chief Minister Natasha Fyles had resigned, few could say it was unexpected.</p>
<p>She has been under increasing pressure on several fronts, chief among them the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-16/nt-chief-minister-divests-woodside-shares-after-scrutiny/103114812">failure to disclose</a> shares she held, prompting accusations of having a conflict of interest.</p>
<p>In the role for around 18 months, Fyles’ Labor government has been in the spotlight for everything from <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-18/a-dangerous-game-youth-crime-crisis-alice-springs/101735492">increased crime rates</a> in Alice Springs to the controversial decision to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-03/beetaloo-basin-fracking-given-go-ahead-explainer/102295840">approve fracking</a> in the Beetaloo Basin.</p>
<p>So what’s behind Fyles quitting the territory’s top job, and what’s next for the government?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/high-court-then-what-nt-remote-housing-reforms-need-to-put-indigenous-residents-front-and-centre-216908">High Court, then what? NT remote housing reforms need to put Indigenous residents front and centre</a>
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<h2>A surprise ascent to leadership</h2>
<p>Fyles was sworn in as chief minister in May 2022, following <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/10/northern-territory-chief-minister-michael-gunner-resigns-saying-head-and-heart-no-longer-in-job">the resignation</a> of Michael Gunner.</p>
<p>She won the leadership against expectations, despite being Gunner’s protege. The right faction, which has a majority of two in the party caucus, had backed Nicole Manison. But two members defected and voted for Fyles instead, securing her victory in the leadership ballot.</p>
<p>Fyles has been the member for Nightcliff since 2012 and held a range of important portfolios before her promotion, including health and Attorney-General.</p>
<p>Her leadership style has been not unlike most of the new generation of politicians: speaking in short, sharp sentences with authoritative confidence.</p>
<p>But she’s overseen some odd and sometimes unpopular decisions.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1736961877241209135"}"></div></p>
<p>The $11 million Nightcliff Police Station was built in her electorate, despite being just a seven-minute drive from Casuarina station. Allegations of <a href="https://www.ntnews.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=NTWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ntnews.com.au%2Fnews%2Fnorthern-territory%2Fnew-nightcliff-police-station-operating-at-half-planned-capacity%2Fnews-story%2Fda28cb3fb239b5f4f80589f1471af90d&memtype=registered&mode=premium">pork-barrelling</a> were quick to follow, especially after reports emerged of the facility having half the staff promised.</p>
<p>There was also the matter of the Palmerston Hospital, which opened in 2018, when Fyles was health minister. It’s since been plagued by <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-07/nt-health-darwin-apology-for-letter-junior-doctors/100519640">understaffing</a> and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-05/palmerston-regional-hospital-budget-attorney-general/10201108">underfunding</a>.</p>
<h2>Two key undoings</h2>
<p>Smaller controversies aside, there have been two main pressure points for Fyles’ leadership.</p>
<p>The first is crime in remote communities, especially the much-publicised plight of Alice Springs.</p>
<p>While the issue is hardly unique to the city, the national interest generated by the removal and reinstatement of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jun/23/incredibly-noticeable-alcohol-bans-have-cut-family-violence-and-in-alice-springs-advocates-say">alcohol bans</a> shone a large and often unflattering light on crime rates across the Northern Territory.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cheap-police-four-corners-shows-the-dangers-of-private-policing-in-the-nt-and-why-first-nations-people-are-more-at-risk-216442">'Cheap police': Four Corners shows the dangers of private policing in the NT and why First Nations people are more at risk</a>
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<p>The fact the federal government <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-24/pm-albanese-announces-appointment-of-central/101889078">intervened</a> to create the role of the Regional Controller – a role the Commonwealth funds and manages – shows how little confidence they had in the territory government.</p>
<p>The second, more recent problem is the revelations around Fyles’ potential conflicts of interest.</p>
<p>It was revealed earlier this week the chief <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-18/nt-chief-minister-natasha-fyles-south32-shares-gemco-mine/103243578">owns shares</a> in South32, a company that owns a manganese mine on Groote Eylandt. She hadn’t disclosed this, despite appearing to have owned them since 2015.</p>
<p>Locals have been lobbying for years for the mine <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-18/nt-government-air-monitoring-manganese-mine-groote-eylandt-dust/102130316">to be tested</a> for its potential impact on human health, but to no avail.</p>
<p>It wasn’t even the first instance in the past month of undisclosed shares coming to light. In November, Fyles divested her <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-16/nt-chief-minister-divests-woodside-shares-after-scrutiny/103114812">minor stake</a> in gas company Woodside Energy.</p>
<p>But the final nail in the coffin came last week, when matters swirling around Fyles were referred to the territory’s corruption watchdog.</p>
<p>One of her senior political advisors, Gerard Richardson, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-13/natasha-fyles-referred-to-icac-by-mark-turner/103220822">co-owns a company</a> that lobbied on behalf of mining company Tamboran – a company that has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2023-06-09/middle-arm-precinct-tamboran-resources-fortescue/102461860">large stakes</a> in multiple projects in the NT.</p>
<p>While she dug her heels in, the news went down like a lead balloon in the electorate, and likely in the party room too.</p>
<h2>A salvagable government?</h2>
<p>Politics in the Top End is a strange beast. Fyles stepping down as leader doesn’t necessarily mean she takes the government down with her.</p>
<p>The way politics plays out in the territory has long been down to the happiness or unhappiness of key interest groups.</p>
<p>With some electorates containing just 5,000 people or so, the blessing (or lack thereof) of recreational fishers or the police association, for example, can have a disproportionate affect.</p>
<p>So in choosing its next leader, the Labor party will be considering who appeals most to the most important groups.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-havent-got-anybody-new-research-reveals-how-major-parties-are-dying-in-remote-australia-203124">'We haven't got anybody': new research reveals how major parties are dying in remote Australia</a>
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<p>That’s why the current Minister for Recreational Fisheries (among many other things), Joel Bowden, might be in with a shot. The former Richmond footballer might have the right appeal with those who are most electorally influential. </p>
<p>But the government will have to contend with an increase in environment-focused politics in the lead-up to the next election in 2024.</p>
<p>Conservationist issues have gathered momentum in the past few years and their potential impact should not be underestimated. Greens and conservationists appear to be gaining increasing Indigenous support.</p>
<p>The next leader will need to be agile enough to deal with these newer forces, but compelling enough to win the party a third term in government.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220137/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rolf Gerritsen 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 leader has been under increasing pressure on a number of fronts, chief among them the failure to disclose shares she held, prompting accusations of having a conflict of interest.Rolf Gerritsen, Professorial Research Fellow, Northern Institute, Charles Darwin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2189152023-11-30T09:58:35Z2023-11-30T09:58:35ZGrattan on Friday: As Albanese’s fortunes slide, people start to wonder what sort of PM Peter Dutton might make<p>Peter Dutton has his tail up, but he’s being careful to manage expectations. As the opposition celebrates its suddenly improved fortunes, Dutton told the party room this week that inevitably the government would recalibrate over the summer break. </p>
<p>He also said that from the start, the opposition had been determined to chart a course to return to power after a single term. </p>
<p>Even with Labor’s poll slide among its multiple problems, a Dutton government in 2025 looks, as things stand, unlikely – although Labor in minority is being widely canvassed. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, while a few months ago Dutton was considered simply “unelectable”, now that view is more hedged. If the government’s position doesn’t improve substantially, people will take a more serious look at the hard man from Queensland, and speculate about what sort of prime minister he’d make. </p>
<p>As often remarked, Dutton as opposition leader is another Tony Abbott. He is a relentless attacker, a devotee of the politics of negativity. It’s an unattractive style, but it can get the job done. Remember that when Abbott became leader, it seemed a joke. How could he possibly win an election? </p>
<p>Abbott made a success of opposition but failed in government, brought down – in part – by his poor judgement, obsessions and eccentricities (of which the Prince Philip knighthood was just the most bizarre). </p>
<p>Dutton observed, through the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison eras, how not to run the prime ministership. In those years he also gained ministerial experience. After being assistant treasurer in the Howard government, he was initially health minister under Abbott. He then moved to immigration, home affairs, and finally defence. </p>
<p>As health minister, his performance was ordinary. For him, the ministerial green grass was anything to do with national security. </p>
<p>On security matters, Dutton as prime minister would lean in strongly, at home and abroad. But how would that work out in practice? If he inherited the present improved relationship with China, would he maintain or jeopardise it? Would his very arrival in office prejudice it? He certainly would never give China the benefit of any doubt. How would he deal with a Trump presidency? Or a Biden one?</p>
<p>If Dutton won in 2025 he would inherit a batch of economic problems. As Albanese has found, campaigning on the cost of living is easy but doing much to relieve it is not. On economic matters, Dutton presently doesn’t venture far beyond the politics, and his shadow treasurer Angus Taylor has been an ineffective performer. </p>
<p>That brings us to a potential Dutton cabinet. Though public attention is primarily on the leader, the quality of a government is determined to a significant extent by how good its frontbenchers are. </p>
<p>The Hawke government had an exceptional cabinet. Albanese has a mixed bunch, and some of them have recently set Labor back. Dutton’s team is second rate in opposition, which is not a good sign for government. </p>
<p>One of Dutton’s strengths – and preoccupations – as opposition leader has been holding his party together. Scott Morrison was a control and secrecy freak and a self-confessed “bulldozer”. Dutton is regarded as collegial, even by some Liberals who don’t share his views. He looks to John Howard as a model (one Liberal observer describes him as “a student of Howard”) and would probably run an orderly, conventional cabinet system. </p>
<p>Dutton is also pragmatic. This was evident in government when he facilitated (via the idea of a postal vote) resolving the marriage equality issue, regardless of his personal opinion on it. </p>
<p>But – and this is a major problem – he gives no indication of big picture thinking, let alone an ambitious reform agenda. Policy tidbits he has thrown out in budget reply speeches are small and ad hoc. Leading a Liberal party dominated by conservatives, and with many traditional Liberal voters looking to the teals, Dutton has neither the scope nor the personality to appeal to the country as an inspirational leader. </p>
<p>He does, however, know his prime constituency: the financially-stretched families on the outer rings of the cities. How they will judge him at election time remains to be seen. </p>
<p>Labor is putting maximum effort into discrediting Dutton, all the more important as the memory of Morrison starts to dim. Given he’s long been an unpopular and divisive figure, Dutton’s been a relatively easy target, but this might wear a tad thin. </p>
<p>As the election draws nearer, Dutton and his minders look to his image. He appeared on Annabel Crabb’s Kitchen Cabinet and cooked her a seafood chowder, an upmarket potato soup, presumably a riff on the frequent depiction of him as “potato head”. </p>
<p>Eyewear is now a thing in pursuing the prime ministership. Albanese’s new specs received many media mentions. Dutton’s eyesight may or may not have suddenly deteriorated but his appearance has been improved by donning glasses.</p>
<p>Dutton will remain anathema to parts of the electorate. At the state level: in Victoria. At an electorate level: in teal territory. But the ex-cop from Queensland is a strong asset in that state, where the Coalition needs to guard against Labor incursions. </p>
<p>At Tuesday’s Coalition parties meeting, Dutton indicated next year would see the rollout of policy. This will be a massive test for him. He’s suggested the Coalition won’t pursue a “small target” strategy, as Albanese did. But Bill Shorten showed the risks of going big-target. Dutton will presumably seek to position himself somewhere in between. “We will have a bold agenda,” he told the NSW Liberals at the weekend. “People need a reason to vote for us, not just to vote against the Labor Party.”</p>
<p>His policies will be tested on two fronts. Are they attractive to middle and lower-middle Australia? And can they stand up to the assaults the government (and experts) will mount on them? Dutton will need to clear both hurdles to be credible at the election. And on the economic front, he will be facing the formidable skills of Treasurer Jim Chalmers who, one imagines, will be charged with much of the demolition task.</p>
<p>Also challenging will be Dutton’s policy on climate and energy. He wants to exploit Labor’s problems with the energy transition, but can’t afford to appear reactionary on climate. He’s attracted to nuclear power but will need to be cautious in how he puts it on the table. His energy policy must be deliverable, even if he never gets to deliver it. </p>
<p>Assuming Dutton’s hope of just one term in opposition is fanciful, what would happen if he took substantial bark off Albanese at the election, resulting in minority government? </p>
<p>The conventional wisdom is Dutton gets only one chance. If Josh Frydenberg had decided to contest the 2025 election, and returned to parliament, he’d have been next in line. Sussan Ley and others carry their batons, although there is no heir apparent.</p>
<p>But a skilled head kicker can be quite effective against a minority government and Dutton might, just possibly, hold his post, at least for a time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218915/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 explains what a government with a so-called ‘unelectable’ hard man at the helm might look like.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2165372023-11-02T02:05:10Z2023-11-02T02:05:10ZRegulating political misinformation isn’t easy, but it’s necessary to protect democracy<p>The recent <a href="https://ugc.production.linktr.ee/2e09849a-25e6-4743-8317-e33dfb437728_Statement-for-our-People-and-Country.pdf">open letter</a> to the prime minister and parliamentarians broke the week-long silence from Indigenous leaders after the country rejected the proposed First Nations Voice to Parliament. The letter emphasised the damage caused by the “lies in political advertising and communication” prevalent in the recent campaign. </p>
<p>Many outlets have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/12/indigenous-voice-to-parliament-referendum-misinformation-fact-checked">documented</a> these lies, including RMIT <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/crosscheck/common-confusions-about-voice-to-parliament">CrossCheck</a>.</p>
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<p>The immediate consequences of these campaign messages have been profoundly damaging. There have been reports of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-21/first-nations-mental-health-support-referendum/102886384">rising racism</a>, with Indigenous-led mental health helpline 13 YARN receiving an <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/6/as-vote-nears-horrific-racism-mars-australian-voice-referendum-campaign">108% increase</a> of Indigenous people reporting racism, abuse and trauma – mostly in August and September, during the run-up to the October 14 referendum.</p>
<p>The federal government has proposed to introduce legislation to address the risks of political misinformation. </p>
<p>However, the Voice to Parliament is not the first time we have seen this kind of misinformation. And there are greater risks arising from political misinformation beyond politicians lying and misleading voters about their policies.</p>
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<h2>The risks of political misinformation</h2>
<p>Societies around the world have suffered harmful consequences from political misinformation, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>anti-vaxxer conspiracies around <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9421549/">COVID</a></p></li>
<li><p>claims that the 2020 US presidential election was rigged, a belief <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meetthepressblog/almost-third-americans-still-believe-2020-election-result-was-fraudule-rcna90145">reportedly shared by 30% of Americans</a></p></li>
<li><p>delayed action on <a href="https://www.alliancemagazine.org/blog/deliberate-climate-misinformation-is-delaying-climate-action/">climate change</a></p></li>
<li><p>a rise in the use of <a href="https://www.ned.org/issue-brief-how-disinformation-impacts-politics-and-publics/">disinformation tactics</a> by nations such as Russia and China to wage proxy wars and influence national governments.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>During the referendum campaign in Australia, high-profile politicians have sought to undermine the integrity of the Australian Election Commission. In <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/voice-voting-rules-confusion-stinks-dutton-20230824-p5dz41">August</a>, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton claimed the commission was attempting to “skew this in favour of the Yes vote.” After the referendum result, Senator Jacinta Price also suggested the results of remote polling booths in the Northern Territory, which showed majority yes votes, were tampered with. </p>
<p>The commission took the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/25/indigenous-voice-to-parliament-referendum-aec-poll-unfairness-claims-rejected#:%7E:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20AEC%20completely%20and%20utterly,case%20at%20every%20electoral%20event.">unusual step</a> of denouncing both Dutton and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/15/jacinta-nampijinpa-price-questions-aec-conduct-after-largely-indigenous-communities-vote-yes">Price’s</a> claims. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-can-avoid-political-misinformation-in-the-lead-up-to-the-voice-referendum-206500">June</a>, I predicted that misinformation would increase throughout the Voice referendum campaign. </p>
<p>This is because political misinformation is an increasingly popular campaign tactic in general. The past three Australian federal election campaigns have been characterised by widespread false or misleading statements. </p>
<p>In 2016 and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-19/fact-check-mediscare-labor-election-scare-alert/101076352">2022</a>, the Labor opposition alleged that the Turnbull government would <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-scare-campaigns-like-mediscare-work-even-if-voters-hate-them-62279">privatise Medicare</a>.</p>
<p>In 2019, the Coalition accused Labor of planning introduce a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jun/08/it-felt-like-a-big-tide-how-the-death-tax-lie-infected-australias-election-campaign">death tax</a>.</p>
<p>In 2022, Labor claimed the Coalition would roll out the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-24/fact-check-cashless-debit-card-election-scare-alert/100932808">Cashless Debit Card to pensioners</a>.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-back-door-for-5-years-remote-communitys-high-court-win-is-good-news-for-renters-everywhere-216821">No back door for 5 years: remote community's High Court win is good news for renters everywhere</a>
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<h2>The proposed misinformation bill</h2>
<p>Earlier this year, the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters proposed laws to combat <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/committees/reportjnt/RB000012/toc_pdf/Conductofthe2022federalelectionandothermatters.pdf">political misinformation</a>. </p>
<p>The government has released an <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/communications-legislation-amendment-combatting-misinformation-and-disinformation-bill-2023-factsheet-june2023.pdf">exposure draft bill</a>, which suggests mandating digital platforms to implement measures against misinformation. This includes creating policies for identification and removal of misinformation, educating users, and collaborating with fact-checkers. </p>
<p>As part of the proposed bill, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) would also enforce rules for record-keeping and reporting by digital platforms.</p>
<p>The draft bill defines misinformation as false content that could cause serious harm, and disinformation as intentionally deceptive misinformation. </p>
<p>The bill defines serious harm as any of the following:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>hatred against a group in Australia on the basis of ethnicity, nationality, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion or physical or mental disability</p></li>
<li><p>disruption of public order or society in Australia</p></li>
<li><p>harm to the integrity of Australian democratic processes or of Commonwealth, state, territory or local government institutions</p></li>
<li><p>harm to the health of Australians</p></li>
<li><p>harm to the Australian environment</p></li>
<li><p>economic or financial harm to Australians, the Australian economy or a sector of the Australian economy.</p></li>
</ul>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-can-avoid-political-misinformation-in-the-lead-up-to-the-voice-referendum-206500">How we can avoid political misinformation in the lead-up to the Voice referendum</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Not everyone wants a misinformation bill</h2>
<p>A dissenting report from the Coalition argues there is no need for a misinformation <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Electoral_Matters/2022federalelection/Interim_Report/Dissenting_report_by_Coalition_members_of_the_Committee">bill</a>. It says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Elections and election campaigns are and should remain a marketplace of ideas. If candidates or political parties make statements or release inaccurate policy positions, it is the role of the media, civil society and other political actors to hold their statements to account. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This position ignores three crucial factors:</p>
<p>1) Fake news and information <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/fake-news-spreads-faster-true-news-twitter-thanks-people-not-bots">spreads</a> faster than real news, and is very hard to stop once it gets going. Misinformation can be posted on social media and reach a large audience before the information can be taken down. It’s easier to ensure politicians and political actors are prevented from saying it in the first place. </p>
<p>2) The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/04/the-big-tune-out-few-australians-follow-politics-closely-guardian-essential-poll-shows">public</a> is often largely unaware when information is incorrect, and don’t necessarily have the skill or engagement to verify facts for themselves.</p>
<p>3) Belief in misinformation continues even after <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2211368120300280">correction</a> – this is known as the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8627545/">continued influence effect</a>.</p>
<p>Relying solely on the media, the public and rival political candidates to correct false statements is like expecting rain to extinguish a bush fire without any intervention from emergency services. While rain might sometimes help douse the flames, it’s inconsistent and unreliable. Similarly, while media and public scrutiny can occasionally correct misinformation, it’s not a guaranteed or systematic solution. Political misinformation spread online is like thousands of small fires simultaneously being lit. </p>
<p>These risks are exacerbated by the clear incentive for some political parties to use misinformation to their advantage. Wider distrust of politicians and institutions can fuel <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10584609.2019.1686095">belief</a> in political misinformation, and drive voting for populist parties.</p>
<p>If politicians seek to weaponise distrust in institutions such as the Australian Electoral Commission, they risk sowing the very seeds that can help undermine <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2021/653635/EXPO_STU(2021)653635_EN.pdf">democracies and civil liberties</a>. This could potentially trigger a vicious cycle of political candidates undermining democratic institutions for their own gain. </p>
<p>While it’s crucial to protect political discourse and expression, it’s equally vital to implement safeguards against the dissemination of false and misleading content. Not doing so would be the same as failing to take proactive measures such as hazard reductions, acting on climate change, and funding emergency services to shield communities from bushfires.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216537/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Arnott is a member of the ALP</span></em></p>Although there was a lot of misinformation during the Voice to Parliament campaign, this is not the first time this has been used as a campaign tactic. Would a misinformation bill solve thisChristopher Arnott, PhD Candidate, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2159752023-10-23T11:27:33Z2023-10-23T11:27:33ZI’ve studied the art of losing a referendum: the Australian government could have learned from other countries on these key points<p>It has been billed as Australia’s Brexit – a vote that pitted the so-called elites against the masses. The issue in question was the “voice to parliament”, a consultative body that would have given the roughly 3% of the Australian population that is Indigenous a constitutional right to be consulted before legislation pertaining to them was passed in parliament.</p>
<p>On October 13, the proposition was only backed by 39% of voters. It was a snub to Labor prime minister Anthony Albanese, who was elected last year on a promise to put the issue to a vote. </p>
<p>A bit of background is helpful to understanding how this came about. In 2017 then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, of the centre-right Liberal party, and Bill Shorten of Labor, the then leader of the opposition, appointed a council to come up with proposals for recognition of the indigenous population. In their so-called <a href="https://www.niaa.gov.au/indigenous-affairs/uluru-statement-heart">Uluru Statement of the Heart</a>, the appointed members – Indigenous elders – called for “a First Nations Voice to be permanently included in the Constitution”. </p>
<p>This was initially rejected by Turnbull but in the 2022 election, Labor committed to holding a referendum.</p>
<p>At the time, support for the “Voice” ran at close to 70%. The opposition Liberal party was largely silent on the matter, and its leader, Peter Dutton, from the right wing of the party, was exceptionally unpopular.</p>
<h2>Lack of bipartisan consensus</h2>
<p>The Labor prime minister decided not to seek a bipartisan agreement with Dutton to find a position on the referendum question. This <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-voice-campaign-showed-labors-strategy-for-countering-right-wing-populism-is-in-disarray-215709">proved to be a mistake</a>. And, moreover, flies in the face of the history of Australian referendums. </p>
<p>Since federation in 1901, only <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/only-eight-of-australias-44-referendums-were-a-yes/7c7o5nfsg">eight out of 45 referendums</a> have passed (including the one just held). Part of the reason for this is the so-called double majority clause, which requires that amendments to the constitution are supported by a majority of the voters, as well as a majority of the states. </p>
<p>The provision was inspired by a <a href="https://ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1475-6765.t01-1-00030">similar provision in Switzerland</a>. But it has worked in a very different way in Australia. In Switzerland – a country with a tradition for consensus politics and coalition governments – 75% of all <a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526130037/">constitutional referendums</a> have been won.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-australia-has-voted-against-an-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-heres-what-happened-215155">Explainer: Australia has voted against an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. Here’s what happened</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>All the referendums that have succeeded in Australia have had bipartisan support. Not seeking this was a tactical blunder. </p>
<p>But it was not the only one. </p>
<p>In many ways, the Yes-side committed all the mistakes that ensure the defeat in a referendum. One of the most consistent mistakes is to assume that celebrity endorsements help winning a referendum. They do not. </p>
<h2>Shaq says yes</h2>
<p>In August 2022, basketball legend <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/27/shaquille-oneal-meets-with-pm-in-support-of-indigenous-voice-to-parliament">Shaquille O’Neal</a> shook hands with Albanese and promised he would help mobilise support in the run-up to the vote.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hrjREp6UQcw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An unexpected endorsement.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That this was bound to alienate voters should have been known from other campaigns, not least the UK Brexit referendum in 2016. In that ill-fated referendum, soccer star <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Beckham/posts/10153494743056571:0">David Beckham</a> publicly backed the losing Remain side. Physicist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/29/stephen-hawking-brexit-wealth-resources">Stephen Hawking</a> did the same to no avail. I probably don’t need to add that Scottish tennis player <a href="https://www.espn.com.au/tennis/story/_/id/11546562/andy-murray-backs-scottish-independence-day-vote">Andy Murray</a> failed to convince a majority of Scots to vote for independence in the referendum in 2014.</p>
<h2>Big end of town</h2>
<p>The Yes-side in Australia did not appear to have studied overseas referendums to learn from their failures in this respect. And had they done so, they would have found further evidence on what not to do. For it is not just celebrities who can kill the chances of a referendum success. The same applies to businesses. I recall from research I did in Denmark and Sweden before the referendums on joining the euro in 2000 and 2003 that Carlsberg and Ikea wanted to be on the supposedly “right” side of history by voting in support of the change. The voters were not moved. </p>
<p>That Albanese got the support of the national airline Qantas a week before their CEO was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/sep/05/alan-joyce-qantas-ceo-quits-resigns-retires-two-months-early">forced to stand down</a> amid accusations of mismanagement certainly did not help the cause.</p>
<p>Why was this a mistake? Why is it that celebrity and company endorsement fail to convince voters? </p>
<p>Fundamentally, voters have little time or incentive to read about politics. So they <a href="https://juspoliticum.com/article/The-Alternative-Vote-Referendum-in-Britain-A-Comparative-Perspective-381.html">take cues and use short-cuts</a>. They do so by seeking out people with whom they can identify. Celebrities with millionaire lifestyles and, still less, companies with a healthy bank balance are not that, and are therefore unlikely to appeal to the average voter at a time of anti-elite sentiment. </p>
<p>To win a referendum you need to have a credible argument and a credible solution to a pressing problem. The Albanese government did not have this. This referendum was a self-inflicted loss and a masterclass in how not to run a referendum.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215975/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matt Qvortrup 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>Endorsements from celebrities and businesses can be the kiss of death in a referendum campaign – as can failing to negotiate a cross-party consensus.Matt Qvortrup, Chair of Applied Political Science, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/958532023-10-21T05:51:39Z2023-10-21T05:51:39ZBill Hayden’s remarkable contribution to public life<p>Who have been Australia’s most accomplished federal opposition leaders? The conventional answer to this question is Robert Menzies and Gough Whitlam, both renowned for rejuvenating their respective sides of politics and galvanising new constituencies of support.</p>
<p>But what of the opposition leaders who never made it to prime minister: which among them boasts the most outstanding record? In modern times, Bill Hayden, who died this week aged 90, has powerful claim to that title.</p>
<p>Hayden’s public career began in December 1961, with his election to the House of Representatives as the Labor member for the Queensland electorate of Oxley. It came to a close in February 1996, at the end of a seven-year tenure as governor-general. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216968/original/file-20180501-135851-18p5y6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216968/original/file-20180501-135851-18p5y6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216968/original/file-20180501-135851-18p5y6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216968/original/file-20180501-135851-18p5y6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216968/original/file-20180501-135851-18p5y6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216968/original/file-20180501-135851-18p5y6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216968/original/file-20180501-135851-18p5y6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216968/original/file-20180501-135851-18p5y6f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bill Hayden was Federal Labor Opposition leader from December 1977 to February 1983.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.naa.gov.au/about-us/media/images/cabinet/1977/hayden.aspx">National Archives of Australia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During this time, Hayden established a significant legacy. </p>
<p>In the Whitlam government, he was the minister responsible for enacting the pioneering universal health insurance scheme, Medibank, which was revived and rebadged as Medicare in the 1980s and now enjoys sacred status among Australia’s public policy institutions. </p>
<p>He was Labor leader from December 1977 to February 1983, restoring the party as a credible electoral force following the trauma of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-gough-whitlams-dismissal-as-prime-minister-74148">1975 dismissal</a>.</p>
<p>Hayden assembled a formidably talented ministerial team that would later become the engine room of the Hawke Labor government.</p>
<p>Relinquishing the leadership to Hawke in wrenching circumstances on the eve of the 1983 election campaign, he was a long-serving minister for foreign affairs (and trade) from 1983 to 1988 before assuming his vice-regal appointment in 1989. </p>
<h2>‘Growing up, getting angry’</h2>
<p>Born in 1933, Hayden was a child of the Great Depression. In his <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5939424-hayden">1996 autobiography</a>, the section on his early life is titled, “Growing Up, Getting Angry”. Hayden’s father, a piano tuner of radical political bent, struggled to provide for his family. He had a weakness for alcohol and a volatile temper. </p>
<p>Hayden described his parents as “busted by the Depression” and wrote that they: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>hated a system which had treated them, and legions more, so villainously. Their hate and disgust were my legacy.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Educated at a series of schools in working-class Brisbane, Hayden became a junior clerk in the Queensland public service before entering the police force at age 20. Though initially diverted by the human drama of his police duties, he gradually grew frustrated both professionally and intellectually. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4534196-hayden?from_search=true">a biographer</a>, he also “increasingly believed there needed to be political rather than policing solutions” to the social problems he encountered on the beat. As way of compensation, he studied part-time for his matriculation and joined the Labor Party, which was convulsed by its 1957 split in Queensland. </p>
<h2>Reforming spirit</h2>
<p>When Hayden secured preselection for the seat of Oxley in 1961, local party wisdom was that the seat was unwinnable for Labor. Supported on the campaign trail by his wife, Dallas, who was pregnant with their second child, Hayden’s surprise victory was also aided by Whitlam, who “<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5939424-hayden?from_search=true">dazzled</a>” Queenslanders with a platform of “northern development”. </p>
<p>Joining a caucus ranging from gnarled veterans like Arthur Calwell and Eddie Ward to the rising generation of leaders, Whitlam and Jim Cairns, Hayden gravitated towards the left. He fell under Cairns’ spell, an enchantment he <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5939424-hayden?from_search=true">later regretted</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was his feet. We should have looked at them from the start. Clay!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In an era when advancement through the party ranks was painstakingly slow, Hayden had to wait until 1969 to enter Labor’s shadow cabinet, now led by Whitlam. Having undertaken part-time university studies in economics, he hankered after a portfolio in that area. </p>
<p>Whitlam instead assigned him health and welfare, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5939424-hayden?from_search=true">promising</a>: “Comrade, we’re going to do great things in this field”. Once in government, Hayden did just that as minister for social security. He introduced a host of new measures, including the single mothers’ benefit.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216941/original/file-20180501-135837-1lu7k82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216941/original/file-20180501-135837-1lu7k82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216941/original/file-20180501-135837-1lu7k82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216941/original/file-20180501-135837-1lu7k82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216941/original/file-20180501-135837-1lu7k82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=840&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216941/original/file-20180501-135837-1lu7k82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216941/original/file-20180501-135837-1lu7k82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216941/original/file-20180501-135837-1lu7k82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1056&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bill Hayden in 1990 (detail).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:57_Received_By_the_Governor-General_of_the_Commonwealth_of_Australia_H.E._Bill_Hayden_on_29.5.1990.jpg">Ali Kazak/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The battle for Medibank was ferocious. The Australian Medical Association, private hospitals, private health insurance funds, the non-Labor states and the Coalition-controlled Senate were all virulently opposed. Hayden bore the brunt of the fight – most cruelly, rumours were peddled that he was mentally unstable, a legacy of the tragic death of his eldest daughter in a road accident a decade earlier. </p>
<p>Though one of its reforming spirits, Hayden was also an internal critic of the Whitlam government. He was dismayed by the freewheeling spending of his colleagues. </p>
<p>When Cairns stumbled in mid-1975, a victim of Labor’s ill-fated loan-raising activities, Hayden replaced him as treasurer. He produced a budget that steered Labor towards a path of fiscal rectitude, foreshadowing his efforts as opposition leader. </p>
<p>Hayden was a Labor heretic too, at least in retrospect, about the circumstances of the dismissal of the Whitlam government in November 1975. After a meeting with Governor-General Sir John Kerr five days before the dismissal, Hayden <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5939424-hayden?from_search=true">warned Whitlam</a> that his “old copper’s instincts tell me he’s going to sack us”. Whitlam brushed off his advice. </p>
<p>Coloured by his own vice-regal experience, Hayden treated Kerr sympathetically in his memoir, writing that “[he] sought to do what he believed was right and proper” and was “not an arch villain but rather, at its worst, perhaps someone miscast by history”. </p>
<h2>Leading Labor’s recovery</h2>
<p>Hayden’s time as opposition leader was the pinnacle of his public career. Whitlam first offered him the role amid the carnage of Labor’s 1975 election defeat. When Hayden was eventually elected to the position two years later, there was still a huge recovery task to perform.</p>
<p>His chief priority was “to re-establish public trust in our ability to manage the economy soberly”. This was achieved through rigorous costings of expenditure proposals and the development of credible revenue measures. He also pursued party reform, with the 1981 special national conference adopting sweeping changes that included an historic affirmative action plan.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-treasurer-bill-hayden-set-labor-on-the-path-to-economic-rationalism-216150">As treasurer, Bill Hayden set Labor on the path to economic rationalism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As Paul Keating <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/paul-keatings-hayden-oration-in-full/news-story/15c6e53e9ebe59077939a754a835878d">remembered</a>, Hayden brought “order, focus and policy consistency” to shadow cabinet meetings and constructed a front bench “prepared to conduct themselves around the principles of rationality and accountability to which Bill was committed”. </p>
<p>The names of those in this camp read like a “Who’s Who” of the Hawke era: John Dawkins, Ralph Willis, Peter Walsh, Susan Ryan, Lionel Bowen, John Button, Neal Blewett, Don Grimes, Gareth Evans, John Kerin, Chris Hurford and, of course, Keating himself. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216955/original/file-20180501-135810-3nun9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216955/original/file-20180501-135810-3nun9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216955/original/file-20180501-135810-3nun9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216955/original/file-20180501-135810-3nun9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216955/original/file-20180501-135810-3nun9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216955/original/file-20180501-135810-3nun9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216955/original/file-20180501-135810-3nun9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216955/original/file-20180501-135810-3nun9c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Governor-General Bill Hayden (centre) with the newly sworn-in second Keating cabinet, outside Government House in March 1994.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.naa.gov.au/about-us/media/images/cabinet/1994-95/image05.aspx">National Archives of Australia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Following gargantuan losses under Whitlam to Malcolm Fraser’s Liberal National Party Coalition in 1975 and 1977, Hayden led Labor to a dramatically improved result at the October 1980 election. The party’s primary vote increased by over 5% and fell only narrowly short of winning the two-party preferred vote. </p>
<p>But the election also presaged trouble for Hayden, with the arrival in caucus of the irresistible force of Bob Hawke. Virtually from that moment, Hayden’s leadership was stalked by Hawke and his supporters. Increasingly embattled, his weaknesses festered. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216944/original/file-20180501-135851-iqay16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216944/original/file-20180501-135851-iqay16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216944/original/file-20180501-135851-iqay16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216944/original/file-20180501-135851-iqay16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216944/original/file-20180501-135851-iqay16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216944/original/file-20180501-135851-iqay16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216944/original/file-20180501-135851-iqay16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216944/original/file-20180501-135851-iqay16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bill Hayden as Foreign Minister, meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze in Moscow, 1987.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:(10)_1988_Bill_Hayden,_Russian_FM_Shevardnadze,_Moscow.jpg">Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Reserved and suspicious by nature and prone to self-doubt – in his autobiography, Hayden acknowledged he was subject to periodic bouts of depression – he became isolated and, according to some detractors, paranoid. Compared to the swaggering Hawke, Hayden was also a grudging media performer: his voice and dress sense were butts of criticism.</p>
<p>Hayden prevailed against Hawke in a leadership ballot in July 1982, but the narrow margin ensured that Hawke’s backers continued to circle, brandishing opinion polls as evidence of their champion’s electoral Midas touch. </p>
<h2>Standing aside</h2>
<p>In February 1983, Hayden bravely bowed to the inevitable following a decisive intervention by his confidant, John Button, who bluntly informed him that he did not think he could win the next election. Announcing his resignation (on the same day Fraser called a snap election), Hayden begged to differ. He uttered a phrase <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/116447838">immortalised in Australian political folklore</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am not convinced the Labor Party would not win under my leadership. I believe a drover’s dog could lead the Labor Party to victory the way the country is and the way the opinion polls are.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One of Hayden’s conditions for standing aside as leader was being made foreign affairs minister in a Hawke government. In office, he established a respectable record in the portfolio, including leading a politically charged review of the ANZUS treaty and promoting a Cambodian peace plan (concluded under his successor, Gareth Evans). </p>
<p>Yet there was a sense of anti-climax to those years. His chosen means of exit from parliament – the governor-general’s residence at Yarralumla – perplexed those who had regarded him as a republican. Subsequently, disavowing that position, when Hayden was chosen by the Howard government as a delegate to the 1998 Constitutional Convention, he went as a defender of the constitutional status quo. </p>
<p>He surprised at the Convention, however, by embracing the idea of a directly elected president, before campaigning against the republic at the referendum the next year. These twists were symptomatic of a capriciousness to his public interventions in later years, accompanied by occasional unbecoming acerbity towards former Labor colleagues. This led to suspicions that the wound of 1983 had never quite healed. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216947/original/file-20180501-135844-1lzcd77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216947/original/file-20180501-135844-1lzcd77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216947/original/file-20180501-135844-1lzcd77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216947/original/file-20180501-135844-1lzcd77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216947/original/file-20180501-135844-1lzcd77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=606&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216947/original/file-20180501-135844-1lzcd77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216947/original/file-20180501-135844-1lzcd77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216947/original/file-20180501-135844-1lzcd77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Governor-General Bill Hayden shakes hands with newly sworn-in Minister for Finance Kim Beazley in 1993.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.naa.gov.au/about-us/media/images/cabinet/1994-95/image01.aspx">National Archives of Australia</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>In his memoir, Hayden insisted on the consistency of his belief system. His guiding stars had been the values of a “secular, liberal humanist”. However, in his final years the formerly avowed atheist caused further surprise by converting to Catholicism. </p>
<p>He perhaps had given hint to this direction in his memoir in his description of a philosophical self-awakening. Whereas he had once trusted in the transformative power of government for advancing “freedom, justice and security”, experience had taught him:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>not to expect too much from the crooked timber of humanity and to be cautious about the natural tendencies of political government, which are to aggregate more power to itself … to become remote and often unresponsive to public expectations.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hayden, of course, shared in the human lot of being carved from “crooked timber”. His flaws, though, paled against his substantial contribution to Australia’s national life.</p>
<p><em>Correction: this piece originally said Bill Hayden was 85. His correct age was 90.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95853/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Strangio 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>Former Labor Leader and Governor-General Bill Hayden has died aged 85. Hayden is remembered for his role in establishing Medibank (later Medicare) and for leading Labor’s recovery after 1975.Paul Strangio, Emeritus professor of politics, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2151552023-10-14T23:20:11Z2023-10-14T23:20:11ZExplainer: Australia has voted against an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. Here’s what happened<p>A majority of Australian voters have rejected the proposal to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament, with the final results likely to be about 40% voting “yes” and 60% voting “no”.</p>
<h2>What was the referendum about?</h2>
<p>In this referendum, Australians were asked to vote on whether to establish an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander <a href="https://voice.gov.au/referendum-2023/referendum-question-and-constitutional-amendment">Voice</a> to Parliament. The Voice was proposed as a means of recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the <a href="https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/australias-first-peoples">First Peoples of Australia</a> in the Constitution. </p>
<p>The Voice proposal was a modest one. It was to be an advisory body for the national parliament and government. Had the referendum succeeded, Australia’s Constitution would have been amended with a new section 129: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Peoples of Australia:</p>
<p>i. there shall be a body, to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice</p>
<p>ii. the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples</p>
<p>iii. the Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This proposal was drawn from the <a href="https://ulurustatement.org/the-statement/view-the-statement/">Uluru Statement from the Heart</a> from 250 Indigenous leaders, which called for <a href="https://deadlystory.com/page/culture/Annual_Days/NAIDOC_Week/NAIDOC_2019/Hey_you_Mob_it_s_NAIDOC_week#:%7E:text=The%20statement%20outlines%20a%20need,see%20below%20for%20more%20information">three phases of reform</a> - Voice, followed by Treaty and Truth -telling about Australia’s colonial history. The proposal was for constitutional change to ensure the Voice would not be abolished by government in future, as previous Indigenous bodies have been. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/voice-to-parliament-referendum-defeated-results-at-a-glance-215366">Voice to Parliament referendum defeated: results at-a-glance</a>
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<h2>How did Australians vote?</h2>
<p>Voting is <a href="https://www.aec.gov.au/about_aec/publications/voting/">compulsory</a> in Australia. Every eligible Australian citizen over 18 years of age is obliged to vote in elections and referendums. Australia has one of the <a href="https://peo.gov.au/understand-our-parliament/your-questions-on-notice/questions/how-many-people-voted-in-the-last-election/#:%7E:text=According%20to%20the%20Australian%20Electoral,voter%20turnouts%20in%20the%20world.">highest rates of voter turn out</a> in the world - over 90% of those eligible have voted in every national election since compulsory voting was introduced in 1924.</p>
<p>Australia has a written <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2013Q00005">Constitution</a>. A successful referendum vote is required to <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/House_of_Representatives/Powers_practice_and_procedure/Practice7/HTML/Chapter1/Constitution_alteration">change</a> the Constitution in any way. </p>
<p>To succeed, a referendum proposition requires a <a href="https://voice.gov.au/referendum-2023/how-referendum-works#:%7E:text=For%20a%20referendum%20to%20be,4%20out%20of%206%20states.">double majority</a>. This means it must be agreed to by a majority of voters, and a majority of states. Australia has six <a href="https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/images/map-australia-showing-states-and-territories">states</a>, so at least four must have a majority of voters in favour for a referendum to succeed. </p>
<p>Australia also has two territories - individuals in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/state-and-territory-ballots-will-be-counted-differently-at-the-voice-referendum-is-that-fair-212703">territories</a> contribute to the overall vote, but the territories do not count towards the majority of states. </p>
<p>It’s very difficult to achieve constitutional change in Australia. Since federation in 1901, 45 questions have been put to Australian voters in <a href="https://www.aec.gov.au/elections/referendums/referendum_dates_and_results.htm">referendums</a>. Only eight of those have succeeded. </p>
<p>In the Voice referendum, only the Australian Capital Territory voted “yes” by majority. A <a href="https://tallyroom.aec.gov.au/ReferendumNationalResults-29581.htm">clear majority</a> of the national electorate voted “no”. All states returned majority “no” results.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1713284532743635163"}"></div></p>
<p>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people constitute <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/estimates-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-australians/latest-release#:%7E:text=Data%20downloads-,Key%20statistics,Queensland%20and%20Western%20Australia%20combined.">3.8% of Australia’s population</a>. Government members claimed on ABC TV in the referendum coverage that polling booths including high proportions of Indigenous voters, for example Palm Island in Queensland, returned high “yes” votes. However, in a majoritarian democracy like Australia, such a small proportion of the national population cannot dictate the outcome of a national poll.</p>
<p>Importantly, the Voice referendum did not have unanimous support across the two main political parties in Australia. The Labor government <a href="https://theconversation.com/were-all-in-declares-an-emotional-albanese-as-he-launches-the-wording-for-the-voice-referendum-202435">announced</a> and has campaigned for “yes”. The leader of the opposition, Liberal Queensland MP <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-05/peter-dutton-voice-to-parliament-yes-no-vote-referendum/102797582">Peter Dutton</a>, campaigned strongly against the referendum proposal.</p>
<h2>What happens now?</h2>
<p>The government is bound to abide by the referendum result. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed that his government <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/08/labor-wont-try-to-legislate-indigenous-voice-if-referendum-fails-albanese-says#:%7E:text=The%20prime%20minister%2C%20Anthony%20Albanese,away%20from%20the%20voice%20altogether%3F%E2%80%9D">will not seek to legislate a Voice</a> as an alternative to the constitutional model.</p>
<p>Albanese, conceding the failure of the referendum, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-14/live-updates-voice-to-parliament-referendum-latest-news/102969568">said</a>: “Tomorrow we must seek a new way forward”. He called for a renewed focus on doing better for First Peoples in Australia.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-anthony-albanese-promises-to-continue-to-advance-reconciliation-despite-sweeping-defeat-of-referendum-215662">View from The Hill: Anthony Albanese promises to continue to 'advance reconciliation' despite sweeping defeat of referendum</a>
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<p>The referendum outcome represents a major loss for the government. But much more important than that will be the negative impacts of the campaign and loss on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. </p>
<p>On ABC TV, Arrernte/Luritja woman <a href="https://www.snaicc.org.au/about/contact/staff-bios/">Catherine Liddle</a> called for a renewed focus on truth-telling and building understanding of Australia’s history across the population. She said the failure of the referendum reflected a lack of understanding about the lives and experiences of Indigenous people in Australia. </p>
<p>“Yes” campaign advocates reported <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/we-are-tired-victorian-yes-advocates-devastated-as-no-vote-refuses-voice-20231012-p5ebse.html">devastation</a> at the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/14/australian-voters-reject-proposal-for-indigenous-voice-to-parliament-at-historic-referendum">outcome</a>. Sana Nakata, writing <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-political-subjugation-of-first-nations-peoples-is-no-longer-historical-legacy-213752">here</a>, said: “now we are where we have always been, left to build our better futures on our own”.</p>
<p>Some First Nations advocates, including Victorian independent Senator <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/16/lidia-thorpe-says-australias-voice-referendum-should-be-called-off">Lidia Thorpe</a> - a Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman - argued the Voice proposal lacked substance and that the referendum should not have been held. Advocates of a “<a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/article/these-progressive-no-campaigners-are-looking-beyond-the-vote-heres-what-they-want/tdyj2ilx6">progressive no</a>” vote (who felt the Voice didn’t go far enough) will continue to call for recognition of continuing First Nations sovereignty and self-determination through processes of treaty and truth-telling.</p>
<p>The information landscape for Australian voters leading up to this referendum was murky and difficult to navigate. The Australian Electoral Commission published a <a href="https://www.aec.gov.au/media/disinformation-register-ref.htm">disinformation register</a>. <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/extremely-politicised-and-very-worrying-how-misinformation-about-the-voice-spread/w9sl4pzba">Misinformation and lies</a>, many circulated through social media, have influenced the decision-making of a proportion of voters. </p>
<p>It’s open to question whether constitutional change of any kind can be achieved while voters remain so exposed to multiple versions of “<a href="https://www.amnesty.org.au/sorting-fact-from-fiction-in-the-voice-to-parliament-referendum/">truth</a>”. </p>
<p>For many First Nations people, the proliferation of lies and misinformation driven by <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-66470376">racism</a> throughout the Voice debate have been <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-03/indigenous-mental-health-impacts-of-voice-referendum-debate/102923188">traumatising</a> and brutal.</p>
<p>Indigenous Australians’ Minister, Wiradjuri woman Linda Burney, spoke to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people after the result: “Be proud of your identity. Be proud of the 65,000 years of history and culture that you are part of”. Her <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/videos/national/linda-burney-gives-emotional-speech-following-referendum-result/clnpw6w0n009u0jp8kvgbijuy">pain</a> was patently obvious as she responded to the referendum outcome.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215155/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Maguire is a board member of Reconciliation NSW and a volunteer for the Yes23 campaign. </span></em></p>After a bitterly fought campaign, Australians have voted against an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament by a clear majority.Amy Maguire, Associate Professor in Human Rights and International Law, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2150712023-10-10T19:04:58Z2023-10-10T19:04:58ZLet’s not kid ourselves: ‘Trumpification’ is becoming our problem, too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552709/original/file-20231009-21-n3pvhk.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">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We have a problem with the state of politics and public discourse in Australia. The appalling <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/australian-politics/2023/10/05/neo-nazi-lidia-thorpe-video/">neo-Nazi video threat</a> made against Senator Lidia Thorpe is a disturbing reminder of the dark undercurrents that are swirling through political discourse in Australia. </p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/nov/23/thomas-mair-slow-burning-hatred-led-to-jo-cox-murder">murder of British MP Jo Cox</a> reminds us, threats against politicians and other public figures must not be dismissed lightly. And the threat comes not just from neo-Nazis, although the Christchurch massacre of 51 people by an Australian far-right terrorist means we can never again dismiss the <a href="https://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/review/sparrow-fascists-among-us/">threat posed by</a> this kind of extremism. </p>
<p>Yet, the problem does not stop just with concerns about violence. As the ugly, all too often hateful, political conversations in the lead-up to the Voice referendum reveal, our public discourse <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/06/whatever-the-voice-votes-result-australia-has-a-racism-problem-we-must-tackle">has turned febrile</a> and our civic climate is overheating.</p>
<p>Hateful extremism is both <a href="https://tacklinghate.org/about-us/">a symptom and a cause</a>. White supremacist and other far-right extremists have been a violent, but often denied, presence in Australian society <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/01/the-hatred-and-greed-of-the-frontier-wars-still-drive-race-politics-today-how-little-things-change">since European settlement began</a>. This remains an ugly truth that we need to acknowledge and rise above.</p>
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<p>But something has changed. And it is not just that COVID-19 lockdowns, climate-related disasters and cripplingly expensive housing has left the nation feeling more anxious. A very different kind of pandemic has laid siege to our body politic.</p>
<p>The virus that is threatening to cripple our political immune system goes by many names. But we can simply call it “Trumpification”, a name as usefully evocative as it is unscientific. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-trumpification-of-the-us-media-why-chasing-news-values-distorts-politics-56033">The Trumpification of the US media: why chasing news values distorts politics</a>
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<p>We don’t, of course, have a true Donald Trump analogue in Australian politics. For one thing, none of those politicians and political commentators who channel the angry rhetoric of Trump – and there are quite a few – have anything like the popular support and influence of the former president.</p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-vs-haley-vs-desantis-inside-the-real-battle-for-the-2024-republican-nomination-214864">Trump’s popularity</a> is the reason why this populist authoritarianism is so dangerous. </p>
<p>Our Westminster parliamentary democracy is very different from America’s curious hybrid system of an executive and a bicameral Congress, a system that has often struggled, and in recent years has <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/07/politics/house-speaker-race-republicans/index.html">failed to function</a> as intended. </p>
<p>However, the omnishambles of the <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2020/04/28/brexit-simply-an-omnishambles-or-a-major-policy-fiasco/">past decade in Westminster</a> should alert us to how quickly a parliamentary system can succumb to debilitating sickness. Boris Johnson, Brexit, a crippled UK Labour party, and a deeply reactionary and incompetent Conservative party speak to how quickly things can fall apart.</p>
<p>What America’s debilitating political malaise tells us (and it is even worse in many statehouses than it is in Congress) is that demagoguery that trades in hate and fear, and is enabled by systemic misinformation and disinformation, unleashes dark and destructive forces. </p>
<p>At its best, democracy struggles to enable the better angels of our nature. Demagoguery does the opposite. It <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/04/16/the-trumpification-of-the-latin-american-right/">corrodes not just civility</a> but the very traditions and institutions that give substance to our values.</p>
<p>Extremism, whether murderously violent, or “just” hateful, grows in response to the opportunities afforded it by the breakdown of integrity, civility, respect, and kindness in our politics and public spaces. And as it grows, extremism symbiotically feeds back into the corruption of public discourse and the erosion of social cohesion.</p>
<p>America’s problems with white supremacist extremism did not begin with Trump, or even with the Tea Party movement before him. No sooner had the civil rights movement succeeded in overturning centuries of injustice born of slavery - a highwater mark for religious civil society – than the counter-offensive with the co-option and corruption of US Christianity began. The religious right became a powerful ally of the Republican Party, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2014/05/18/the_evangelical_presidency_reagans_dangerous_love_affair_with_the_christian_right/*">enabling</a> Ronald Reagan to defeat the deeply pious Jimmy Carter. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-government-action-to-thwart-neo-nazi-groups-is-far-more-difficult-than-it-appears-205677">Why government action to thwart neo-Nazi groups is far more difficult than it appears</a>
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<p>But it also <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/violent-far-right-terrorist-threat-republican-party-and-american-conservatism">bore within itself</a> the seeds of the destruction of conservative politics. When Trump, the billionaire and toxic narcissist, was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/07/16/jesus-and-john-wayne-evangelicals-surprise-bestseller/">proclaimed</a> from the pulpits of America as a modern-day King Cyrus – as God’s instrument of salvation – the rot was well-advanced.</p>
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<p>In the <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-has-the-radical-right-evolved-under-trump/">permissive environment</a> of the Trump presidency, when <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/assessing-the-right-wing-terror-threat-in-the-united-states-a-year-after-the-january-6-insurrection/">hateful demagoguery</a> from the highest office was the new normal, far-right <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-bitter-fruits-of-trumps-white-power-presidency">extremist attacks</a> dramatically increased in number and lethality.</p>
<p>Australia is fortunate to continue to be very different from America. But, on some fronts, the gap is closing. With so much of our broadcast media and, even more, our social media fed directly by the rivers of misinformation and disinformation that course through American society, we can not afford to kid ourselves about Australian exceptionalism.</p>
<p>We should be concerned about extremism. But let us not lose sight of the bigger picture. There are signs of sickness all around in our public discourse. “Trumpification”, as a term, might not catch on. But the viral pandemic that it describes has already commenced its assault on our body politic.</p>
<p><em>Correction: This article has been edited to remove a reference to Ronald Reagan being “non-religious”. Reagan attended church only rarely but he described himself as a Christian.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215071/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Greg Barton receives funding from the Australian Research Council. And he is engaged in a range of projects working to understand and counter violent extremism in Australia and in Southeast Asia and Africa that are funded by the Australian government.</span></em></p>Democracy at its best struggles to enable the better angels of our nature. Demagoguery does the opposite - and we are increasingly at risk of it.Greg Barton, Chair in Global Islamic Politics, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation; Scholar -In-Residence Asia Society Australia, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2150202023-10-05T11:45:39Z2023-10-05T11:45:39ZThe Voice: why Australia is holding a referendum on First Nations representation to government – podcast<p>Australia goes to the polls on October 14 in a referendum on whether to enshrine an Indigenous advisory body, known as the Voice to Parliament, into the country’s constitution. </p>
<p>In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast, a political theorist from the Torres Strait Islands, an archipelago between Australia and Papua New Guinea, explains the background to the Voice and the arguments for and against it. Plus, we hear a view from Canada on how the Voice proposal compares with Indigenous systems of representation elsewhere in the world. </p>
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<p>Calls for a representative voice for Indigenous people emerged as a priority from a series of consultations over the past decade, culminating in the <a href="https://voice.gov.au/about-voice/uluru-statement">Uluru Statement from the Heart</a> in 2017. </p>
<p>In March 2023, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Australia would hold a referendum on whether to establish a new advisory body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to parliament and the executive government.</p>
<p>If the “yes” vote is successful, the government has agreed to a set of <a href="https://voice.gov.au/about-voice/voice-principles">design principles</a> on how to set up the representative body, explains Sana Nakata, a political theorist at James Cook University in Australia, who is from the Torres Strait Islands. “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities themselves will be in charge of determining the process by which their representatives are selected and who those representatives are,” says Nakata.</p>
<p>In early October, the “no” vote was ahead <a href="https://theconversation.com/voice-support-up-in-essential-poll-but-it-is-still-behind-214257">in the polls</a> despite some strengthening support for the “yes” camp. </p>
<p>“There have been really interesting arguments against the Voice across the political spectrum,” explains Nakata. Some on the left, and some First Nations communities, argue the priority should be to establish treaties for First Nations people in Australia, rather than a Voice to Parliament. “On the other side of the political spectrum, we have arguments against the Voice really on the idea that [it] goes too far,” she says. </p>
<p>The Voice referendum is being watched with interest in countries such as Canada, which has a long history of Indigenous treaty-making, but no equivalent representative body such as the Voice. Kiera Ladner, an expert in Indigenous politics at the University of Manitoba who has conducted research in Australia, says she’s “always amazed” that “there’s no treaty” in Australia for First Nations people.</p>
<p>Listen to the full episode to hear more about the Voice referendum, and how it’s being viewed from Canada, on <a href="https://podfollow.com/the-conversation-weekly/view">The Conversation Weekly</a> podcast. </p>
<p><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2879/The_Conversation_Weekly_episode_on_the_Voice_to_Parliament_transcript.pdf?1698232950">A transcript of this episode</a> is now available. </p>
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<p><em>Disclosures: Sana Nakata receives funding from the Australian Research Council. During the official campaign period for the Voice to Parliament referendum, she consults to the Uluru Dialogues on an unpaid basis. Kiera Ladner receives funding as Canada Research Chair Program & the Social Science and Humanities Research Council.</em></p>
<p><em>This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware, with assistance from Mend Mariwany and Katie Flood. Eloise Stevens does our sound design, and our theme music is by Neeta Sarl.</em></p>
<p><em>You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also subscribe to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter">free daily email here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Newsclips in this episode from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ccK3LgDUtY">ABC</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmtzYQUvm5M&ab_channel=ABCNews%28Australia%29">News</a> (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHdNNOM34oQ">Australia</a>), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqRd1wpTlaU">NITV</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND_a2rSp9yA&ab_channel=AlJazeeraEnglish">Al Jazeera English</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bScflY0pP6o">The Project</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zREKuT6GUqU&t=27s">Guardian News</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGYwjVCxhxk">Sky News Australia</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>Listen to <em>The Conversation Weekly</em> via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a> or find out <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">how else to listen here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215020/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Plus a view on the Voice referendum from Canada. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.Gemma Ware, Head of AudioCarissa Lee, First Nations and Public Policy Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2134562023-10-01T19:16:37Z2023-10-01T19:16:37ZCloser relations between Australia and India have the potential to benefit both nations<p>The structure of Andrew Charlton’s <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/australia-s-pivot-india">Australia’s Pivot to India</a> is built on three promises: the promise of India; the promise of the Australia-India relationship; and the promise of the Indian diaspora becoming a powerful mainstream force in Australian politics. </p>
<p>At a time when the Indian diaspora is attracting attention globally, this book – launched on Wednesday by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – will be read, and read widely. </p>
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<p><em>Review: Australia’s Pivot to India – Andrew Charlton (Black Inc.)</em></p>
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<p>Unfortunately, the successes of the diaspora have been temporarily overshadowed by the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/justin-trudeaus-india-accusation-complicates-western-efforts-to-rein-in-china-213922">accusation</a> that Indian government agents were involved in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver. Nijjar was an advocate for a separate Khalistan Sikh state and the government of India believed he was involved in terrorist activities. India has categorically denied Trudeau’s charge.</p>
<p>Written for a discerning but popular audience, Australia’s Pivot to India is an elegant volume that treads ground familiar to those who have followed the bilateral relationship. The book serves as a primer and a political manifesto embedded in Charlton’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldview">weltanschauung</a>. It is written with finesse and fluency, but hurriedly: there is at least one sentence borrowed from my writings, used without attribution. </p>
<p>Charlton, the federal member for Parramatta and a rising star of the Australian Labor Party, is a believer. He is persuaded by India’s contemporary success and advocates the need for even greater intimacy between New Delhi and Canberra. For him, India’s rise is almost inevitable. As he puts it: </p>
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<p>For all its twists and turns, India’s journey has brought it to a point of extraordinary promise. Just as the twentieth century was said to be the American Century, and the nineteenth century was the Age of Empire, we may well end the twenty-first century with India on top. </p>
<p>India is already the largest nation in the world by population. And it’s growing so quickly that by 2070 its population should rival that of China, the United States and the European Union combined. India also has the fastest economic growth of any major nation. It has the second-largest armed forces and the fastest growing military capability in the world. </p>
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<p>Will this book, and the earlier Peter Varghese report <a href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/publications/trade-and-investment/india-economic-strategy/ies/index.html">An India Economic Strategy to 2035</a>, do for India what the <a href="https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/series/china-update/china-next-twenty-years-reform-and-development">Ross Garnaut report</a> and Kevin Rudd’s writings did for China three decades ago? </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/india-has-landed-on-the-moon-heres-what-the-political-and-economic-gains-are-212313">India has landed on the Moon: here's what the political and economic gains are</a>
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<h2>Amrit Kaal</h2>
<p>Charlton’s book is dedicated to the people of Parramatta and the Indian diaspora across Australia. But his India-focused political vision speaks beyond the Little India of his Parramatta electorate.</p>
<p>For his electorate and the Indian audience of his book, Charlton is preaching to the converted. Indians, including its diaspora across the world, believe in India’s rise probably more strongly than the most generous outsider. </p>
<p>While the Chinese were content to emerge after just 150 years of Western humiliation, many Indians believe Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of <a href="https://www.investindia.gov.in/team-india-blogs/new-india-amrit-kaal">Amrit Kaal</a> – literally the “age of immortality” – will see the return of the “Golden Age” of India after nearly 2000 years of suppression. Amrit Kaal refers to the period between 75 years and 100 years of India’s independence (2022-2047): a period in which it is projected that India will transition to become a developed country.</p>
<p>While Charlton focuses on India’s staggering demographics and its growth story, more recent news has also celebrated the country’s rise. As the Economist <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/09/07/the-g20-summit-will-be-a-resounding-success-for-india">recently suggested</a>: </p>
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<p>In 2008 China used the Beijing Olympic games as a “coming-out party” to show itself off to the world. For India, the Presidency of the G20 has served much the same purpose.</p>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/international-summit/2023/09/09-10/">G-20 Summit in September</a> demonstrated India’s convening power and its ability to generate a consensus at what is arguably the most important forum engaged with the globe’s most consequential problems. The summit, and 200-odd meetings held all over India this year, brought the diversity, colour and genius of the Indian people onto the world stage with a new confidence.</p>
<h2>Civilisational strength</h2>
<p>Soft power is too vulgar, too belittling a term, to describe arguably the most resilient source of India’s power: a civilisational strength often suppressed by a lack of self-confidence. This has changed, and changed in such a way that India is being perceived as a key destination for dialogue and debate over the most contentious of issues. </p>
<p>Despite the seductive force of realpolitik, India seems to be able to retain its core values and its space, as well as its conscience. The theme of India’s G-20 presidency – <em>Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam</em>: a Sanskrit term meaning one earth, one family, one future – signalled this. The theme was fleshed out in the <a href="https://www.g20.org/content/dam/gtwenty/gtwenty_new/document/G20-New-Delhi-Leaders-Declaration.pdf">G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We meet at a defining moment in history where the decisions we make now will determine the future of our people and our planet. It is with the philosophy of living in harmony with our surrounding ecosystem that we commit to concrete actions to address global challenges.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Simultaneously, India has become the voice for an alternative technological vision. Just ahead of the summit, <a href="https://datatopics.worldbank.org/g20fidata/">World Bank G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion</a> released a document that endorsed the transformative impact in India of <a href="https://www.ibm.com/topics/api">Application Programming Interfaces</a> (APIs), which allow different computer programs to communicate with each other. </p>
<p>It pointed out that a comprehensive data coordination system, known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAM_Yojana">JAM trinity</a>, has increased rates of participation in the Indian financial system from 25% in 2008 to over 80% of adults in last six years, and that it could do for much for the world. </p>
<p>The government established an electronic identification system, known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aadhaar">Aadhaar</a>, which provides a unique identification number, based on biometrics, to everyone resident in India. Its electronic financial inclusion program, the <a href="https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/major_initiatives/pradhan-mantri-jan-dhan-yojana/">Jan Dhan Yojana</a>, lets every citizen open a bank account, which provides access to a debit card, accident insurance cover, an overdraft facility and transfer of all direct benefits from the government. All transactions can be done through a mobile phone. </p>
<p>This technology is part of what has come to be known as the <a href="https://indiastack.org/">India Stack</a> – open-access software that can be provided to all those interested in the Global South. </p>
<p>India’s insistence on the African Union’s inclusion in the now G-21 was also rooted in this “alternative” vision of not losing your heart, even while being dictated by your head.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/au-and-g20-membership-will-give-africa-more-say-on-global-issues-if-it-speaks-with-one-voice-213737">AU and G20: membership will give Africa more say on global issues – if it speaks with one voice</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Mutual understanding</h2>
<p>All of these developments complement the argument Charlton develops in Australia’s Pivot to India and will surely find place in the next edition of the book. The bulk of his book is concerned with examining the past, present and future of the bilateral relationship.</p>
<p>Charlton does well to look beyond the clichés of the “3Cs”: Commonwealth, cuisine and cricket. He considers multiple sectors where there are enormous opportunities for the relationship to grow. The “3Cs” lead to the “4Ds”: democracy, defence, <em>dosti</em> (friendship) and the diaspora. </p>
<p>Business, politics, media, education and culture are also identified by Charlton as potential areas of development. As he incisively points out: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Australia’s pivot to India should aspire to build a distinctive relationship that goes beyond transactional engagement and circumstantial alignment […] the essence of the partnership is to deepen the relationship with mutual investment in common endeavours across every sphere of our interactions. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The aim should be “to increase mutual understanding, build relationships and breed familiarity”. With their “expertise and energy”, the almost one-million-strong diaspora can play a key role in cementing the relationship and is therefore a “vital part of Australia’s pivot to India”.</p>
<p>In fleshing out areas of cooperation, Charlton illustrates the huge potential of the Australia-India partnership. As I have written in the foreword of historian Meg Gurry’s book on the <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/books/australia-and-india-mapping-the-journey-electronic-book-text">bilateral relationship</a> (the only full-length study on the relationship, which Charlton cites extensively): </p>
<blockquote>
<p>After six decades characterised by misperception, lack of trust, neglect, missed opportunities and even hostility, a new chapter in India’s relations with Australia has begun.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Consider this: in 1955, Robert Menzies decided Australia should not take part in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Bandung-Conference">Bandung Afro-Asian</a> conference, which had been organised by India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Burma (Myanmar) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). In doing so, Menzies – who would later confess that Occidentals did not understand India – alienated Indians, offended Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and left Australia unsure about its Asian identity for decades.</p>
<p>In 2011, when I became the inaugural director of the <a href="https://aii.unimelb.edu.au/">Australia India Institute</a> (whose seminal role in building the bilateral relationship Charlton almost completely ignores), I made a giant leap of faith. I had not visited Australia before and had little knowledge of the country. My friends warned me I was literally going “Down Under”, soon to become irrelevant and marginal to all policy issues in India. My teenage daughters were told they risked being bashed up in school and college. My extended family was astounded.</p>
<p>But today I have no doubt it was one of the best decisions of my life. With not one unpleasant experience in the country, as a family we have found Australians open, friendly, fair, accepting and generous, and the country a model of good governance.</p>
<p>In September 2014, when Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott visited India – <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-03/first-meeting-for-tony-abbott-and-india27s-new-leader-narendra/5716150">the first</a> stand-alone state visit to be hosted by the Modi government – he brought a sordid chapter of bilateral relations to a close. When asked why Australia had agreed to export uranium to India, which is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Abbott was unequivocal: “We trust you!” </p>
<p>No better declaration could have been made to reflect the new Australian belief in the promise and potential of this relationship, for it was the deficit of understanding and faith that severely undermined the relationship in the past. </p>
<p>In a reciprocal gesture, in November of that year, Mr Modi became the first Indian prime minister to visit Australia <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/indian-prime-minister-narendra-modi-draws-thousands-to-sydney-olympic-park-20141117-11oe5f.html">in 28 years</a>, adding new ballast to the relationship. Since then, the bilateral relationship has grown in strength, and across the board.</p>
<p>Today there are few countries in the Indo-Pacific which share so much in common, in both values and interests, than India and Australia. From water management and clean energy, to trauma research, skills and higher education, counter-terrorism, maritime and cybersecurity, there is a world of opportunities that awaits the two countries if they work in close coordination with each other.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213456/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amitabh Mattoo was the inaugural director of the Australia India Institute.</span></em></p>Today there are few countries in the Indo-Pacific which share so much in common, in both values and interests, than India and Australia. Andrew Charlton’s new book examines the possibilities.Amitabh Mattoo, Honorary Professor of International Relations, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2118842023-09-06T20:11:58Z2023-09-06T20:11:58ZA new biography of Donald Horne examines a life of indefatigable energy and intellectual curiosity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546127/original/file-20230904-5597-37baqi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C3976%2C2994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Donald Horne (1921-2005).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Library of Australia, A.T. Bolton/AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In May 2004, little over a year before he died, Donald Horne took to the stage at the Sydney Writer’s Festival for an event to mark the launch of the fourth edition of Griffith Review: Making Perfect Bodies. Donald had written an essay called “<a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/mind-body-and-age/">Mind, body, age</a>” that vigorously burst from the page with life, while addressing death. He was 82.</p>
<p>With a voice frayed by age and the breathlessness that would eventually claim his life, Donald talked about the medical emergencies that had shadowed him since the “complications” accompanying his birth on Boxing Day 1921. He was frail but determined, outshining the other panellists, enjoying the adulation that came from the packed audience, proving the National Trust right in appointing him, a few years earlier, as a Living National Treasure.</p>
<p>The applause lasted longer than usual, and afterwards dozens of people pressed forward. Readers and former students wanted to shake his hand, to say how much he meant to them, how his work had changed their lives and the nation. To say thank you. It was overwhelming and emotional. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Donald Horne: A Life in the Lucky Country – Ryan Cropp (La Trobe University Press)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>As we slowly made our way out of the warehouse on the Hickson Road wharf that was then home to the Writer’s Festival, Donald and his wife and soulmate Myfanwy and their great friend Frank Moorhouse discussed the response with a note of pride and satisfaction. “You know this is the first time I’ve been invited to the Sydney Writer’s Festival,” he said with just a tinge of past hurt. </p>
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<p>Donald was pleased to be back where he felt he belonged. Being out of the loop, no longer an active participant in the cultural life of his beloved Sydney, hurt him. He was tired, but he still had things to say, ideas to test, improvements to recommend. His energy, like his curiosity, seemed indefatigable.</p>
<p>It wasn’t, of course. But as Myfanwy demonstrated when their jointly authored <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/dying-a-memoir-9781742285382">Dying: A Memoir</a> was published in 2006, he kept compulsively writing until the end, wrapped in her loving embrace and that of their children Julia and Nick.</p>
<p>In his accomplished and insightful biography <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/donald-horne-0">Donald Horne: A Life in the Lucky Country</a>, Ryan Cropp puts the man in his context and, without a heavy hand, helps us understand his motivating psychology. For all the vigour of Horne’s writing and his determination to make an impact, self-doubt invariably intruded – success was not a sufficient inoculation. He was a gifted salesman (of ideas), but without the salesman’s unreflective demeanour. </p>
<p>One of the many challenges Cropp faced in writing this book, and the doctoral thesis that preceded it, was how to use the archive the prolific Horne amassed. Which of the more than 30 books to focus on? Which of the countless essays, speeches, articles and chapters to skate over lightly or leave out? With more than 200 boxes of carefully curated and annotated records in the Mitchell Library, this was a task that could seem overwhelming. </p>
<p>But Cropp clearly has some of the determination, energy and resolve of his subject. He notes that it took six years to write this book. Good biographies can be like that – Robert Caro is still finishing the biographical series on Lyndon Johnson he started 50 years ago.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/donald-hornes-lucky-country-and-the-decline-of-the-public-intellectual-80743">Donald Horne's 'lucky country' and the decline of the public intellectual</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The Lucky Country</h2>
<p>Horne is best known as the author of <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-lucky-country-9781742531571">The Lucky Country</a> – a book that seemed to capture the zeitgeist when it was published, reluctantly, by Penguin in 1964. </p>
<p>The careful stewardship of the company’s new Australian branch, led by Geoffrey Dutton, Max Harris and Brian Stonier, ensured the book hit its mark, selling 20,000 copies in the first few months. It continued to resonate as updated editions were published throughout the decade. It is still in print. Hundreds of thousands of copies have been sold. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546123/original/file-20230904-17-5co9by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546123/original/file-20230904-17-5co9by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546123/original/file-20230904-17-5co9by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546123/original/file-20230904-17-5co9by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546123/original/file-20230904-17-5co9by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546123/original/file-20230904-17-5co9by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546123/original/file-20230904-17-5co9by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546123/original/file-20230904-17-5co9by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1144&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>The issues explored in The Lucky Country changed with new versions, but the critique remained: Australia got by on luck; it was held back by second-rate leaders who lacked vision, imagination and even a realistic assessment of its place in the world. </p>
<p>When Horne famously sat down in his backyard in December 1963 to begin writing the book that would make his name, he was changing. He was more settled, happy at home with Myfanwy and baby Julia, but dissatisfied with the work that had been his primary focus for decades. Many of the certainties that had shaped his public life since arriving at the University of Sydney in 1939 were also being found wanting. </p>
<p>A large part of Horne’s genius was his ability to capture on the page a personal intellectual journey that reflected one that much of the nation was also taking. The Lucky Country, which owes more to his journalism than the more ambitiously polished writing in <a href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/the-education-of-young-donald-trilogy-117940/">The Education of Young Donald</a>, was a two-way mirror, revealing the nation to itself and him to it.</p>
<p>One of the lingering criticisms of Horne was that he was a gadfly, jumping from one issue to the next, a dedicated follower of intellectual fashions. The gift of Cropp’s biography is that it puts the changes into context. We learn how Horne responded to events as they occurred, and as more was revealed. For someone paying as much attention as he was, events and changing times demanded sometimes personally painful recalibrations. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-armchair-a-desk-and-4000-books-the-horne-family-study-gets-a-second-life-96269">An armchair, a desk and 4000 books: the Horne family study gets a second life</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Changing contexts</h2>
<p>To my mind, as someone who worked with Donald from the late 1980s, it is the biography’s animation of these early decades that is the most revealing. By putting the conclusions reached and decisions made into the context in which they were formed, Ryan Cropp helps the reader make sense of how someone could go from being persuaded by the writings of <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/friedrich-hayek/">Friedrich Hayek</a> in the 1940s to a firebrand critic of neoliberalism, which Donald called economic fundamentalism, four decades later. </p>
<p>From a distance, it is easy to forget the context, to foreground things that were not known at the time and read back into the record knowledge that emerged later. Cropp shows he has mastered the historian’s essential skill of avoiding this trap, while keeping the narrative moving with fresh and lively writing. </p>
<p>He provides the details of what happened when, so readers can speculate on the factors at play that lead some people down one path, while others exposed to the same events and a similar environment reached quite different conclusions. One striking contrast is between Horne’s confidence in Hayek’s wartime anti-bureaucratic, libertarian ethos, and Gough Whitlam’s rejection of it. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546134/original/file-20230904-15-ow2x8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546134/original/file-20230904-15-ow2x8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546134/original/file-20230904-15-ow2x8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546134/original/file-20230904-15-ow2x8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546134/original/file-20230904-15-ow2x8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546134/original/file-20230904-15-ow2x8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=995&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546134/original/file-20230904-15-ow2x8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=995&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546134/original/file-20230904-15-ow2x8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=995&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">Gough Whitlam in 1959.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Archives of Australia</span></span>
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<p>Whitlam was five years older than Horne, and he had an interesting and consequential war. Horne didn’t do much. He was shipped around the country, from the Hunter Valley to Darwin and back again. He sustained a major injury as a result of an unfortunate accident. He was bored and wrote many letters to his mother (like so many others now preserved in archival boxes). He felt like he was in exile.</p>
<p>Whitlam, on the other hand, was an air navigator who got his first taste of politics when he actively campaigned for the 1944 postwar reconstruction referendum that would have increased Canberra’s powers. </p>
<p>Horne opposed it. He did not share Whitlam’s confidence in the capacity of Canberra to do more. But decades later he became one of Prime Minister Whitlam’s greatest advocates. Times change, contexts shift, and responses by thoughtful people are recalibrated.</p>
<h2>Intellectual tradition</h2>
<p>At the University of Sydney, the self-described <em>enfant terrible</em> Horne came under the influence of <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/archives/access-the-archives/personal-archives/john-anderson.html">John Anderson</a>, the Challis Professor of Philosophy, who for three decades until 1958 fostered a libertarian contrarianism in his students. His teachings and methods helped shape a Sydney intellectual tradition that still echoes today. </p>
<p>Even in old age, Anderson’s former students would gather at Glebe Library, down the road from the university, to discuss the events of the day and major issues raised by articles published in international magazines – it was oddly affirming to hear old men arguing as if they were still undergraduates. For those untouched by this tradition it was mystifying, but for those like Horne, Murray Sayle, Paddy McGuinness and many others, it provided an enduring framework that had the benefit of flexibility. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546133/original/file-20230904-21-kma1kg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546133/original/file-20230904-21-kma1kg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546133/original/file-20230904-21-kma1kg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546133/original/file-20230904-21-kma1kg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546133/original/file-20230904-21-kma1kg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546133/original/file-20230904-21-kma1kg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546133/original/file-20230904-21-kma1kg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546133/original/file-20230904-21-kma1kg.jpg?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">University of Sydney Campus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kanzcech/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>So Horne moved from being a Cold War warrior, a comfortable believer in the British empire, comfortable about racial superiority, and a contributor to CIA-funded intellectual journals, to an outsider who chafed in class-riven Britain, an increasingly vociferous advocate of national independence, a republican, and the editor who, after half a century, finally removed “Australia for the White Man” from the masthead of <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/the-bulletin">The Bulletin</a>. </p>
<p>The cynical, libertarian realist became, by the late 1960s, more optimistic and more open to what Cropp characterises as “opportunities for civic renewal”.</p>
<p>This all plays out against the backdrop of working for a living. Cropp details the highs and lows of Donald’s professional and public life with flair. His close attention to detail does not overwhelm. We learn a lot about Horne’s experiences and behaviour as a journalist, editor, academic and public advocate; about his ability to cultivate wealthy backers and his readiness to fall out with them; about the places he lived and the people he (endlessly) socialised with, in what was a much smaller and more homogeneous nation. </p>
<p>The discipline of a biography, even one as grounded in public events as this, is that it demands a singular focus. The times are brought to life from the subject’s point of view. The consequence is that if perspectives do not touch the life of the subject they do not feature as much as they might. For those surveying the period with a broader lens, enduring enmities might be more sharply defined. Cropp navigates this complicated terrain without losing his way in the morass of competing interests.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-parallel-lives-of-two-influential-editors-shaped-australias-literary-culture-191573">How the parallel lives of two influential editors shaped Australia's literary culture</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The cultural conversation</h2>
<p>The coincidence of the publication of Horne’s Observer, funded by Frank Packer, and Tom Fitzgerald’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation_(Australian_periodical)">Nation</a> in the late 1950s spoke to the need to aerate the national political and cultural conversation. </p>
<p>Add <a href="https://quadrant.org.au/">Quadrant</a>, with its European and US backers, and the smaller local journals – <a href="https://meanjin.com.au/">Meanjin</a>, <a href="https://overland.org.au/">Overland</a>, <a href="https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/">Australian Book Review</a> – and later <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation_Review">Nation Review</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_National_Times">The National Times</a>, and counterculture publications with a focus on feminism, music and surfing, and the debates became more vibrant. </p>
<p>Cropp conveys a sense of this through the slightly limited prism of Horne’s worldview, with its emphasis on business, religion, Asia and politics. It took a while before women, immigrants, the environment, Indigenous rights and culture intruded as seriously into the way Horne regarded the nation.</p>
<p>In his 2004 essay for Griffith Review, Horne approvingly quoted Cicero’s reflections on the satisfactions of old age: “he could admire the old man who had something of the young man in him, but also the young man who had within him, something of the old man.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546542/original/file-20230906-21-s2mobg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546542/original/file-20230906-21-s2mobg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/546542/original/file-20230906-21-s2mobg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546542/original/file-20230906-21-s2mobg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546542/original/file-20230906-21-s2mobg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546542/original/file-20230906-21-s2mobg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546542/original/file-20230906-21-s2mobg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/546542/original/file-20230906-21-s2mobg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ryan Cropp.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Black Inc.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Reading this book, I suspect Horne would have found in Cropp just such a young man. He is one of several young men who are now seeking to make sense of Australia in much the same way Horne and his colleagues did several generations earlier. </p>
<p>There is a growing body of work by men with academic and journalistic backgrounds, who are excavating the past with considerable literary flair and scholarly discipline to better inform the present. It is a group that includes Sean Kelly, Billy Griffiths, Paddy Manning, Jeff Sparrow, Patrick Mullins, Carl Reinecke, Dominic Kelly, Tom Roberts and Sam Vincent, among others, but disappointingly few women.</p>
<p>Donald was a man who enjoyed the company of women – he provided many with career-defining opportunities – but feminism did not feature strongly in his worldview. He remained in many ways the man he was born to be: the precocious, much-loved, indulged only son of a teacher who returned damaged from the first world war. Cropp has captured a full life, well lived, that was a tribute to the importance of paying attention and making a difference.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211884/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julianne Schultz 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>Donald Horne’s genius was his ability to capture on the page a personal intellectual journey that reflected one the nation was also taking.Julianne Schultz, Professor Emeritus of Media and Culture, Griffith University, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2094012023-07-12T20:05:00Z2023-07-12T20:05:00ZAuthor, ambassador, commentator, critic? It’s not always easy to earn a crust as a former PM<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536956/original/file-20230712-23-hruk9x.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>Few Australians are losing sleep over how Scott Morrison is going to earn a crust after politics. Few outside the federal Coalition, at any rate. His continuing presence on the opposition backbench serves as a distraction from the present and reminder of the past. Unfortunately, that past keeps intruding on the present – most recently, in the form of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/robodebt-royal-commissioner-makes-multiple-referrals-for-prosecution-condemning-scheme-as-crude-and-cruel-209318">robodebt royal commission report</a>. There is no reason to believe relief is in sight. </p>
<p>Morrison’s prime ministership was a landmark in one respect that is rarely noticed. Leaving aside the independently wealthy Malcolm Turnbull, Morrison is the first prime minister originally elected to parliament under the post-2004 <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/howards-shock-move-on-super-20040213-gdxat7.html">superannuation arrangements</a> for politicians. These were the result of a decision made by the Howard government, as a defensive measure against an insurgent Labor Party under Mark Latham, to end the gold-plated scheme that had politicians getting a pension for life once they had been in parliament for eight years, with further generous benefits for ministers.</p>
<p>Of course, former prime ministers receive many other goodies, such as office facilities and free travel, but that does not earn them a living. Morrison is just 55, with a young family. He does not seem short of a quid, but it is easy to see why he might be reluctant to surrender his parliamentary salary without having something else lined up. </p>
<p>He has been <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/morrison-heading-towards-the-exit-eyes-uk-defence-job-20230501-p5d4oz.html">shopping himself around</a> and seems to imagine a future on the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/aug/26/scott-morrison-received-token-payments-for-speeches-and-plans-to-join-global-lecture-circuit">lecture circuit</a>. That is potentially a nice little earner for an ex-leader, as Tony Blair and Bill Clinton have shown. But as US vice-presidential candidate Senator Lloyd Bentsen might have put it if he were still around: “Scott, you’re no Bill Clinton”. The opportunities for a former Australian prime minister to play wise elder statesman seem unpromising.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/he-played-his-ukulele-as-the-ship-went-down-frank-bongiorno-on-the-political-year-that-was-194063">'He played his ukulele as the ship went down': Frank Bongiorno on the political year that was</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Bill Clinton, like all former US presidents, remains “Mr President”, but it is different under a parliamentary system. There is no obvious role for a former Australian prime minister to play. Nor is there an obvious career path for them to take to keep themselves in the manner that they presumably see as befitting their status. If you are wealthy, like Turnbull or Kevin Rudd, there is nothing to worry about. But matters are more complicated for others. Even Robert Menzies relied on benefactors to help him acquire a home in Melbourne after spending 16 years in the Lodge.</p>
<p>So, what have our ex-prime ministers done with their post-prime ministerial lives? Five never had to face the dilemma. Joseph Lyons and John Curtin died in office, and Harold Holt disappeared at sea. Ben Chifley died as opposition leader in 1951, after losing an election to Menzies in December 1949. Alfred Deakin tragically lost his mind.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536960/original/file-20230712-23-a2ul92.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536960/original/file-20230712-23-a2ul92.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536960/original/file-20230712-23-a2ul92.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536960/original/file-20230712-23-a2ul92.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536960/original/file-20230712-23-a2ul92.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536960/original/file-20230712-23-a2ul92.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536960/original/file-20230712-23-a2ul92.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even Sir Robert Menzies was a little strapped after leaving office.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Museum of Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Edmund Barton, our first, went to the High Court, but he is unique in following that course. Several have assumed diplomatic appointments. High commissioner in London was popular in the early decades of last century, and a natural progression given that prime ministers, not external affairs or foreign ministers, had primary responsibility for relations with the United Kingdom. George Reid, Andrew Fisher, Joseph Cook and Stanley Melbourne Bruce all took on this role. Reid subsequently entered the House of Commons for the Conservative Party for a brief period before his death. Bruce distinguished himself as high commissioner for over a decade, taking in the latter years of the Depression and the second world war before he went to the House of Lords as Viscount Bruce of Melbourne. </p>
<p>The practice of sending ex-prime ministers on major diplomatic postings fell into disuse. The Hawke government appointed Gough Whitlam to Paris as ambassador to UNESCO, but Rudd’s recent appointment to Washington is otherwise a departure from patterns established since the second world war. </p>
<p>Efforts to gain a prestigious international role have usually produced disappointment. Malcolm Fraser failed in a bid to become secretary-general of the Commonwealth, but he did serve on the eminent persons group trying to end apartheid in South Africa and chaired the international relief agency, CARE Australia. The even more exalted role of secretary-general of the United Nations eluded Rudd.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536961/original/file-20230712-20-gxwl1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536961/original/file-20230712-20-gxwl1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536961/original/file-20230712-20-gxwl1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536961/original/file-20230712-20-gxwl1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536961/original/file-20230712-20-gxwl1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536961/original/file-20230712-20-gxwl1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536961/original/file-20230712-20-gxwl1u.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">Kevin Rudd missed out as UN general-secretary, but has since been appointed Australia’s US ambassador.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Others have tried business. Bob Hawke’s recent biographer, Troy Bramston, <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/bob-hawke-9780143788096">reports</a> that he “made a lot of money in the 1990s and 2000s”, with China a focus. Hawke had excellent business connections stretching back to his time at the ACTU, and made the most of them. In general, his business activities, combined with his criticisms of his successor Paul Keating, did little to restore his reputation. Keating himself pursued business opportunities, taking an interest in Sydney planning issues, and has now emerged as the harshest <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/15/paul-keating-labels-aukus-submarine-pact-worst-deal-in-all-history-in-attack-on-albanese-government">public critic</a> of AUKUS.</p>
<p>Most write memoirs, which can be lucrative. Menzies, Whitlam, Hawke, John Howard, Julia Gillard and Turnbull did well with sales; Rudd less so. Fraser also wrote books as he became more critical of the Liberal Party he once led. Howard and Gillard have continued to write, while Gillard was a founder and remains chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, established at King’s College London and now also based at the Australian National University (ANU). She has interested herself in girls’ education. Whitlam was a visiting fellow at the ANU for a time after politics.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536963/original/file-20230712-22-kiiqy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536963/original/file-20230712-22-kiiqy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536963/original/file-20230712-22-kiiqy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536963/original/file-20230712-22-kiiqy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536963/original/file-20230712-22-kiiqy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536963/original/file-20230712-22-kiiqy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536963/original/file-20230712-22-kiiqy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Writing a memoir can be a lucrative option for ex-PMs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The problem for ex-prime ministers today is that the dynamics of political careers have changed. Politics was once essentially a profession; now, it is more commonly a stage in a career and those leaving the job are often only in their fifties. </p>
<p>Billy Hughes was for a time Australia’s longest-serving prime minister, in the role from late 1915 through to early 1923. But these were but a few years in a political career that stretched from his election to the New South Wales parliament as an early Labor member in 1894, to serving in the House of Representatives with several parties from 1901 through to his death in 1952. Another Billy, McMahon, continued in parliament for almost decade after his defeat at the 1972 election, offering commentary on his own side of politics that was rarely cherished.</p>
<p>Ironically, the greatest harm McMahon did to his party after 1972 was an ill-timed resignation that saw his seat of Lowe go to Labor. But when prime ministers deposed by their own side have stayed on – Hughes, John Gorton, Rudd and Tony Abbott – they can do their successors a little or a lot of damage.</p>
<p>Gorton appeared in a whisky ad, and Whitlam advertised pasta sauce and telephones. Morrison made his career in marketing and gained a public profile over the controversial “Where the bloody hell are you?” Australian tourism ad. </p>
<p>A master spruiker, perhaps the answer to Morrison’s dilemma lies under his nose.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209401/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Bongiorno 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>It might seem as though there would be a host of lucrative options for a former leader after politics, but that’s not always the case.Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2080952023-07-06T03:51:51Z2023-07-06T03:51:51ZShould the voting age in Australia be lowered to 16?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535232/original/file-20230703-252434-d5zg3i.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>Attempts to lower the voting age in Australia to 16 have been historically <a href="https://law.unimelb.edu.au/centres/errn/about/past-events/lowering-the-voting-age-in-australia">unsuccessful</a>. More recently, the <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwik97j_5d__AhWBSWwGHX-2BWoQFnoECBAQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makeit16.au%2F&usg=AOvVaw3O0c90Y1uz8y5KvToM7e_Y&opi=89978449">Make It 16 campaign</a> has been advocating for the enfranchisement of 16 and 17-year-olds, but with <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-13/lowering-the-voting-age-to-16/102473606">no fines</a> for under 18s who fail to cast their ballots. </p>
<p>Voluntary or not, lowering the voting age will have consequences for how political behaviour shapes political outcomes, especially for issues that particularly interest the young, such as climate change, cost of living, mental health and wellbeing. </p>
<p>Younger people tend to be more <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/jun/28/young-australians-far-less-likely-than-parents-to-vote-coalition-as-they-get-older-report-finds">progressive</a> in their views. This in turn would alter the make-up of the Australian electorate at each election or referendum. The addition of socially progressive voters might well be <a href="https://reporter.anu.edu.au/all-stories/young-people-may-decide-the-outcome-of-the-voice-referendum-heres-why">decisive</a> on a highly contentious and divisive issue such as the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.</p>
<h2>Who should have the right to vote?</h2>
<p>In 1973, following mass youth casualties in the Vietnam War, Australia’s voting age was lowered from 21 to 18. The reasoning behind this centred on equity: if 18-year-olds were old enough to fight and die, they should be old enough to vote. </p>
<p>Today’s equity arguments centre on taxation: many 16 and 17-year-olds pay tax and therefore should have equal rights to representation. However, this representation logic is not <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Electoral_Matters/VotingAge/Advisory_report/section?id=committees%2Freportjnt%2F024195%2F26301#:%7E:text=Civics%20education,-2.81&text=Lowering%20the%20voluntary%20voting%20age,for%20politics%20and%20civics%20education.">unique</a> to 16 and 17-year-olds. It applies equally well to those under 16, as well as to tourists and temporary residents, who pay tax but do not have the right to vote.</p>
<p>Beyond the taxation argument, the franchise has been aligned with other adult responsibilities such as driving a car and consenting to sex. An important point of distinction, though, is the motivation: do they actually want to vote? </p>
<p>Although enthusiastic young leaders are driving campaigns such as Make It 16, we cannot be confident that a subset of politically engaged young people is representative of the Australian youth. There is no question about the cognitive abilities of 16 to 17-year-olds to engage with the electoral process. But there is little longitudinal data to firmly establish that younger people are <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/everyday/do-young-people-care-about-politics/10905604">enthused</a> about voting. </p>
<p>That is not to say young people are not <a href="https://theconversation.com/young-australians-are-supposedly-turning-their-backs-on-democracy-but-are-they-any-different-from-older-voters-163891">interested in politics</a>. <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/292274/2/Full%20Thesis%20Revisions_clean%20copy.pdf">Evidence</a> from Australia and elsewhere shows young people engage differently: their engagement with politics is based more on issues than party loyalties. </p>
<p>Being able to vote would mean younger people feel less excluded and alienated from politics. However, critics <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/gen-z-pushing-for-australias-voting-age-to-be-lowered-to-16/news-story/ba9103ed2b5bb825b9178b6efb52a1d9">worry</a> voluntary voting for 16 to 17-year-olds would weaken compulsory voting. </p>
<p>Australia’s compulsory voting means it has <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10361146.2021.1899131">resisted</a> youth electoral disengagement at the polls, which has markedly happened in other non-compulsory voting democracies. Given the highly transitory life stage they are in, young people are more likely to abstain if voting is voluntary. This would also run the risk of imprinting the habit of abstention.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1673586367958499328"}"></div></p>
<h2>What does the evidence suggest?</h2>
<p>Data from the Australian Election Study <a href="https://australianelectionstudy.org/wp-content/uploads/McAllister-Voting-Age-2014.pdf">suggest</a> lowering the voting age would not invigorate electoral participation. It is likely early enfranchisement alone <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Electoral_Matters/VotingAge/Advisory_report/section?id=committees%2Freportjnt%2F024195%2F26301#footnote28target">will not be a panacea</a> for youth engagement. Rather, there are concerns that voluntary voting might further exacerbate the problem of lower youth enrolment. </p>
<p>My <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/292274/2/Full%20Thesis%20Revisions_clean%20copy.pdf">comparative study</a> of youth electoral disengagement in advanced democracies studied a suite of institutional factors, including: </p>
<ul>
<li>electoral system (majoritarian versus proportional)</li>
<li>type of executive (parliamentary/presidential)</li>
<li>type of system (federal/unitary)</li>
<li>party system (two/multi)</li>
<li>voting age (16-21). </li>
</ul>
<p>I found that, even when controlling for compulsory voting, it is the registration system that significantly influences generational engagement at the polls. </p>
<p>Transition to adulthood is characterised by increasing mobility in every aspect of life. On top of this, registration rules make it difficult for young people without a permanent, long-term residence to register to vote. </p>
<p>Within the voluntary registration system, young people are especially disadvantaged since new eligible voters are often unfamiliar with the registration system, including how and where to register to vote. Consequently, many confused, eligible voters inadvertently miss voter registration deadlines. Current <a href="https://www.aec.gov.au/Enrolling_to_vote/Enrolment_stats/performance/national-youth.htm">evidence</a> shows voter enrolment is lowest among those aged 18-24, at 89.5%, compared to a <a href="https://www.aec.gov.au/enrolling_to_vote/enrolment_stats/">national figure</a> of 97.2%.</p>
<p>However, what has been largely missing in the voting age debate is that lowering it to 16 may be a way to redress this enrolment discrepancy. It may be an institutional design feature that could cater to youth transition: 16-17-year-olds are more likely to be in parental homes when they enrol and then finally vote. This may help attract and keep them as active voters as they gain independence.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535238/original/file-20230703-257826-4gpgx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535238/original/file-20230703-257826-4gpgx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535238/original/file-20230703-257826-4gpgx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535238/original/file-20230703-257826-4gpgx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535238/original/file-20230703-257826-4gpgx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535238/original/file-20230703-257826-4gpgx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535238/original/file-20230703-257826-4gpgx4.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">Lowering the voting age would likely be a boon for the Greens party.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jono Searle/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What does this mean for (major) parties?</h2>
<p>The Coalition’s historic low support among young voters in the <a href="https://australianelectionstudy.org/wp-content/uploads/The-2022-Australian-Federal-Election-Results-from-the-Australian-Election-Study.pdf">2022 federal election</a> may be a symptom of a long-lasting generational shift in the electorate. In the past two elections, only 26% of Gen Z voters, born after 1996, reported voting for the Coalition, while 67% of them voted either for the Greens or Labor. Although historically young people have tended to become more conservative as they age, <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/millennials-are-getting-older-but-not-more-conservative-20221205-p5c3na">recent evidence</a> suggests voters born after 1980 are not doing that.</p>
<p>Extrapolating this trajectory of voting preferences, the addition of more socially progressive, issue-based younger voters will potentially benefit the left-of-centre parties, particularly the Greens. One political reason for Labor’s reluctance to lower the voting age seems to be the stark popularity of the Greens among Gen Z voters, which would increase the Greens threat to the incumbent.</p>
<p>Over the years, both major parties have been losing their (youth) votes to the Greens. Lowering the voting age may well pronounce this.</p>
<h2>What would it mean for young voters?</h2>
<p>Given the context of compulsory voting, Australia is best placed to implement the lowering of voting age to reap the benefits of engaging younger voters to the electorate. Much <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/push-to-follow-overseas-lead-and-lower-voting-age-to-16-gains-momentum-20220401-p5aa3o.html">has been said</a> about how this would improve youth representation, efficacy and outcomes. </p>
<p>However, lowering the voting age might not address the problem of <a href="https://www.policyforum.net/overly-suspicious-youth-or-dodgy-politicians/">youth distrust</a> of politicians and the widening gap between younger generations and political parties. This would require a sincere effort to understand what causes the drift, before enfranchising younger voters and loosely tying them to a voluntary voting system. In fact, there is a real risk that voluntary voting might encourage the type of abstention driven by a strong dislike for politicians. </p>
<p>Enfranchising hundreds and thousands of additional voters would also inevitably raise the issues of ensuring proper enrolment and that young voters are well informed to vote. It would need to be accompanied by a major boost to <a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-are-not-adequately-preparing-young-australians-to-participate-in-our-democracy-88131">civics education</a> in Australian secondary schools.</p>
<p>All in all, while compulsory voting is the best system for lowering the voting age, we’d have to be careful not to undermine the system as it stands. Instead, it is important to tie it to efforts to inform younger voters and reduce the age-related barriers in a (compulsory) electoral process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208095/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Intifar Chowdhury 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 are several strong arguments for allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to vote. But there are potential pitfalls, too.Intifar Chowdhury, Youth Researcher, Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2027202023-05-02T20:00:20Z2023-05-02T20:00:20Z‘We’d be getting it from both sides, which was horrendous’: Australian political players on our brutal refugee policies<p>In September 2017, I interviewed a senior figure within the Australian Labor Party in his office in Canberra. At one point in our discussion he told me: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The biggest contest in Australian politics is essentially around which issue you can make ascendant, so if you’re [a] conservative Opposition leader, you want to make border security or the lack thereof and debt and deficits the issues that are ascendant in people’s minds, and then the carbon tax. But certainly in 2010, prior to the hung parliament and the cross-party agreement on climate, it was all about border security and debt and deficits.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He continued, explaining: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>So what you’re doing every day, the whole contest is about can you make sure that that’s the story in the newspapers the next day, and then if it’s the story in the newspapers the next day, is it what the radio’s talking about in the morning, and then if it’s what the radio’s talking about in the morning, is it what the TVs pick up or it’s what the leaders get asked about at their media events and therefore that informs the TV news in the evening, and then you have a new revelation at some point in the afternoon that you push out or that someone uncovers that starts the cycle again.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This, he argued, was a tactic the Liberal Party embraced in the “latter period” of Chris Evans’s time as Immigration minister, when “every time [Labor] thought they had been successful in moving the conversation on to some other topic, either events would catch up with them or Abbott or Morrison would go out and say something really outrageous that would inflame the conversation about border security and it would shift the conversation back onto that”.</p>
<p>He described this as </p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/fattened-pigs-dog-whistles-and-dead-cats-the-menagerie-of-a-lynton-crosby-campaign-60695">the Lynton Crosby thing</a> of if you drop a dead cat on the table in the middle of a dinner party, no-one’s going to like it. Everyone’s going to think you’re a bit weird, but they’re going to spend the rest of the night talking about the dead cat on the middle of the table in the dinner party.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Lynton Crosby being referred to here is a former federal director of the Liberal Party, who, with Mark Textor, co-runs a political campaigning consultancy firm, C|T Group. Crosby oversaw the Liberal Party’s campaigns for the 1996, 1998, 2001 and 2004 federal elections, all of which were won by the Howard-led Liberal–Nationals Coalition.</p>
<p>People who have worked for C|T Group also played a role in more recent Coalition campaigns: the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/11/the-nerve-centres-inside-the-coalition-and-labor-election-campaign-headquarters">2022 federal election campaign</a> included someone from C|T Group as a pollster, and an “alumnus” as a consultant.</p>
<p>And so many did not feel it was a coincidence that on the final day of that campaign, with clear signs that the Coalition would lose, there was an announcement that <a href="https://theconversation.com/officials-resisted-morrison-governments-attempt-to-have-them-amplify-election-day-boat-arrival-187546">Border Force had intercepted a boat</a> carrying refugees which had been heading towards Australia.</p>
<p>Crosby himself has subsequently run elections for the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom, including for <a href="https://theconversation.com/boris-johnson-says-his-time-as-uk-pm-was-mission-largely-accomplished-how-does-that-actually-stack-up-187273">Boris Johnson</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/where-does-theresa-may-sit-in-the-hall-of-fame-for-disastrous-prime-ministers-118347">Theresa May</a>, where his “dead cat” strategy gained some notoriety thanks to a Telegraph column by his former star politician.</p>
<p>Writing in 2013, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/9906445/This-cap-on-bankers-bonuses-is-like-a-dead-cat-pure-distraction.html">Johnson revealed</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Let us suppose you are losing an argument. The facts are overwhelmingly against you and the more people focus on the reality the worse it is for you and your case. Your best bet in these circumstances is to perform a manoeuvre that a great campaigner describes as “throwing a dead cat on the table, mate”.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He continued: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The key point, says my Australian friend, is that everyone will shout “Jeez, mate, there’s a dead cat on the table!”; in other words they will be talking about the dead cat, the thing you want them to talk about, and they will not be talking about the issue that has been causing you so much grief.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While at times the strategy is used to distract from potentially more damning political conversations, in Australia we have also seen controversy being created to direct attention to the political games being played over matters related to national security and our borders. </p>
<p>Creating a crisis is a means of controlling the media and the narrative, controlling people’s emotions and controlling people’s lives. For we should never lose sight of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk-moves-to-copy-australias-cruel-asylum-seeker-policy-and-it-will-have-the-same-heavy-human-toll-201390">asylum seekers at the borders</a> whose lives are subjected to these political games.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-asylum-seeker-policy-history-a-story-of-blunders-and-shame-118396">Australia's asylum seeker policy history: a story of blunders and shame</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Crisis controlled and refused</h2>
<p>On 15 December 2010, a boat carrying asylum seekers <a href="https://theconversation.com/stop-the-deaths-rescuing-asylum-seekers-is-an-integrity-issue-13071">crashed at Christmas Island</a>, in a maritime tragedy that made news around the country. Janga was carrying Iranian, Iraqi and stateless asylum seekers, as well as an Indonesian crew, when its engine failed and propelled it towards a dangerous outcrop, where it was dashed against the rocks. </p>
<p>Both those on board and residents on Christmas Island had called the Australian authorities to report a vessel in distress, but the authorities were remarkably slow to respond.</p>
<p>Christmas Island residents watched from the cliffs as passengers screamed for help when the hull broke apart and they were catapulted into the water. Residents threw lifejackets and safety equipment into the water to help the drowning passengers, but for many, it was to no avail. Janga, which the Australian authorities labelled SIEV 221, was carrying 92 people, and only 42 survived.</p>
<p>Footage captured by Christmas Island residents was shown widely on Australian television. It is horrific. One survivor, Hassan, <a href="https://us16.campaign-archive.com/?u=6f3de369e336fc0ecd343cc25&id=c95b629c82">told researchers</a> Linda Briskman and Michelle Dimasi:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If the Navy could have come a little bit closer to the rocks to save people […] </p>
<p>I don’t know what happened but one speed boat it came to save only one of the people, one person, then going back to the Navy boat, smoking and looking, but then staying there for a while before they came back. They could have picked up seven or eight people at one time [but] they didn’t do so. It seems they didn’t care about us. If they had been quicker, only by two or three minutes, they would have saved the people […] </p>
<p>We owe our lives to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-27/christmas-island-shipwreck-survivor-slams-rescue/2812682">the people of Christmas Island</a>, not the Australian Navy. The life jackets they threw us made us to survive.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another survivor lost his wife and three-month-old son: <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-27/christmas-island-shipwreck-survivor-slams-rescue/2812682">he told</a> the 2011 coronial inquest into the disaster that he saw his son’s body floating in the water six metres away from him, but his wife had disappeared. Her body was never recovered. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We have suffered enough and we can’t sleep during the night because as soon as we shut our eyes, all these scenes and memories come to our eyes … Who’s going to answer for that?</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523395/original/file-20230428-20-yj587j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523395/original/file-20230428-20-yj587j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523395/original/file-20230428-20-yj587j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523395/original/file-20230428-20-yj587j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523395/original/file-20230428-20-yj587j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523395/original/file-20230428-20-yj587j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523395/original/file-20230428-20-yj587j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523395/original/file-20230428-20-yj587j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">SIEV 221 being forced against a cliff during the Christmas Island boat tragedy in which up to asylum seekers died.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">WA Coroner</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When I discussed this crash with a former ministerial adviser, she told me, “You can’t underestimate how shell-shocked [government] people were. Some of the ministers that went up to Christmas Island were just traumatised by what happened.”</p>
<p>Numerous other interviewees mentioned this to me as a key event that shaped their feelings about refugee policy. It has had a profound effect on those in the Australian Labor Party in particular, as Labor was in government then. </p>
<p>Matt Thistlethwaite, Member of Parliament for Kingsford Smith, told me he was deeply affected, as someone involved in the lifesaving community.</p>
<p>“I was just looking at it thinking, geez, get in there and save them,” he told me. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You could just see these people drowning. Jump in and bloody well save them. That’s the natural reaction that someone as a lifesaver has. But I understand that that couldn’t be done because it was quite a dangerous situation and a lot of those people wouldn’t have had the skills that a lifesaver has or the devices that a lifesaver uses … but that really changed a lot of my view of that. It was just a tragedy that so many people could drown in front of everyone’s eyes really, in front of the nation’s eyes.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This moment, he told me, had “a massive effect in changing a lot of people’s views”. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It certainly did within the Party. So, we then started to try to work on well, how do you – how do you still become compassionate, how do you take your fair share of refugees, given what’s happening internationally, but stop people from putting themselves in those dangerous situations, because a lot of the evidence that we were receiving was that they’re vulnerable people. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>“Because they might get to Indonesia, they’re told that – [by] the UNHCR – that well, you’re going to have to wait eight to ten years if you want to go to Australia. If you’ve got kids that’s your kids’ education, gone,” he said.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>So they’re vulnerable and they’re manipulated by people who can say, “Well, I can get you there in the next six months.” They don’t tell you that it’s going to be on an overcrowded boat and you’re going to – there won’t be lifejackets, travelling across a rough stretch of sea, you don’t swim, you don’t know how to swim, and you’re risking your life. So that was the policy dilemma really for us: how do you make it safe but still show compassion and generosity?</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/like-primo-levi-at-auschwitz-behrouz-boochani-testifies-for-the-people-who-lived-and-died-in-a-prison-camp-195927">Like Primo Levi at Auschwitz, Behrouz Boochani testifies for the people who lived and died in a prison camp</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The work of feelings</h2>
<p>I am not aiming to adjudicate on whether claims to emotional stress, sadness and desperation on the part of those in power are genuinely felt. But I am trying to understand what work the description of these feelings – whether they are being discussed in an interview with a historian, or in a caucus meeting, or with a journalist – does.</p>
<p>Here, the problem is identified as people (including children) boarding boats and risking death on the seas – “putting themselves in these dangerous situations”. And the solution is understood to rest in the governmental management of people’s movements and access to border crossing, to balance restriction with “compassion and generosity” in a formulation determined by the policymakers.</p>
<p>It is always a government’s ideas, a government’s understanding of the events and the possible solutions, which become pre-eminent. We need to question why governments are so rarely seen as being responsible for creating the conditions that allow for such tragedies to occur.</p>
<h2>Moments of crisis, refused</h2>
<p>In 2017, I discussed with a former ministerial adviser in the immigration portfolio the role of ministerial decisions in removing people from detention, or other forms of ministerial intervention into people’s claims for asylum. </p>
<p>She explained some of the different situations and factors. There was a reluctance in both the immigration minister’s office and the department to release those who were self-harming, as they believed this would be considered a “reward”. The best response was a refusal to engage, they believed.</p>
<p>For her, this constituted a particularly difficult part of the job: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[T]he hardest job in the office were the people who answered the phones: people would be ringing up abusing you saying, “You’re all hard arses and you’re this and you’re cruel and you’re horrible,” and other people are ringing up and saying, “You’re not being hard enough,” and you didn’t know which phone call you were taking every day, and that would happen. When there was something blowing up it would just come in. We’d be getting it from both sides, which was horrendous.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I have thought a lot about this comment. She had been incredibly welcoming: hosting me in her home, buying lunch, looking through her files for information, talking with me at length and generally being engaged, interested and supportive of my research. We were two white, middle-class women chatting.</p>
<p>Yet in this moment she describes <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/48649058">people self-harming</a> – inscribing on their bodies the depth of their need for asylum in ways that those of us who have never experienced such trauma can scarcely imagine. She describes the dreadful emotional impact of allowing people to self-harm and the effects on staffers of taking phone calls. And reiterates the wisdom of doing nothing. I think of this as a moment of crisis refused.</p>
<p>Many of those who are self-harming are also attempting to force a crisis, but this crisis is of a fundamentally different nature to the notion of crisis described by Milton Friedman: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some policymakers work to institute this kind of crisis, which Naomi Klein critiques in her book <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-shock-doctrine-9780141024530">The Shock Doctrine</a>. Klein explains some crises (like the 2001 Tampa affair, where the Howard government refused to let a Norwegian freighter carrying 433 rescued refugees enter Australian waters, on the cusp of a federal election) are created in order to “shock” things: to take control and change conditions. </p>
<p>In the case of refugees self-harming, they are attempting to force a response that recognises their claims. But those with the power and authority to intervene too often turn away.</p>
<p>The department refuses to see an epidemic of self-harm as a crisis, denying the historical context and discourse these asylum seekers and refugees claim. Instead, senior staffers tell a story of suffering also endured by politicians, advisers and staffers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/asylum-seekers-and-the-dignity-of-work-28502">Asylum seekers and the dignity of work </a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A brutal society</h2>
<p>We see this pattern again and again. In 2016, the so-called “Nauru files” – a collection of “more than 2,000 leaked reports from Australia’s detention camp for asylum seekers” in Nauru – were published <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/nauru-files">by The Guardian</a>. The journalists explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Guardian’s analysis of the files reveal that children are vastly over-represented in the reports.</p>
<p>More than half of the 2,116 reports – a total of 1,086 incidents, or 51.3% – involved children, although children made up only about 18% of those in detention in Nauru during the time covered by the reports, May 2013 to October 2015. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The release of these documents, some of which “contain distressing examples of behaviour by traumatised children”, led to a parliamentary inquiry, but no substantial policy or practical changes. The desire to provoke a crisis was clear, but the cry went unheeded.</p>
<p>The former ministerial adviser informed me that she cannot imagine any government allowing asylum seekers who arrive without permit to be granted free entry on arrival any time soon. She has “had arguments with plenty of advocates”, and her view is: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>get over mandatory [detention] … no government’s ever going to get rid of mandatory detention … particularly in the current environment. </p>
<p>No government is going to put themselves in the position […] that someone has arrived on a boat or arrived on a plane and three weeks later blows up the Sydney Opera House. They’re just not going to do it. </p>
<p>They’re not going to leave themselves wide open for that. And that’s actually what the Australian people want, so, that’s the political reality […] It’s a really challenging space.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Stories of national security – that is, of the “risk management” needed to avoid a potential “crisis” – dominate the media headlines. Yet my interviews also tell of the brutality of the society in which this border regime exists. </p>
<p>They tell of <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/emotional-communities-in-the-early-middle-ages/oclc/63178839">the fundamental problem</a> that is woven into the fabric of a settler-colonial government.</p>
<h2>‘He is killing us’</h2>
<p>In 2015, paediatricians Professor Elizabeth Elliott and Dr Hasantha Gunasekera conducted a “monitoring visit” to the detention centre at Wickham Point in Darwin, in order to report to the Australian Human Rights Commission on “the health and well-being of children in immigration detention”.</p>
<p>As part of their visit, <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/asylum-seekers-and-refugees/publications/health-and-well-being-children-immigration">they asked</a> children and their parents what they would like reported to the AHRC. One 16-year-old boy told them, “The Prime Minister of Australia says he is saving our lives but at the same time he is killing us.” </p>
<p>A 15-year-old boy said, “I honestly don’t see [a] future. I wish I had died in the ocean.” An 18-year-old boy told them, “I think for dying. I don’t see any future. I feel sadness I see no future.” A father of three teenage boys said, “I have not come to this country to teach my children how to commit suicide.”</p>
<p>When I interviewed Elliott in November 2018, she distinctly remembered the father telling her this. She related more stories of what she had seen, and the conversations she had had, impressing upon me, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is not normal for a woman with a young baby to try and kill herself. It’s not normal for a seven-year-old child – or not just one, many seven-year-old children – to say they want to kill themselves. It’s not that these people realise, you know, what might be manipulative behaviour.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>People become, in queer theorist Sara Ahmed’s <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/queer-phenomenology">formulation</a> of the work of emotions, orientated towards certain other peoples, histories and ideas.</p>
<p>In my interview extracts with the government staffer, we can see she is broadly sympathetic to those ringing in with complaints and to those who self-harm, but she identifies strongly with the members of the department who provide advice on how to respond, or with the staffers in the offices receiving the angry phone calls. </p>
<p>She expresses sympathy for them while remaining keenly aware of the broader tragedy of the situation. But this may create a false equivalence, whether intended or not.</p>
<h2>A direction maintained</h2>
<p>According to the most <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-statistics/statistics/visa-statistics/live/immigration-detention">recently released government statistics</a>, there are now fewer than five children living in so-called “Alternative Places of Detention” (such as hotels, hospitals, and the like) and another 132 children who are living in community detention. </p>
<p>All of these children are in Australia: those who were in Nauru have been brought to Australia for medical treatment. </p>
<p>The Labor government <a href="https://theconversation.com/changes-to-temporary-protection-visas-are-a-welcome-development-and-they-wont-encourage-people-smugglers-199763">announced in February 2023</a> they are granting permanent residency to a cohort of people currently on temporary protection visas or safe haven enterprise visas. But they are keeping temporary protection visas on the books – and have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/07/david-pocock-blasts-labor-over-bid-to-reauthorise-nauru-offshore-immigration-detention">recently re-authorised</a> the use of the detention centre in Nauru. They also maintain the policy of turning back boats of asylum seekers who enter Australian waters. </p>
<p>The direction this government maintains towards refugees and asylum seekers seems clear. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited extract from <a href="https://publishing.monash.edu/product/cruel-care/">Cruel Care: A History of Children at our Borders</a> by Jordana Silverstein (Monash University Publishing).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202720/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This material was researched and written with funding provided by the Australian Research Council (FL140100049, ‘Child Refugees and Australian Internationalism, 1920 to the Present’). </span></em></p>Why are governments so rarely seen as being responsible for creating the conditions that allow asylum seeker tragedies to occur?Jordana Silverstein, Historian, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2000692023-04-19T20:10:06Z2023-04-19T20:10:06Z‘A combination of deficiencies’: the ‘disastrous’ Morrison government dissected<p>Almost a year after the victory of the Albanese government, the defects of its predecessors are increasingly obvious. The competence and teamwork of the current government underline the weaknesses of the Morrison regime. The contrast between the two styles of leadership reminds us that bullying is no substitute for collaboration and empathy.</p>
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<p><em>Review: The Morrison Government: Governing Through Crisis – edited by Brendan McCaffrie, Michelle Grattan and Chris Wallace (UNSW Press).</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Future historians will probably be most struck by the impact of COVID during those years, and the extraordinary effect the epidemic had upon everyday life. In <a href="https://unsw.press/books/morrison-government/">The Morrison Government: Governing Through Crisis</a>, there are two chapters on the government’s response to the epidemic: one by Stephen Duckett in the policy section, and the other by Mark Evans and Michelle Grattan on the role of experts and democracy. </p>
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<p>Evans and Grattan refer to claims that there was “a Melbourne circle, which Sydney experts believed had privileged access.” This may explain why Duckett was asked to write the substantive chapter on the COVID response. Duckett served as secretary of the federal health department during the Keating government, and is now based at the Grattan Institute. He provides a thorough and persuasive case that Australia’s pandemic response was reasonably strong overall. </p>
<p>“The states provided leadership and made the tough decisions,” he argues. “But the Morrison Government’s record in management of the pandemic was very poor indeed.” </p>
<p>I would be less certain about this distinction. There are questionable aspects in some of the state responses, such as the treatment of housing commission towers in Melbourne and the apparent double standards applied across the Sydney metropolitan area, that need to be acknowledged.</p>
<p>The argument that state premiers became important national leaders is supported by Alan Fenna’s analysis of federalism, which makes it all the more disappointing that this book gives so little insight into figures like Dan Andrews and Gladys Berejiklian, and their often tense relations with the prime minister. Too often the personalities of political figures have been bleached out in the interests of apparent scholarly objectivity.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-scott-morrison-was-sworn-in-to-several-portfolios-other-than-prime-minister-during-the-pandemic-how-can-this-be-done-188718">Explainer: Scott Morrison was sworn in to several portfolios other than prime minister during the pandemic. How can this be done?</a>
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<h2>Rehashing the headlines</h2>
<p>The Morrison Government does a competent job of chronicling the three years between 2019 and 2022, but it is a book to be used for reference rather than as a source of original ideas or insights. Too much of the book seems as if it is rehashing the headlines, while the criticisms are for the most part predictable.</p>
<p>Perhaps this is inevitable when one assembles a large group of experts to write on the very recent past, eschewing the sort of colourful political gossip that one finds in the work of Nikki Savva or the personal insights of Katherine Murphy. Not all of the contributors to The Morrison Government are academics, but the book has some of the mind-numbing quality that too often characterises academics trying to write for a general audience. </p>
<p>This makes it all the more thrilling to come across the opening paragraphs of Stan Grant’s chapter on Indigenous people, which begins with the sentence: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Aboriginal people can laugh; there are few things more joyous for me than hearing Aboriginal people laugh.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Grant has written an elegant piece that points to the philosophical questions underlying the demands for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, though he has very little specific to say about the Morrison government’s actual policy failures.</p>
<p>Other contributors are more diligent in attending to specifics. Andrew Norton on higher education and Julianne Schultz on communications policy provide a wealth of information that remains useful background in the post-Morrison world. In other cases, such as the discussion of economic policy or the response to COVID, there is already a wealth of material available and much of what is here seems inevitably repetitive.</p>
<p>There are chapters on the obvious policy areas. In many of these areas, such as aged care and robodebt, it would be difficult to find much support for the government’s actions. Climate change, which was as significant as COVID in changing perceptions of the Morrison government, is addressed in a chapter by Darren Sinclair and Jo Mummery, which sees the Morrison government’s attitude as one of “denial, marginalisation, reactivity and politicisation”. </p>
<p>By the time I reached this chapter I was wishing for a red-blooded right-winger to offer an alternative assessment of what I agree was a disastrous government. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/amateurish-rushed-and-disastrous-royal-commission-exposes-robodebt-as-ethically-indefensible-policy-targeting-vulnerable-people-201165">'Amateurish, rushed and disastrous': royal commission exposes robodebt as ethically indefensible policy targeting vulnerable people</a>
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<h2>Mind the gaps</h2>
<p>Inevitably, there are gaps in a book of this nature. I would have expected a chapter on immigration and refugee policy. The shameful ongoing treatment of offshore asylum seekers, some of whom have now been imprisoned for longer than most criminals, deserves more than passing attention.</p>
<p>Individual ministers also receive only passing attention, even though some of them – Josh Frydenberg in Treasury, Greg Hunt in Health, Peter Dutton in Defense – were significant figures in the government. </p>
<p>In her chapter on “delegating democracy”, Karen Middleton points to Morrison’s willingness to “jettison the conventions of the Westminster system”, which became most apparent after the election when it was revealed that he had secretly given himself control of some key departments without informing the legally appointed minister. The very title of the book suggests that we are moving towards a semi-presidential system, with a declining understanding of the conventions of cabinet government.</p>
<p>Foreign policy gets a chapter of its own and occasional references elsewhere, usually to AUKUS or to what Michelle Grattan aptly terms the “new Anglosphere”. In his chapter, Tony Walker is so obsessed with Australia’s relations with China and the United States that there is no discussion of relations with Indonesia or Papua New Guinea, or indeed of Australia’s declining foreign assistance, now amongst the lowest of rich countries. Even major foreign policy challenges, such as the American withdrawal from Afghanistan and the continued military repression in Myanmar go unmentioned. </p>
<p>Even odder is the omission throughout the book of any discussion of the war in Ukraine, which commenced three months before the 2022 election, although Walker does refer in passing to the “rules-based international order that is now in danger of fragmenting”. One does not need to be an apologist for the autocratic gangsters in Moscow and Beijing to point out that these rules are essentially the product of western hegemony, and themselves need to be interrogated. </p>
<p>What is lacking, above all, in The Morrison Government is a sense of what it felt like to live through those three years and how this was reflected in the collapse of Morrison’s authority. In her chapter on women and equality, Pia Rowe writes about the government’s failure to agree on a religious discrimination bill, but the religiosity of Morrison, apparently shared by the Governor General, gets little attention. </p>
<p>As a republican, I note that the contributors have written almost 300 pages about the Australian government without discussing the head of state.</p>
<p>Like most other political commentaries of the period, the book devotes considerable space to the emergence of the Teals, including a chapter on Allegra Spender’s successful campaign in Wentworth. Given how much has already been written about the Teals, it might have been more profitable to have looked at the success of the Greens in winning three inner Brisbane seats, or the way in which the collapse of the Liberal Party in Western Australia gave the incoming government a slender majority in the House of Representatives. Nor does the book feature any analysis of the remarkable success of Dai Le in winning what should be one of Labor’s safest Sydney seats.</p>
<p>In her introduction, Grattan states: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>While the Morrison government could claim some successes, it was ultimately felled by a combination of deficiencies, especially in the leadership of the prime minister himself.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Anyone who doubts her judgement will find much to support it in this book.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200069/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dennis Altman 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>A new book of essays chronicles the failings of the Morrison government, but leaves much unexamined.Dennis Altman, VC Fellow LaTrobe University, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2031382023-04-03T04:47:16Z2023-04-03T04:47:16ZIt’s not easy, but history shows minority government has worked in NSW before. Here’s what Chris Minns must do<p>Although Labor has returned to power in NSW, it will be in a minority government, with probably 45 seats, two short of a majority, to the Coalition’s 36 (assuming the Liberal Party wins the seat of Ryde, where it is currently ahead as counting continues).</p>
<p>Labor’s position could be further diminished as the government has to provide a speaker. The obvious strategy will be to offer the position to a crossbencher to maintain its numbers on the floor of the lower house. Independent MP for Lake Macquarie, Greg Piper, is a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-28/nsw-election-counting-results/102152726">likely</a> candidate, as he was appointed <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/key-independent-appointed-assistant-speaker-as-perrottet-woos-crossbench-20220215-p59wq9.html">assistant speaker</a> by the previous government.</p>
<p>Incoming premier Chris Minns has <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/nsw/department-heads-in-firing-line-as-unions-warn-of-damaged-relations-20230402-p5cxdi.html">said</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s always been the case, at least for the last 15 years, that the NSW upper house has been controlled by the crossbench and that will be the situation in the lower house, as well. So legislation will have to be navigated through those two parliaments but it’s not necessarily difficult or different from what’s been in place for the last two years.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In fact, <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lc/roleandhistory/Pages/The-history-of-the-Council.aspx">no government</a> has had a majority in the Legislative Council since 1988, a situation that looks set to continue in the new parliament. </p>
<p>It is true that towards the end of its term, the Coalition government slipped into a minority position in the lower house, but it could count on the support of a former Liberal on the crossbench. Despite his optimistic prediction, Minns may find the situation he faces in the lower house more complex and difficult, particularly as he has a large legislative agenda to implement.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-long-history-of-political-corruption-in-nsw-and-the-downfall-of-mps-ministers-and-premiers-147994">The long history of political corruption in NSW — and the downfall of MPs, ministers and premiers</a>
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<h2>Fluid, complex and hard to predict</h2>
<p>There are 12 crossbenchers, ranging across the spectrum: Greens and progressives, disenchanted or disendorsed Liberals, ex-Shooters, other regional MPs. </p>
<p>The government will need crossbench votes to win divisions. Three sitting independents – Alex Greenwich, Joe McGirr and Piper – have already offered to support Minns on confidence and supply motions, which will give the government stability in office.</p>
<p>This accords with the principle that independents having the balance of power should support the party with the majority of seats. However, like the other crossbenchers, they will vote on other measures according to their assessment of merit.</p>
<p>It is tempting to divide the crossbenchers according to assumed left or right sympathies. Their voting pattern, in reality, will be more fluid, complex and harder to predict.</p>
<p>Of the three MPs combining to guarantee the government in office, for example, one is a progressive (Greenwich), the others are moderates. The crossbenchers may also band together on issues of common concern, such as procedural reforms to give them more influence in the House.</p>
<p>The government’s lack of control of the lower house means it will potentially operate in an entirely different way. </p>
<p>The government will have no assurance its legislative proposals will be passed unamended – or passed at all. It will not routinely be able to gag debate or silence opposition or crossbench MPs. After years of being dominated by the executive government, power has returned to the parliament.</p>
<h2>History shows it can work</h2>
<p>The most relevant precedent is the Legislative Assembly from 1991-95. After that election, the Coalition had 49 seats (48 after appointing a speaker) and Labor 46. Four independents held the balance of power in the 99-seat house.</p>
<p>In return for implementation of a <a href="http://www.cloverarchive.com/archive/issues/other/reform/charter/">charter of reform</a>, three of them – John Hatton, Peter Macdonald and Clover Moore – agreed to support the government on appropriation and supply bills and confidence motions, except where “matters of corruption or gross maladministration” were involved. </p>
<p>Otherwise, the unaligned independents were free to vote as they saw fit, which they certainly did.</p>
<p>The government was forced to negotiate regularly with the independents. It was a slow and sometimes tortuous process. The independents needed time to make their own assessment of proposals and consider the views of interest groups and the opposition. </p>
<p>Under this regime, committees were often established on legislation and other matters, whether the government liked it or not. Debate was unfettered. </p>
<p>In previous parliaments, governments were rarely, if ever, defeated in the lower house; that was not the case between 1991 and 1995.</p>
<p>Government bills were carefully scrutinised and, in some cases, heavily amended; in many instances, better legislation emerged. </p>
<p>The process may at times have been chaotic but the government usually got what it wanted, although it had to accept negotiation and compromise as the price.</p>
<p>Another NSW precedent for coping with a large crossbench is the upper house after the 1999 election. </p>
<p>The balance of power was held by <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lc/articles/Documents/the-declining-membership-of-the-nsw-legislative-/Journal%20article%20-%20Australasian%20Parliamenuncil%20Cross%20Bench%20and%20its%20Implications%20for%20Responsible%20Gover.pdf">13</a> independent and minor party members of the Legislative Council, ranging across the ideological spectrum.</p>
<p>It seemed a recipe for legislative chaos; in fact, it proved to be a relatively stable, even productive, period.</p>
<p>Much of the credit is due to treasurer and leader of the government in the Legislative Council, Michael Egan. He was a skilful parliamentarian and accomplished negotiator who had the ability to accommodate most of the various interests in the house. </p>
<p>His deputy, John Della Bosca, <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lc/roleandhistory/Documents/Transcript%20-%20The%20Hon.%20John%20Della%20Bosca%20-%20Oral%20history%20project%20interview%20-%20Monday%2012%20November%202018%20%5B%20corrected%20%5D.pdf">commented</a> perceptively:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think the idea of having a lot of different crossbenchers actually made it easier, even though in theory they were a block on the government’s program. Generally speaking, because there were so many of them, it was easier to negotiate proposals about amendments or not amending the legislation as proposed. You would think that the more crossbenchers there were, the more difficult it would be, but I think the more crossbenchers there are, in some ways it makes it easier.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Della Bosca <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lc/roleandhistory/Documents/Transcript%20-%20The%20Hon.%20John%20Della%20Bosca%20-%20Oral%20history%20project%20interview%20-%20Monday%2012%20November%202018%20%5B%20corrected%20%5D.pdf">believes</a> better legislation resulted from negotiation with the crossbenchers: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There were days when we were pretty frustrated with the crossbench, of course, and probably there were many days that they were very frustrated with us, but I think on the whole it achieved exactly that outcome. I do not think there was any legislation you just could not get through because of the crossbench. I do not think we ever brought anything in that did not eventually get passed, though sometimes in a highly modified form.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To govern effectively, the Minns government needs to accept the crossbenchers have legitimate concerns that should be listened to. </p>
<p>Communication and compromise should be the new order. It may be a wild ride, but democracy is the potential beneficiary.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/itll-be-tough-for-perrottet-to-win-the-nsw-election-but-labor-wont-romp-home-either-198892">It'll be tough for Perrottet to win the NSW election. But Labor won't romp home either</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203138/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Clune 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>Communication and compromise should be the order of the day in minority government. It may be a wild ride, but democracy is the potential beneficiary.David Clune, Honorary Associate, Government and International Relations, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2022382023-03-28T19:21:34Z2023-03-28T19:21:34ZThe Whitlam government gave us no-fault divorce, women’s refuges and childcare. Australia needs another feminist revolution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517542/original/file-20230327-20-35bjxm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">John McKinnon/Australian Information Service/National Library of Australia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s history of women and political rights is, to put it mildly, chequered. It enfranchised (white) women very early, in 1902. And it was the first country to give them the vote combined with the right to stand for parliament.</p>
<p>But it took 41 years for women to enter federal parliament. The first two <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-it-taking-so-long-to-achieve-gender-equality-in-parliament-117313">women federal MPs</a>, Dorothy Tangney and Enid Lyons, were just memorialised with a joint statue in the parliamentary triangle. It was unveiled this month – finally redressing the glaring absence of women in our statues. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Women and Whitlam: Revisiting the Revolution - Michelle Arrow (ed.), (NewSouth)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Australia’s record of women’s rights is still uneven. We pioneered aspects of women’s welfare, such as the <a href="https://www.naa.gov.au/learn/learning-resources/learning-resource-themes/government-and-democracy/prime-ministers-and-politicians/maternity-allowance-act-1912">1912 maternity allowance</a> that included unmarried mothers. But now, Australian women’s economic status is shameful. </p>
<p>As Minister for the Environment <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-policy-aesthete-a-new-biography-of-tanya-plibersek-shows-how-governments-work-and-affect-peoples-lives-197427">Tanya Plibersek</a> notes in her foreword, Australia has plunged from the modest high point of 15th on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap index. In 2022, it was 43rd.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-policy-aesthete-a-new-biography-of-tanya-plibersek-shows-how-governments-work-and-affect-peoples-lives-197427">'A policy aesthete': a new biography of Tanya Plibersek shows how governments work – and affect people's lives</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>What Whitlam did for women</h2>
<p>Federation was an exciting time for women. But the next peak didn’t arrive until the 1970s, when the Whitlam Government proved a beachhead for women’s rights. Feminism helped to swell the tide of change carrying <a href="https://theconversation.com/gough-whitlams-life-and-legacy-experts-respond-33228">Gough Whitlam</a> to power in 1972. </p>
<p>But just how did Whitlam conceive his agenda for women? What were his short-lived government’s many achievements in this area? Until now, these questions haven’t been fully studied. </p>
<p><a href="https://unsw.press/books/womenandwhitlam/">Women and Whitlam</a> is important not just for taking on this task, but for its stellar cast of essayists. Many of them were feminist activists in the 1970s, and their memories add rich narrative detail.</p>
<p>The book is edited by Michelle Arrow, a <a href="https://www.whitlam.org/">Whitlam Institute</a> Research Fellow and an authority on women, gender and sexuality in the 1970s: not least through her prize-winning monograph, <a href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/seventies/">The Seventies</a>. </p>
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<p>This excellent collection’s origins lie in <a href="https://www.whitlam.org/publications/womensrevolution">a conference</a> held at Old Parliament House in November 2019, organised by the Whitlam Institute. The book has been several years in the making, but its timing is perfect. Its month of publication, April 2023, is the 50th anniversary of Gough Whitlam’s appointment of Elizabeth Reid as his adviser on women’s affairs. This role, as an adviser to a head of government, was a world first.</p>
<p>In her introduction, Arrow points out <a href="https://electionspeeches.moadoph.gov.au/speeches/1972-gough-whitlam">Whitlam’s 1972 election speech</a> only outlined three “women’s issues” as part of his program. But she also notes the late (former Senator) <a href="https://theconversation.com/vale-susan-ryan-pioneer-labor-feminist-who-showed-big-difficult-policy-changes-can-and-should-be-made-146996">Susan Ryan</a>’s excited response when she heard him begin it with the inclusive words, “Men and women of Australia” – a symbolic break from tradition. Iola Mathews, journalist and Women’s Electoral Lobby activist, captures the speed with which Whitlam acted on women’s issues: </p>
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<p>In his first week of office he reopened the federal Equal Pay case, removed the tax on contraceptives and announced funding for birth control programs. </p>
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<p>Arrow summarises what else the Whitlam government did for women. It extended the minimum wage for women and funded women’s refuges, women’s health centres and community childcare. It introduced no-fault divorce and the Family Court. It introduced paid maternity leave in the public service. And it addressed discrimination against girls in schools. Women also benefited from other reforms, like making tertiary education affordable.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fifty-years-ago-the-new-whitlam-government-removed-the-luxury-sales-tax-on-the-pill-it-changed-australian-womens-lives-194718">Fifty years ago, the new Whitlam government removed the luxury sales tax on the pill. It changed Australian women's lives</a>
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<h2>A world-first role</h2>
<p>Elizabeth Reid’s chapter is especially powerful, because of the importance of her work as Whitlam’s women’s adviser and because she worked closely with him. She suggests Whitlam’s consciousness of feminism grew during his term in office. By September 1974, he understood his own policies and reforms could only go so far. Fundamental cultural shift was required: </p>
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<p>We have to attack the social inequalities, the hidden and usually unarticulated assumptions which affect women not only in employment but in the whole range of their opportunities in life […] this requires a re-education of the community. </p>
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<p>Reid encapsulates how she forged her own novel role: travelling around Australia to listen to women of all backgrounds, holding meetings in venues ranging from factories, farms and universities to jails. Soon, she received more letters than anyone in the government, other than Whitlam himself. After listening and gathering women’s views, she learned how to approach parliamentarians and public servants in order to make and implement policies. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Elizabeth Reid, in her world-first role as women’s advisor, received more letters than even Whitlam himself.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Part of the power of Reid’s chapter lies in the insights she gives readers into the revolutionary nature of <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-human-being-not-just-mum-the-womens-liberationists-who-fought-for-the-rights-of-mothers-and-children-182057">women’s liberation</a>. Feminists who hit their stride in the 1970s had bold ambitions: ending patriarchal oppression, uprooting sexism as a system of male domination, taking back control of women’s bodies and sexuality, and using consciousness-raising to find alternatives to the confinement of women <a href="https://theconversation.com/suburban-living-did-turn-women-into-robots-why-feminist-horror-novel-the-stepford-wives-is-still-relevant-50-years-on-186633">as housewives</a>. </p>
<p>Some in women’s liberation questioned the possibility of creating revolution from within government. But Reid’s chapter showcases her remarkable ability to take the fundamental insights of the movement and use them. She listened to Australian women and applied her insights and feminist principles to the key areas of employment and financial discrimination, education, childcare, social welfare and urban planning.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-australia-became-a-nation-and-women-won-the-vote-78406">How Australia became a nation, and women won the vote</a>
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<h2>A dynamic movement</h2>
<p>One vibrant thread connecting several chapters is the dynamism of the women’s liberation movement: not least, the Canberra group where Reid developed her feminism. Biff Ward recalls the night in early 1973 that she and other Canberra women from the women’s liberation movement attended the party held for the 18 shortlisted applicants for the women’s adviser job.</p>
<p>It was a seemingly ordinary Saturday-night event in a suburban home: the prime minister was among the prominent Labor men present. Ward recalls the extraordinary atmosphere at the party, with the government luminaries aware of their own newfound power, yet “sidelined” by the women. These women knew each other from the movement and constituted “a tribe” that had the men on edge, because of the women’s shared confidence and agenda.</p>
<p>The chapter on the late Pat Eatock, the Aboriginal feminist who had travelled from Sydney to Canberra in early 1972 for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-aboriginal-tent-embassy-at-50-the-history-of-an-ongoing-protest-for-indigenous-sovereignty-in-australia-podcast-180216">Tent Embassy</a>, then stayed to move into the Women’s House (run by the Women’s Liberation group) is co-written by her daughter Cathy Eatock. In 1972 Pat Eatock became the first Indigenous woman to stand for federal parliament. Later she became a public servant, an academic and a pioneer in Aboriginal television. She was part of the Canberra women’s liberation movement, despite not feeling accepted by some members. </p>
<p>On balance, Eatock believed the movement changed her life for the better. She participated in the celebrated <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/canberra/programs/sundaybrunch/the-1975-women-in-politics-conference/12708060">1975 Women and Politics Conference</a>, and was in the Australian delegation to the International Women’s Year Conference in Mexico City, where she found Australian feminist theory was “leading the world”.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Pat Eatock at the 1975 World Conference on the Status of Women.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Greater expectations</h2>
<p>The book is organised into five sections, each introduced by a relevant expert. In the section on law, Elizabeth Evatt succinctly describes her path-breaking roles. She was deputy president of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission (predecessor to the Fair Work Commission), chair of the <a href="https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/original/00003358.pdf">Royal Commission on Human Relationships 1974-77</a> (which brought abortion, homosexuality and domestic violence into the spotlight); and first chief judge of the Family Court of Australia. The latter was created by the Family Law Act of 1975, which introduced no-fault divorce. </p>
<p>In her conclusion, Evatt laments <a href="https://theconversation.com/book-extract-broken-requiem-for-the-family-court-166406">the recent merger</a> of the Family Court with the Federal Circuit Court, and hails the Family Law Act as one of Whitlam’s great legacies.</p>
<p>In the health and social policy section, former Labor Senator Margaret Reynolds recalls observing the Whitlam government’s achievements from conservative Townsville, where she was a founding member of the local Women’s Electoral Lobby. As a teacher, she saw how the reforms in education benefited regional schools and children. And the Townsville CAE introduced a training program for teaching monitors from remote communities, which particularly helped Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.</p>
<p>In the section on legacies, author and former “femocrat” Sara Dowse catalogues the disastrous social consequences of <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-neoliberalism-became-an-insult-in-australian-politics-188291">neoliberalism</a>, which have been braided with the many real and important gains for women since the 1970s. Hope lies, she suggests, in women’s greater expectations for their own lives.</p>
<p>I have focused on essays by senior feminists, but the 16 wide-ranging chapters include contributions from younger authors, too. </p>
<p>From our current standpoint, the fervour of the 1970s is enviable. It’s very promising that the 2022 election brought an influx of new women MPs. But if we’re going to conquer <a href="https://theconversation.com/family-violence-is-literally-making-us-sicker-new-study-finds-abuse-increases-risk-of-chronic-illness-199669">intimate violence</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/weve-all-done-the-right-things-in-under-cover-older-women-tell-their-stories-of-becoming-homeless-188356">women’s homelessness</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-ranked-last-in-an-international-gender-pay-gap-study-here-are-3-ways-to-do-better-168848">gender pay gap</a>, we need another feminist revolution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202238/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angela Woollacott receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Feminism helped power the tide of change carrying Gough Whitlam to power in 1972. What were his government’s historic achievements for women? And what do Australian women need to fight for next?Angela Woollacott, Manning Clark Professor of History, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2026122023-03-28T03:45:33Z2023-03-28T03:45:33ZAustralia’s safeguard mechanism deal is only a half-win for the Greens, and for the climate<p>Labor and the Greens on Monday announced a deal to strengthen a key climate policy, the safeguard mechanism, by introducing a hard cap on industrial sector emissions. </p>
<p>But the Greens failed in their bid to force Labor to ban new coal and gas projects. </p>
<p>Labor did give ground in setting a hard cap on emissions which should – if it works – make many new fossil fuel projects <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/27/its-not-perfect-but-the-labor-greens-climate-deal-should-limit-emissions-and-fossil-fuels-that-matters?">unviable</a>. </p>
<p>This isn’t the end of the climate wars – but the politics are changing. Denial and inaction are over. Now we’re seeing a tussle between the urgency of the Greens, Teals who want to ban fossil fuels and the Labor government as it balances demands from industry, climate voters and the unions. </p>
<p>All the while, our carbon budget is shrinking and the time available to act on climate change <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/03/1134777">is disappearing</a>.</p>
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<h2>How did we get here?</h2>
<p>In May last year, the Coalition government lost office after almost a decade of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/may/22/australia-rightwing-government-weaponised-climate-change-reckoning-scott-morrison">climate policy failures</a>. </p>
<p>Labor won government. But the balance of power changed in other ways too. Seven <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/not-in-cahoots-independents-say-climate-200-funding-doesn-t-have-strings-20220216-p59x2v.html">Climate 200-backed</a> Teal independent MPs were elected. The Greens had a record four members elected to the House of Representatives and gained the balance of power <a href="https://theconversation.com/good-timing-and-hard-work-behind-the-elections-greenslide-183719">in the Senate</a>.</p>
<p>Labor immediately set a new goal of cutting emissions 43% by the end of the decade. To do it, they pledged to strengthen the Coalition’s questionable safeguard mechanism. This scheme’s emissions allowances had been set too high, and there were <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/greg-hunt-expects-zero-revenue-from-18m-carbon-fines-20150902-gjd5ci">too many exemptions</a>, meaning it wouldn’t have cut the promised 200 million tonnes of emissions by 2030. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/greens-will-back-labors-safeguard-mechanism-without-a-ban-on-new-coal-and-gas-thats-a-good-outcome-202444">Greens will back Labor's safeguard mechanism without a ban on new coal and gas. That's a good outcome</a>
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<p>Labor promised to fix these problems. The Greens and Teals were extremely sceptical. The resulting negotiations have lasted months, and left <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/labor-is-just-pretending-to-be-tough-on-climate-change-20230326-p5cvc1.html">many disillusioned</a> about how ambitious Labor will really be on climate. </p>
<p>But we do have something. Yesterday, a deal was announced and Labor’s reformed plan passed the lower house en route to the Senate. The Liberal and National parties voted against the reforms, even though it is their own – indeed their only – climate policy.</p>
<h2>Were the negotiations worth it?</h2>
<p>Hopefully. But it hasn’t been smooth sailing to secure Green and Teal support.</p>
<p>From the outset the Greens tried to drive a hard bargain by seeking an end to all new coal and gas projects. This, the government made clear, was not going to happen, and it didn’t. </p>
<p>Relations deteriorated rapidly as the government looked set to keep backing <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/tanya-plibersek-gives-santos-gas-expansion-project-green-light/news-story/4a1b015eff04f63df15ab47c145a8548">new coal and gas projects</a>. Even so, the Greens kept negotiating. This produced an early win – the government <a href="https://greens.org.au/news/media-release/greens-secure-coal-and-gas-pledge-government">ruled out</a> using its new A$15 billion National Reconstruction Fund to invest in coal, gas or logging native forests.</p>
<p>Labor did not give ground on no new coal and gas. But the Greens did secure a legislated cap on the total industrial emissions covered by Australia’s 215 largest polluters covered by the safeguard mechanism – essentially, fossil fuel industries and manufacturers. </p>
<p>Greens leader Adam Bandt says the cap will mean only half of the 116 proposed coal and gas projects can proceed. But this isn’t guaranteed. Some projects would not have been viable regardless. And laws can be readily changed. </p>
<p>It remains to be seen how the concessions won by the Greens will work <a href="https://theconversation.com/greens-will-back-labors-safeguard-mechanism-without-a-ban-on-new-coal-and-gas-thats-a-good-outcome-202444">in practice</a>.</p>
<h2>What about the Teals?</h2>
<p>The Teals have been less visible in this process, but they haven’t been sitting idle. Both the Teal independents and independent senator David Pocock have called for an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/14/crossbench-push-albanese-government-for-absolute-cap-on-carbon-emissions">absolute cap</a> on industrial emissions. </p>
<p>Indeed, founding Teal Zali Steggall was the first to call for a UK-style “<a href="https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/explainers/what-are-carbon-budgets-and-why-do-we-have-them/">climate budget</a>”, which proved palatable for that country’s conservative government. </p>
<p>Besides an emission cap, the Teals have called for restraint around the use of offsets and increased legitimacy on the use of controversial carbon offsets to ensure emissions are actually cut, not just offset. They advocate stronger oversight by the Climate Change Authority and other regulators. </p>
<p>Teal Sophie Scamps has <a href="https://michaelwest.com.au/ending-jobs-for-mates-bill-proposing-transparency-in-public-appointments/">proposed</a> a means of ending the revolving door between the fossil fuel industry and government positions which <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214629621003649">influence</a> government’s climate policy.</p>
<p>Teal Kylea Tink proposes expanding the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r6957">safeguard mechanism</a> to cover more of the economy. At present, the mechanism only covers about 30% of Australia’s emissions and is limited to industrial facilities emitting over 100,000 tonnes a year. Tink wants this to be lowered to 25,000 tonnes. </p>
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<p>In the Senate, Labor needs David Pocock’s vote as well as the Greens to pass the bill. Pocock’s constituents <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/09/david-pocock-under-pressure-to-block-labors-safeguard-mechanism-bill-after-fossil-fuel-poll">are worried</a> about the effect of new fossil fuel projects on our shrinking carbon budget. But as a pragmatist wanting action rather than inaction, he has given his support. </p>
<h2>Where to next?</h2>
<p>Attention will remain on the Greens, given they hold the balance of power in the Senate. They have capitalised on this, making sure to capture the media narrative by claiming the win – and flagging political fights to come over new fossil fuel projects. </p>
<p>But the Greens have also taken some friendly fire. Many environmentalists have been privately and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/24/the-greens-face-one-of-the-biggest-decisions-of-their-political-lives-as-labors-climate-policy-hangs-in-the-balance">publicly critical</a> of a deal struck which does not rule out continued fossil fuel expansion in one of the world’s largest suppliers. Greens senator Nick McKim hit back at those in the movement he claim had undermined negotiations. </p>
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<p>Greens founder Bob Brown dubbed Labor’s rejection of no new coal and gas a “colossal mistake”. He <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2023/mar/27/australia-politics-live-john-howard-moira-deeming-anthony-albanese-chris-minns-new-south-wales-election-peter-dutton-safeguard-mechanism-greens-adam-bandt-vic-qld?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with:block-64210ade8f0893440cca1f2c#block-64210ade8f0893440cca1f2c">warned</a> if climate minister Chris Bowen moves to weaken the hard cap on emissions, “it will bring the house down.”</p>
<p>We’ve seen this kind of backlash before, and it can be dangerous. Similar outrage helped kill the Rudd Labor government’s <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/ten-years-on-labor-blames-greens-for-failed-carbon-price-scheme-20191201-p53fpv">Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme</a>.</p>
<p>This is just the start. Having achieved a hard emissions cap, the Greens must ensure the cap actually caps emissions. That it’s set at the right level. And that it can’t be dodged or gamed. Stopping half of the mooted 116 fossil projects is hypothetical right now. Their voters will want them to deliver. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-a-once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity-to-break-the-stranglehold-fossil-fuels-have-on-our-politics-184748">Australia has a once in a lifetime opportunity to break the stranglehold fossil fuels have on our politics</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202612/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Crowley 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>Australia’s new climate deal contains wins for the Greens – but the negotiations were bruisingKate Crowley, Adjunct Associate Professor, Public and Environmental Policy, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1994032023-03-02T19:09:07Z2023-03-02T19:09:07ZFriday essay: how policies favouring rich, older people make young Australians Generation F-d<p>Working to buy your own home is a rite of passage in Australia, firmly rooted in a time when government delivered plentiful, affordable housing. Following the senseless poverty and destitution inflicted by price-gouging landlords during the Depression, we created a better, more equitable housing system after World War II. </p>
<p>Up until the mid-1970s, government took a hands-on approach to housing, constructing homes for people to buy or rent at low cost. Investors weren’t prioritised over the rights of people who needed shelter, and governments helped people buy with cheap loans. It was these settings that generalised the home-owning dream to over 70% of Australian households by the late 1960s.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/think-private-renting-is-hard-first-nations-people-can-be-excluded-from-the-start-192392">Think private renting is hard? First Nations people can be excluded from the start</a>
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<h2>Australia’s housing a ‘closed shop’</h2>
<p>But from the 1980s, Australia’s housing system was being transformed into a “closed shop”, working to expand the wealth of existing home owners and investors. If you owned a home, you had membership to Australia’s exclusive wealth-builders’ club. </p>
<p>Generous tax concessions flowed to home owners, who were encouraged to expand their financial position, spending on their own house and maybe a rental property. The capacity to stash 50% of the spoils from selling a house away from the tax man, paying capital gains tax on only the remaining 50%, combined with <a href="https://theconversation.com/negative-gearing-reforms-could-save-a-1-7-billion-without-hurting-poorer-investors-92679">negative gearing</a>, meant easy money without having to move yourself, and an annual cash-flow boost through interest deductibility at every income tax return.</p>
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<p>After pumping up the insiders’ gains, government abandoned its role in new construction, handing the reins of housing supply to private interests. The majority of public dwellings, built by state housing authorities after the war, had already been sold off, mostly to the households occupying them, such that <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/%20housing-assistance/housing-assistance-in-australia/contents/%20social-housing-dwellings">less than 4%</a> of all homes are government-owned today.</p>
<p>After cutting supply, governments increased demand for housing. Tax concessions cultivated an investor class, but so did weakened lending regulations, which saw an explosion in new lending, as investors received almost the same loan rates as owner-occupiers.</p>
<p>House price growth was speeding ahead of employment incomes, and political pressure to respond to intergenerational and class inequality grew. Governments responded by ploughing billions into schemes to assist first-home buyers. Twenty billion dollars was spent in helping some young and low-income people into the market throughout the 2010s, <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/%20final-reports/381">but by 2021</a> this was little more than a bandaid over a bullet wound.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/poor-housing-leaves-its-mark-on-our-mental-health-for-years-to-come-120595">Poor housing leaves its mark on our mental health for years to come</a>
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<h2>False scarcity</h2>
<p>Australia’s gold-plated housing system manufactures false scarcity. It excludes an ever-larger group of people, for whom housing becomes a rare commodity. </p>
<p>Contrary to rudimentary supply–demand theory, individuals holding ownership of the hottest product in human life have zero interest in expanding supply to meet demand for affordable, decent homes. They sit and wait for prices to increase, and people borrow more and more to keep up. </p>
<p>Worse still, Australia helps older, wealthy owners of housing to keep cashing in on the lack of affordable homes and rising prices. Economists Matt Grudnoff and Eliza Littleton <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/rich-men-and-tax-concessions/">found</a> that almost three-quarters of the capital gains tax discount housing benefit goes to the top 10% of households by income, and more than three-quarters to people aged 50 and over. </p>
<p>People under 40 <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/wp-content/%20uploads/2020/12/TAI-Briefing-Note-Tax-concessions-by-age.pdf">receive</a> only 6% of capital gains tax discount benefits. It’s a government-bankrolled gravy train, and there are no wealth or inheritance taxes in sight.</p>
<p>Many young people are locked out of a housing system dominated by rich older people. The housing industry is at pains to hide this, selling the longstanding lie that the Australian landlords reducing their taxes are average-earning mums and dads, while in reality the beneficiaries of negative gearing are overwhelmingly wealthy. </p>
<p>More than half of the $4.3 billion annual benefit from negative-gearing tax cuts <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/report/rich-men-and-tax-concessions/">goes to</a> the top 20% of households by income. Those aged between 40 and 60 <a href="https://australiainstitute.org.au/wp-content/%20uploads/2020/12/TAI-Briefing-Note-Tax-concessions-by-age.pdf">capture</a> more than 60% of the concessions.</p>
<h2>Deposits of $120,000 ‘simply impossible’</h2>
<p>Even if lucrative tax concessions were unpicked to support a more level playing field in our housing system, young people’s pain is multiplied in the jobs market. </p>
<p>The Productivity Commission <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/youth-income-decline/youth-income-decline.pdf">found</a> that real incomes for people aged 15–24 declined by an average of 1.6% every year over the decade 2008–18. Incomes fell slightly less for the Millennials aged 25–34, but still fell 0.7% each year. Over the same period, real incomes for the over 65s increased by 37% … <em>more than one-third</em>. The only cohort emphatically mobilising is the oldest.</p>
<p>Since young people lost a decade of income growth after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-weve-the-weakest-economy-since-the-global-financial-crisis-with-few-clear-ways-out-122942">global financial crisis</a>, lower incomes mean they can’t build savings at the same rate as older generations. The 20% deposit of $120,000 to buy a median capital city unit is simply impossible for many young people to reach, placing home ownership in fantasy territory. </p>
<p>Right now, thin savings blankets already mean severe distress when shit hits the fan. Without a secure income or roof over young people’s heads, economic shocks are more severe, overall health and wellbeing diminished, and the ability to grasp opportunities for other jobs or study compromised.</p>
<p>Widening <a href="https://theconversation.com/68-of-millennials-earn-more-than-their-parents-but-boomers-had-it-better-161647">intergenerational inequality</a> centres around our housing system, with billions pumped into making houses more valuable. Many people who own those houses obtained them decades ago when prices were lower and you could rely on available jobs that paid enough to buy one. In the mid-1980s, the median earner forked out three times their annual income for a home, compared to the record-high 8.5 times their income in 2022.</p>
<p>But it’s not the old widower on your street who’s to blame: the bloke who bought his inner-city house in the 1970s for $15,000 and saw it rise to $1 million by retirement. Access to the basics of life is not the problem. Follow the big investor money.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/9-in-10-landlord-tax-returns-are-wrong-does-this-make-landlords-champion-tax-dodgers-195914">9 in 10 landlord tax returns are wrong. Does this make landlords champion tax dodgers?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Permanent renting a new reality</h2>
<p>While Australia encourages the wealthiest households to build housing assets, it forces young and low-income households into an increasingly pressured private rental market. Over 60% of people aged under 30 are renting, with this age group experiencing <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/%20australias-welfare/home-ownership-and-housing-tenure">the sharpest increase</a> in renting arrangements of any age group since 1996. </p>
<p>Low welfare payments and casual jobs are no match for rising rents. In fact, based on current rates for renting one bedroom in a two-bedroom unit, an average 18-year-old working in hospitality or retail, or receiving Youth Allowance, <a href="https://everybodyshome.com.au/young-australians-%20crunched-by-housing-crisis/">meets the definition</a> of housing stress in every capital city in the country.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1394291758440144897"}"></div></p>
<p>Australia’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-insecurity-of-private-renters-how-do-they-manage-it-77324">private rental system</a> was designed to be a tenancy of transition, not a permanent encounter. But renting permanently is the reality for a growing number of low-income people, including youth, <a href="https://theconversation.com/older-women-often-rent-in-poverty-shared-home-equity-could-help-177452">older women</a>, those <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-forgotten-660-000-locked-out-of-home-ownership-74926">with disabilities</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/think-private-renting-is-hard-first-nations-people-can-be-excluded-from-the-start-192392">Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander</a> people. </p>
<p>Governments have failed to catch up with this seismic shift in rental dependency. Without regulation of rental conditions, human dignity and security of tenure are railroaded by landlords, who routinely price gouge, abuse tenants, and offer dilapidated, inadequate, poor-quality housing. </p>
<p>After momentarily cooling with reduced demand in the pandemic lull, and various short-term measures introduced by state governments to relieve renters – including moratoriums on evictions and prohibitions on rent increases – rental prices have since surged. In <a href="https://www.adviservoice.com.au/2022/%2010/september-vacancy-rates-remain-constant-at-0-9">the 12 months to September 2022</a>, rental prices grew nationally by 15%, and vacancy rates fell to their lowest level since 2006 at less than 1%, with ongoing floods in New South Wales and Victoria placing greater strain on already-slim housing stocks in regional areas.</p>
<p>The shortened supply of suitable rental properties in many pockets of the country facilitates invasive practices by real estate agents too, who routinely encourage rent-bidding and payment of several months’ rent in advance, and demand financial and personal records from tenants. All for the privilege of paying off someone else’s mortgage!</p>
<p>Australian landlords demand a return on their investment as a matter of entitlement. As a class, they pocket billions in housing tax concessions, contribute to rising prices, and then demand their poorer tenants keep up with rents. </p>
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<p>Retrofitting a rental system designed to build the wealth of investors into one that meets human need costs us a pretty penny. The sneaky, indirect subsidy not often acknowledged is the almost $5 billion spent annually in Commonwealth Rent Assistance – a supplement paid by the federal government to people on meagre social security payments trying to keep a roof over their heads – <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/%20sites/default/files/documents/03_2022/2022-23_social_services_%20pbs.pdf">which underpins</a> the private rental system.</p>
<p>Australians idolise self-employment as an escape from the horrors of bad bosses, and it’s not hard to see the appeal of owner occupation to escape landlords. People would rather scrounge and submit to a lifetime of bank debt just to escape the indignity of individuals unfairly emboldened by our policies to determine the life course of others. </p>
<p>Why, after all, should young people be fixed in a cycle of helping secure wealth for older generations?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-housing-wealth-gap-between-older-and-younger-australians-has-widened-alarmingly-in-the-past-30-years-heres-why-197027">The housing wealth gap between older and younger Australians has widened alarmingly in the past 30 years. Here's why</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Inequality within and between generations</h2>
<p>In a housing system generating inequality both within and between generations, all young people face rising hurdles to home ownership compared to earlier post-war generations, but those with the lowest incomes suffer the most. </p>
<p>Parental lending is reported with humour in our media – the Bank of Mum and Dad is now the ninth biggest mortgage lender – but this creeping return to feudal social relations is a shocking development in a nation that defined itself against the rigid class hierarchies of Britain.</p>
<p>Australia’s investor-dominated housing system has walked the nation to the cliff’s edge of our egalitarian history; whereas employment income was once sufficient to secure housing and a good life, working any job today is no longer enough; the wealth you’re born into increasingly determines your life chances.</p>
<p>While young people have nothing to gain from a housing system built on ever-rising prices and inherited wealth, it doesn’t mean they’ll revolt. I’ve seen an uncomfortable trend among many middle-class young people who’ve resigned themselves to insecure, unfulfilling jobs, and a sense they won’t transcend their parents’ financial or professional success.</p>
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<p>Australia’s housing system is politically conservatising. The vast majority of wealth held by middle-class and upper-middle-class households <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/national-accounts/australian-national-accounts-distribution-household-income-consumption-and-wealth/latest-release">is concentrated</a> in land holdings, between 56 and 88% of their net wealth. That’s a lot of eggs in the status quo basket. </p>
<p>Disenfranchised young people see that economic opportunity may go backwards in their lifetime, but at least they’ll inherit the house when Mum and/or Dad kick the bucket. But with the average age of people inheriting wealth in the 50s, it’s an awfully long time to wait.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/not-everyone-wins-from-the-bank-of-mum-and-dad-73842">Not everyone wins from the bank of mum and dad</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Hoping for a crash</h2>
<p>What’s the effect of all this? Australia’s jobs, housing and tax policies are writing the futures of people who have no chance of contributing to the story. It’s why 53% of young Australians expect to be financially worse off than their parents.</p>
<p>Deloitte’s 2022 <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/about-deloitte/%20articles/genzmillennialsurvey.html.">Global 2022 Gen Z and Millennial Survey</a> shows the biggest issue plaguing Millennials and Gen Z is the rising cost of living. Almost half of young people globally live from one pay day to the next. </p>
<p>On top of the sense that the rising cost of living will price them out of having a family, many fear delivering their future progeny into a climate apocalypse. Existential doom and mass disempowerment are taking a grip on young people’s thinking. They’re trying to make the right choices against a backdrop of collapsed collective movements and government inaction against an energised global fossil fuel sector.</p>
<p>With economic exclusion carrying lifelong consequences for employment, health and welfare, it’s unsurprising that many young people have given up. One in ten people aged 15–24 is not engaged in any education, employment or training. Just under one-third (29%) <a href="https://research.monash.edu/en/publications/the-2021-australian-youth-barometer-understanding-young-people-in">report</a> having poor or very poor mental health. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1316964174182887425"}"></div></p>
<p>Severe psychological distress has grown since 2017, with youth from low socio-economic and regional backgrounds experiencing <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/%20children-youth/mental-illness">the highest rates</a> of mental illness. Young people feel the terrible weight of a society that is failing them.</p>
<p>Without hope of buying homes, young people engage in their favourite big crisis pastime: welcoming a market crash. With the pandemic came renewed faith in total economic carnage as the route to owner occupation – a hope that prices would crash and they’d finally be able to afford a home. These ideas are inspired by the collapse of the US financial system after the global financial crisis, though such an event is entirely ill-fit for Australia’s housing system.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-home-prices-soar-we-have-an-inquiry-almost-designed-not-to-tell-us-why-168959">As home prices soar, we have an inquiry almost designed not to tell us why</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why a housing crash won’t happen in Australia</h2>
<p>One of my favourite economists, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26680993">Hyman Minsky</a>, wrote about how asset price inflation emerges in modern financial markets, and what governments do when it goes belly up. When prices rise unsustainably, get away from their underlying value and enter free-fall, government swoops in as the lender-of-last-resort, socialising financial losses before debt deflation infects the rest of the economy. </p>
<p>Exactly whose losses government socialises is the real question – as seen with the trillion-dollar bailout for US corporations during the GFC while thousands of working-class Americans lost their homes.</p>
<p>Hoping highly leveraged poorer households lose their homes to bring down prices is no pathway to housing security for Australian youth. Morality aside, any generalised housing market crash in Australia is highly unlikely because astronomical levels of public money are pumped into the system already, including $14 billion every year in tax concessions and more in subsidies.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1607587042401333248"}"></div></p>
<p>But then, as Minsky reminds us, government will do everything it can to prevent a housing system crash because housing is so heavily intertwined with the stability of Australia’s banking system, which is, in turn, highly concentrated in mortgage lending. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/%20news/2022-05-10/big-four-banks-profits-home-loans-mortgage-%20debt-interest-rates/101051100.">big four banks</a> hold $1.9 trillion in mortgage loans, which comprises 65% of all their liabilities. Unlike the United States, Australia’s problem isn’t securitisation and unregulated “shadow banking”; it’s big, national banks that have monopolised credit provision and rake in easy profits by tightening the screws on workers’ mortgages and making houses more expensive.</p>
<p>Even if government unwound unsustainable tax concessions and built more houses, house prices might decline moderately, but never bottom out. So, waiting for housing prices to enter free fall is another pipedream. </p>
<p>But with 69% of young people now believing government has a responsibility to provide access to affordable housing for everyone, the scene is set for new and creative solutions to Australia’s housing crisis – the likes and scale of which we’ve never seen – including mass urban social and public housing projects, and shared-equity and cooperative housing schemes. With the advancement of a new national affordable housing agenda, “generation rent” may finally taste secure independence.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-housing-made-rich-australians-50-richer-leaving-renters-and-the-young-behind-and-how-to-fix-it-195189">How housing made rich Australians 50% richer, leaving renters and the young behind – and how to fix it</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Our housing has been in ‘dark territory’ before</h2>
<p>After the war, strong unions made sure government kept up with people’s expectations of a Fair Go. It made home ownership a reality for the average worker. But besides this brief period during the post-war reconstruction period when state governments focused on building public housing, Australia’s housing system has been otherwise dominated by private provision.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512582/original/file-20230228-194-etmtxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512582/original/file-20230228-194-etmtxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512582/original/file-20230228-194-etmtxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=878&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512582/original/file-20230228-194-etmtxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=878&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512582/original/file-20230228-194-etmtxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=878&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512582/original/file-20230228-194-etmtxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1103&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512582/original/file-20230228-194-etmtxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1103&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512582/original/file-20230228-194-etmtxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1103&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">During the Depression, people were packed into uncrowded, unsanitary rental homes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Frederick Oswald</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In fact, giving investors the reins in the housing system has plunged us into dark territory before. The working class and poor were subjected to untrammelled landlord power in the rental market during the Depression – the only tenure available to them. People were packed into overcrowded, unsanitary homes, without regulations or controls against the exorbitant rents that consumed their paltry incomes.</p>
<p>During the Depression, rental housing became emblematic of a society failing to provide basic economic security to all people, to the benefit of a minority of property owners. Sound familiar?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/shanty-towns-and-eviction-riots-the-radical-history-of-australias-property-market-185129">Shanty towns and eviction riots: the radical history of Australia's property market</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What can we do to fix Australia’s housing?</h2>
<p>Let’s not make the same mistake twice. Homes aren’t commodities. We can transcend our past solutions to the same problem of private housing provision that we faced then. In the immediate post-war years, we expanded owner occupation to workers as the housing arrangements of civility and dignity. </p>
<p>Today, we must resolve the housing crisis by dramatically expanding public and social housing – dwellings constructed and leased at low cost by both government and community housing providers.</p>
<p>Australian workers once aspired to a humble home to call their own. But the era of public-bankrolled housing riches is a shameful turn in our history. It’s time to stop subsidising property investors. Winding back multi-billion-dollar housing tax concessions will help us fund an upgrade to the Fair Go’s remit for public services, with the right to secure housing too.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1534358150442360838"}"></div></p>
<p>Building quality public and social housing alternatives to owning a home isn’t just about fixing a crisis in which over 500,000 people languish waiting for social housing. It’s also about shifting the focus of our nation’s culture and identity. </p>
<p>From the late 1990s, Australians were told to keep their head down, work hard, suffer honourably like the diggers, and find solace in the rising value of their homes. This was John Howard’s ideological project, which sought to dismantle working-class identity and replace it with “Aussie battlers”.</p>
<p>But defining people’s value based on economic conditions over which they have no control – like interest rates – has resulted in many workers becoming passive and without agency in the areas in which they can build power, like at work.</p>
<p>While the poorest suffer in material deprivation, Australia’s housing system, running on a “get in, cash out” mantra, has fostered a toxic political constituency, and a deprived national psyche. Are we really a nation of one-dimensional wealth-builders?</p>
<p>If we could avoid locking people into the mortgage rat-race, huge amounts of time would be freed to explore more fulfilling jobs – and lives. This is already the reality in Nordic countries, where there is a wide repertoire of pro-social housing models like housing cooperatives, which amount to 22% of the total housing stock in Sweden, and 40% of all housing stock in Norway’s capital, Oslo.</p>
<p>A national public housing construction program could build hundreds of thousands of units, with local materials and labour where possible, co-funded and delivered in partnership with state governments. They could be well-planned, high-quality, beautiful units, affordable and accessible to all. </p>
<p>We could also purchase existing privately owned dwellings, and renovate and repurpose them. Establishing a network of public housing community bodies could ensure new units were designed well, with residents helping manage the day-to-day running of their homes – just like they do in Sweden’s housing cooperatives – rather than the present highly bureaucratic, paternalistic system.</p>
<p>There are others for whom owner occupation will remain important. Indeed, the majority of young Australians say owning a home is still a key goal. Government could extend concessional loans, or even consider creating a public bank to extend cheap credit, and change regulations to slow commercial investor lending.</p>
<p>It’s a mighty challenge for Australia. We’re weaning ourselves off a drug. But normalising public and social housing, coupled with the campaign for good jobs and dignified, secure incomes, would help redirect the enormous economic and cultural value Australians place in the individual ownership of land and property. </p>
<p>This priority shift is one of the most critical updates we can make to the legacy of the Fair Go, built on unceded Aboriginal lands, and our nation would be the richer for it.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited extract from <a href="https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/publishing/bookfinder/book/gen-f_d_-by-alison-pennington/9781743799215">Gen F’d?: How Young Australians Can Reclaim Their Uncertain Futures</a> by Alison Pennington, published by Hardie Grant Books on 8 March 2023. Available in stores nationally.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199403/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Pennington is now an advisor to the Albanese government.</span></em></p>Since the 1980s, Australia’s housing market has become a ‘closed shop’ that expands the wealth of existing home owners and investors. Alison Pennington traces the changes – and suggests another way.Alison Pennington, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, Politics, Philosophy and Economics, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1998612023-02-16T01:51:15Z2023-02-16T01:51:15ZBeyond roads, rates and rubbish: Australians now expect local councils to act on bigger issues, including climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510453/original/file-20230216-24-8y4fxg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C319%2C4031%2C2698&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Darebin City Council was the first to declare a climate emergency.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/takver/44598405512">John Englart/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>News headlines about local government in Australia often have a familiar storyline: councils should stick to their “<a href="https://ipa.org.au/publications-ipa/poll-local-councils-should-stick-to-roads-rates-and-rubbish">core purpose</a> […] to collect rubbish, fix local roads and keep rates down”. However, our <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/321483">newly published research</a> shows most Australians expect more from their local councils, and that includes climate action. </p>
<p>Yet councils still tend to find themselves on the receiving end of public criticism when they veer from delivering “services to property” to activities that fall under the “services to people” category. They attract headlines like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/20/council-of-war-how-much-should-local-government-stray-from-roads-rates-and-rubbish">The Guardian’s</a> “Council of war: how much should local government stray from roads, rates and rubbish?” and the <a href="https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/stick-to-collecting-rubbish-not-spreading-it/news-story/ff88bd07cb991a55d2db305e362ae864">Courier Mail’s</a> “Stick to collecting rubbish – not spreading it”.</p>
<p>In one respect, it’s easy to understand why. The <a href="https://alga.com.au/facts-and-figures/">537 local councils</a> around Australia are creations of state and territory statutes. Until relatively recently, they were restricted to administering a select number of services to property. They are not mentioned in the Commonwealth Constitution and sit squarely at the bottom of our federal hierarchy.</p>
<p>This is why when we do hear about local government it’s usually in relation to the “three Rs” (roads, rates, and rubbish). It’s also why, as experts in governance like A.J. Brown <a href="https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p52401/pdf/ch025.pdf">observe</a>, the tier of government closest to Australians remains “the poor cousin if not ‘lame duck’ in the Australian federal system”, despite having “grown rapidly
in capacity and importance”.</p>
<p>But to what extent do Australians really think local councils should stick to the three Rs?</p>
<p>Our national survey during June and July 2022 asked 1,350 Australians this question. The results are presented in our <a href="https://apo.org.au/node/321483">report</a> about the changing role of local government. Most people surveyed agreed their local councils should engage with bigger, contentious issues.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-from-history-point-to-local-councils-role-in-australias-recovery-138547">Lessons from history point to local councils' role in Australia's recovery</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Australians see a bigger role for their local councils</h2>
<p>Australians now have an expansive view of the role of local government. More than nine in ten respondents, for instance, believed local councils should:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>advocate for the needs of the local community (93%)</p></li>
<li><p>reflect local community values (93%)</p></li>
<li><p>deliver services that contribute to a healthier and fairer society (91%).</p></li>
</ul>
<iframe title="Views on the role of local government in Australia" aria-label="Stacked Bars" id="datawrapper-chart-QBmR6" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/QBmR6/5/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="554" data-external="1"></iframe>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/councils-often-ignore-residents-on-social-media-how-can-digital-platforms-ensure-they-have-a-say-in-planning-138609">Councils often ignore residents on social media. How can digital platforms ensure they have a say in planning?</a>
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<p>Interestingly, almost as many Australians were of the view that political parties should play a greater role in local government (69%) and local government should have more power (66%) as those who felt it should focus only on providing basic services – the three Rs (70%). And 83% of respondents agreed local government should be a place where the local community can debate national issues.</p>
<p>What we see challenged, then, are <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/94473/Details">three longstanding ideological underpinnings</a> of Australian local government. These are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the ratepayer ideology that underlies the focus on the three Rs</p></li>
<li><p>the localist ideology that places the suburb and neighbourhood as the sole focus of local politics</p></li>
<li><p>the ideology of political neutrality or “opposition to politics in local government”.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Social services matter too</h2>
<p>Australians still identify traditional services to property as the most important for local councils to provide. However, there’s a growing appreciation that a more diverse array of socially oriented services are important as well, as the chart below shows.</p>
<iframe title="Views on which services it is important for local government to provide" aria-label="Stacked Bars" id="datawrapper-chart-Nx7dU" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Nx7dU/6/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="1401" data-external="1"></iframe>
<p>These council activities range from health and the promotion of the local area to community development, youth services and lobbying higher governments. It’s clear Australians now agree with one of the touchstone findings of the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=efpa/localgovt/report.htm">2003 Hawker parliamentary report</a> that “[l]ocal governments’ roles […] are diverse”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/local-councils-put-affordable-housing-supply-in-the-too-hard-basket-97461">Local councils put affordable housing supply in the too hard basket</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Contentious issues aren’t off-limits</h2>
<p>Australians also believe their local councils should engage with contentious issues, even those that were once well beyond their remit.</p>
<p>We’ve seen in recent years a growing number of local councils around the country have been shaking off the “lame duck” moniker. They are jumping headfirst into ideologically contentious issues like <a href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/yes-yes-yes/">same-sex marriage</a>, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1078087420945034">Australia Day</a>, the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8500.12451">climate emergency</a> and <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/lord-mayor-backs-a-pill-testing-trial-but-andrews-just-says-no-20191112-p539y4.html">pill testing</a>. In almost all cases, media and state and federal governments have accused councils taking these actions of over-reach.</p>
<p>But our survey showed Australians want their local councils to act on these issues.</p>
<p>Take climate change, for instance. We found 80% of respondents broadly agreed local government should engage with this issue. Even when it came to the more controversial act of declaring a climate emergency, which <a href="https://www.cedamia.org/">close to one-fifth</a> of Australian local councils have already done, 75% of respondents still felt that was right.</p>
<iframe title="Views on how important is it for local government to engage climate change issues" aria-label="Stacked Bars" id="datawrapper-chart-9vKZH" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/9vKZH/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="366" data-external="1"></iframe>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ordinary-people-extraordinary-change-addressing-the-climate-emergency-through-quiet-activism-160548">Ordinary people, extraordinary change: addressing the climate emergency through 'quiet activism'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Read together, these findings show the cliched debate about local government and the three Rs, still favoured among some media and policy pundits, may have had its day. We need a new and more expansive debate that reflects the role local councils play in Australia today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199861/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>A national survey shows that, while Australians see the traditional council services as very important, most support local government involvement in a much broader range of issues and activities.Mark Chou, Associate Professor of Politics, Australian Catholic UniversityRachel Busbridge, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Australian Catholic UniversitySerrin Rutledge-Prior, Course Convenor; Research Officer, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1979112023-02-02T19:15:03Z2023-02-02T19:15:03ZFriday essay: how Blanche d'Alpuget’s ‘warts and all’ biography of her lover Bob Hawke helped make him prime minister<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506986/original/file-20230130-18-7k736.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C2%2C1595%2C1010&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Verity Chambers/Newspix</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Blanche D’Alpuget was born in 1944, the daughter of Lou d’Alpuget and Josie Stephenson, and grew up in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. She attended Sydney Church of England Girls’ Grammar School and, briefly, the University of Sydney before becoming a journalist with the Daily Mirror, rival newspaper of the Sun where her father worked. </p>
<p>A hyper-masculine yachtsman, champion boxer, wrestler, water polo player and, in youth, Bondi lifesaver, Lou d’Alpuget in the newsroom <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/a-journalist-who-knew-his-onions-20060609-gdnpsh.html">once shouted</a> at cadet journalist John Pilger so ferociously for getting his facts wrong that Pilger fainted. He taught Blanche to box, surf, sail, fish, fire a rifle and execute basic unarmed combat moves, the last because he thought girls should be able to defend themselves against assault.</p>
<p>The journalistic gene was not fully transmitted though. “I was always aware of the fact that I was not a good journalist,” d’Alpuget says. “I had no news sense. It is a sense, and I haven’t got it. I still haven’t got it.”</p>
<p>Unusually, Lou recommended the works of Cambridge English literature don <a href="https://www.arthurquillercouch.com/">Arthur Quiller-Couch</a> to Sun cadets, not an obvious choice as an influence on Australian journalistic prose. While Lou’s news sense was not transmitted to Blanche, the literary bent this suggests in him was.</p>
<p>D’Alpuget was on the Mirror’s full-time payroll in Sydney for just three years: life as a novelist lay ahead. First, though, there was a spell in London followed by nine years living in South-East Asia, including two periods living in Indonesia with her husband, journalist turned diplomat Tony Pratt. </p>
<h2>‘A good guy’: meeting Hawke</h2>
<p>In 1970, the year d’Alpuget first met Hawke, Pratt was second secretary at the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. “I showed visiting ‘firemen’ around Jakarta,” she recalls. “I was very good at that. It was one of the things expected of the wives.” </p>
<p>Hawke, recently anointed <a href="https://www.actu.org.au/">ACTU</a> president, remembered seeing “this vision” for the first time, en route to the annual meeting of the International Labour Organisation in Switzerland. </p>
<p>“I met her first in Jakarta on my way through to Geneva when Rawdon Dalrymple was the counsellor in the embassy there,” he recalled. “I was sitting on the verandah of his house having a beer and this vision in white appeared from around the corner and I thought, my god!” For her part, d’Alpuget formed an immediately positive impression of Hawke.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I thought he was a good person for a particular reason. It goes back to Jakarta, and to showing around visiting firemen. All of them, without exception, would want to visit the Jakarta slums. And I used to take people there and […] they’d get this warm inner glow of the superiority of our culture while looking at the poor slum dwellers as if they were animals in a zoo, which I really hated.</p>
<p>Bob was the only person, when I asked, “Do you want to see the kampongs?” who said, “No, I don’t want to see poverty”. And I thought, ah, a good guy. And really my respect for him was based just on that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She would see Hawke once more in Indonesia – the following year, in 1971, when he was again en route for the International Labour Organisation. As well as squiring visitors around Jakarta, d’Alpuget worked variously at the Australian Embassy, including the press office, during her time in Indonesia. </p>
<p>She <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/487319">wrote</a> human interest pieces “with the blessing of the Australian embassy” and tacit approval of the Indonesian intelligence service, to be placed in the Australian media, smoothing the way for the first visit to Australia by an Indonesian head of state: President Suharto in 1972, in the still sensitive post-<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia%E2%80%93Malaysia_confrontation">Konfrontasi</a> period. </p>
<p>It was <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">a life of</a> “pleasure and ease … friends and parties, horse riding in the early mornings, swimming in the afternoons”, married to Tony: “We […] were boon companions.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507321/original/file-20230131-6351-n9up99.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507321/original/file-20230131-6351-n9up99.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507321/original/file-20230131-6351-n9up99.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507321/original/file-20230131-6351-n9up99.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507321/original/file-20230131-6351-n9up99.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=758&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507321/original/file-20230131-6351-n9up99.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507321/original/file-20230131-6351-n9up99.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507321/original/file-20230131-6351-n9up99.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bob and Blanche were both married when they first met, in 1970. He thought, ‘my god!’ when he saw her; she thought he was ‘a good guy’. 25 years later, they would marry, and stay together until his death.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Good Weekend</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A ‘vivacious, unconventional’ writer</h2>
<p>D’Alpuget returned to Australia in 1973 and lived in Canberra <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">where</a> Pratt worked for the Department of Defence “with consequences he had not foreseen, and he was miserable”. She felt socially restricted and stood out in a national capital then only 200,000 strong, the vast majority of whom were in the paid workforce as public servants. “I don’t much like bureaucrats and they don’t much like me,” she <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/487319">adds</a>. </p>
<p>Her friend, feminist activist <a href="https://theconversation.com/vale-susan-ryan-pioneer-labor-feminist-who-showed-big-difficult-policy-changes-can-and-should-be-made-146996">Susan Ryan</a>, who became a Labor senator for the ACT in 1975, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/710142.Catching_the_Waves">recalled</a> d’Alpuget then as a “vivacious, unconventional woman in her thirties”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Dazzlingly pretty and petite, she looked like a Thai beauty with blond curls […] Blanche was full of fun. She liked to make loud, outrageous observations about people, particularly about their sexual demeanour […] In an era of dull and careless feminist dress codes she was a welcome sight at [Women’s Electoral Lobby] meetings, a little bird of paradise in gold high-heeled sandals, tight black slacks and a mink jacket to keep out the Canberra cold, topped by perfectly ordered blond curls, her face luminous with detailed make-up.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Pratt, in turn, was an “Adonis” in Ryan’s recollection. “I loved my husband, whom I’d met when I was seventeen, and felt fiercely loyal to him,” d’Alpuget <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">has written</a>. “In the decade we had journeyed together we had both taken side trips, but we were mindful of each other’s feelings, and discreet.” They divorced in 1986.</p>
<p>It was during this period that d’Alpuget established herself as a writer. </p>
<p>“I was not keen on taking a job, because of our young son”; instead she wrote a novel set in Jakarta. Twenty rejection slips later, including one from publisher Richard Walsh who <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">described it</a> as “just a straggle of events” – he “was right, but I felt like pulling out his tongue and feeding it to the cat” – she set the novel aside. “But I had discovered the pleasures of writing and wanted to do it again.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-studied-31-australian-political-biographies-published-in-the-past-decade-only-4-were-about-women-167448">I studied 31 Australian political biographies published in the past decade — only 4 were about women</a>
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<h2>d'Alpuget’s first biography: Sir Richard Kirby</h2>
<p>D’Alpuget did, winning Fellowship of Australian Writers’ prizes for two short stories in 1975. Then came an unexpected, perhaps fated, opportunity to write a biography of Sir Richard Kirby, a long-serving judge and former Conciliation and Arbitration Commission president. </p>
<p>D’Alpuget knew Kirby’s daughter Sue from school. At the time Sue lived in Canberra and her parents occasionally visited. When Kirby and d’Alpuget met in Canberra through Sue, they found a common interest in Indonesia, especially the late Indonesian president <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukarno">Sukarno</a>. “Kirby had known him personally when he was at the height of his power,” d’Alpuget <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/993725">later wrote</a>, “I as an observer in the last days of his shattered dream.”</p>
<p>During a conversation about Sukarno’s Indonesia of the 1940s, d’Alpuget asked to see Kirby’s photographs of the period; Kirby instead sent the transcript of his National Library of Australia oral history interview. Shortly afterwards, at her father’s request, Sue sounded out d’Alpuget about whether she would be willing to help him with his memoirs. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507295/original/file-20230131-24-fhws2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507295/original/file-20230131-24-fhws2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507295/original/file-20230131-24-fhws2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507295/original/file-20230131-24-fhws2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507295/original/file-20230131-24-fhws2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507295/original/file-20230131-24-fhws2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507295/original/file-20230131-24-fhws2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507295/original/file-20230131-24-fhws2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&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="attribution"><span class="source">Amazon</span></span>
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<p>D’Alpuget was interested but the logistics were unworkable: she had a young son and the Kirbys divided their time between Melbourne and the NSW South Coast. D’Alpuget <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/993725">suggested</a> she write his biography instead. Kirby agreed. It would be published in 1977 as <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/993725">Mediator: A Biography of Sir Richard Kirby</a>. During the process they became friends; Kirby nicknamed d’Alpuget “Blanco”.</p>
<p>D’Alpuget began work on the book without a publishing contract in hand. Getting a publisher for a serious biography was easier than for a first-time novel, however, and at Max Suich’s suggestion, d’Alpuget proposed it to Melbourne University Press publisher, Peter Ryan.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s very fashionable to say, oh, he’s a terrible old right-wing tyrant and so forth. And indeed, he was a martinet. But he was marvellous. He took it on on what he’d seen – the couple of chapters I wrote plus an outline.</p>
<p>And he really taught me how to be an author. He hand wrote me a letter every single week. First of all he gave me the style manual for the house […] When I’d do something wrong, I remember once he sent me a drawing of me having my head chopped off with a guillotine. He drew it falling into a basket with a ZUT! three times after it. But he was very, very good for a young author. They don’t do that these days.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Before d’Alpuget sent a chapter to Ryan she would send it first to her stepmother, journalist and editor Tess van Sommers. It was a production line that forged her as an author. </p>
<p>D’Alpuget <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1664726">credited</a> both Ryan and van Sommers for turning her “into a writer”. Applying the lessons learned from writing the Kirby book, d’Alpuget did a six-week rewrite of the rejected novel and immediately found a publisher; it became the prize-winning <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Blanche-d'Alpuget-Monkeys-in-the-Dark-9781743312254">Monkeys in the Dark</a>.</p>
<p>Research on the Kirby biography included long walks along Berrara Beach, near Jervis Bay, during which Kirby gave d’Alpuget a crash course in Australian industrial law – unique in the world at that time in consisting of court-based arbitrated rulings on cases triggered by disputes between unions and employers, and the creation of court-sanctioned “awards” that embodied agreements on wages and conditions between them. </p>
<p>To that point, d’Alpuget’s only experience with the law <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28169868-the-eleven-deadly-sins">had been</a> as a teenage runaway when at her parents’ instigation police nabbed her and her much older boyfriend interstate. D’Alpuget had also done some court reporting at the Mirror. D’Alpuget was no student of biography either. “At that stage, I’m ashamed to admit, I had never read a biography,” she recalls. “I was much too busy … going to parties!”</p>
<h2>‘Galvanised’ by 28-year-old Hawke</h2>
<p>As the long-standing Arbitration Commission president, Kirby knew Hawke and had come to like him very much. When he first observed him, Hawke was an impatient ANU research student assisting ACTU advocate Richard Eggleston QC in the 1958 national wage case hearings. </p>
<p>“He couldn’t sit still,” Kirby told d’Alpuget. “You could see he was practically going mad with frustration at not being able to have a say […] From the bench we used to watch him with some curiosity and amusement.” Hawke, 28 years old at the time but looking to the bench “only twenty-two or three”, asked for an interview with Kirby in his chambers.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He came in and explained he was a research student at the ANU. He began asking me a series of questions which I found quite objectionable in tone; how did we judges make our decisions? Did we believe we had the economic training necessary for the job we were trying to do? He <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/993725">more or less suggested</a> we were a lot of economic ignoramuses, and things would be better off without us. I got pretty annoyed and indicated I thought him offensive.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the next few pages of the Kirby biography, d’Alpuget recounts the unexpectedly riveting story of Hawke’s arrival on the public stage and his role in transforming the conceptual basis of Australian wage-fixing at that time from “capacity” to “productivity”. Hawke dropped out of his ANU doctoral studies, became the ACTU’s first university-educated employee and, not yet 30 years old, was appointed ACTU advocate for the 1959 basic wage case. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YzFmM71HOvw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Bob Hawke was the ACTU’s first university-educated employee.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The presiding judge, Alf Foster, sent word via back channels to ACTU president Albert Monk “that he thought senior counsel and not some unknown student” should present the union case. Monk stuck with Hawke whose “assault on the concepts of wage fixation was immediate, savage and effective,” d’Alpuget <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/993725">records</a>.</p>
<p>Kirby was galvanised by Hawke’s arguments. “In the off-season I later sought discussions with economists like Nugget Coombs, Joe Isaac and Dick Downing to help me understand in some depth what Hawke was talking about,” <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/993725">he told</a> d’Alpuget. </p>
<p>D’Alpuget herself was galvanised by Hawke the man. In March 1976 she went to Melbourne <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">to interview him</a> for the Kirby book.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I did not initially recognise him as the man-passing-through-town with whom, six years earlier, I’d spent an hour tete-a-tete at a party (to which I’d worn, I remembered, a new white dress my mother had made). Nor did I realise what he would do in my life: I did not know when I encountered him again that the Muse had arrived. I did not know that, old, young, black, white, as himself or masked, I would draw him or some characteristic or saying of his, in book after book.</p>
<p>With mutual, wordless consent it was agreed we would become lovers as soon as possible – which happened to be in a different city, the following night.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-i-learned-from-bob-hawke-economics-isnt-an-end-itself-there-has-to-be-a-social-benefit-117314">What I learned from Bob Hawke: economics isn't an end itself. There has to be a social benefit</a>
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<h2>Lovers ‘as soon as possible’</h2>
<p>The city was Canberra. Hawke was late and wearing pancake make-up. They would meet every few weeks; in between <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">there were</a> “no phone conversations, no notes, messages, nothing”. Hawke was rarely out of d’Alpuget’s mind. She tried never to mention his name but everything seemed to evoke his image, and all of it “shimmered with life”. </p>
<p>D’Alpuget’s interior world <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">was alight</a>: “Researching was a joy; writing was a joy; everything was a joy.” She carefully diarised their meetings. <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">But</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>slowly, dreadfully, I came to realise he was having affairs with women all over the country, that his love life was a kind of freewheeling, decentralised harem, with four or five favourites and a shoe-sale queue of one-night stands.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The relationship continued nevertheless and in November 1978 Hawke told d’Alpuget about a dream in which she and “Paradiso”, his long-standing lover in Geneva, were standing on a roulette wheel. “The wheel spun, and came to rest at me,” d’Alpuget writes in <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">On Longing</a>. “It meant, [he] said, he must choose me: to marry.” She was, she writes, “slain with delight” but told him she would think about it and respond in the New Year. </p>
<p>Practical considerations arose in her mind but did not seem decisive. Some were especially telling, including the fact that he mispronounced her surname, did not know whether she had siblings and, essentially, “knew little about who I was”. She asked a psychiatrist friend <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">to interpret</a> Hawke’s dream: “He laughed aloud at my obtuseness. ‘It means throwing in his lot with you is a gamble’.”</p>
<p>More than the roulette wheel was turning, however, by the time 1979 arrived. Hawke rang daily: “I felt safe,” she says. But d’Alpuget <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">had</a> an emerging realisation that she knew him as little as he knew her: “We were enigmas, peeping at each other through keyholes.” </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507318/original/file-20230131-26-as4on3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507318/original/file-20230131-26-as4on3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507318/original/file-20230131-26-as4on3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507318/original/file-20230131-26-as4on3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507318/original/file-20230131-26-as4on3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507318/original/file-20230131-26-as4on3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1178&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507318/original/file-20230131-26-as4on3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1178&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507318/original/file-20230131-26-as4on3.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1178&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>D’Alpuget began to research her second novel, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/3409302">Turtle Beach</a>. It became an exercise in “unconscious autobiography”, d’Alpuget <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">wrote later</a>, as had the rewrite of her first novel after the Kirby biography was finished; the writing of both stories reduced the pressure of her clandestine relationship with Hawke to bearable levels, partly by channelling her and Hawke’s personae into those novels’ fictional characters.</p>
<p>Hawke’s attention, meanwhile, had turned to the increasingly tense question of whether he should enter parliament – this against the backdrop of disasters at the 1979 ALP conference and ACTU Congress, the death of his mother Ellie, and trouble at home in Royal Avenue, Sandringham. </p>
<p>His life was now awash with “out-of-control drinking”. At the back of his mind, too, was a calculation that divorce could cost Labor a few percentage points at the ballot box should he become leader. Hawke stopped calling d’Alpuget. After some weeks, in a phone conversation lasting half a minute, Hawke <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">told her</a> he was not getting divorced. “Each of us asked the other to leave,” Hazel Hawke <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6030107-my-own-life">wrote later</a> in her memoirs. “We both stayed.”</p>
<p>From being “slain with delight” at the marriage proposal nearly a year before, d’Alpuget <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">now</a> first thought of killing herself, and then of killing Hawke. Each proposition was considered in practical detail over a number of days before a “shard of vanity” and the realisation that “giving my son a murderess for a mother was hardly better than a suicide, and that if I were in jail I would not see him often” terminated that line of thought. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Without revealing too many details, and certainly none of my murder plans, I told (Kirby) the story. He listened, and after a silence said, “Thank God, Blanco, that it’s over. You would have ended up sticking a knife in him.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Is it possible that d’Alpuget really did know Hawke as little as she claims in <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">On Longing</a>?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>No, I didn’t get to know him well at all. I really didn’t, because it was a completely sexual relationship. Brief encounters that had to be fitted in between him doing a thousand other things […] I only ever saw him behind a closed door.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>D’Alpuget disavows even an appreciation of Hawke’s powerful public projection at the time “because I never saw him in public”, and in any case, “I’d been writing novels … I wasn’t all that interested.” Rather, rivals were on d’Alpuget’s mind.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">On Longing</a> she recounts looking at a “luscious minx” on page three of the Mirror, for example, and wondering if she was another of Hawke’s “petites amies” – this while rewriting <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Blanche-d'Alpuget-Monkeys-in-the-Dark-9781743312254">Monkeys in the Dark</a>, whose heroine’s fascination with her lover “was mixed and corrupted with anger and tension”. She continued: “We write out our sicknesses in books, Hemingway said. Well, yes and no: Hemingway shot himself.”</p>
<h2>A symbiotic project</h2>
<p>At this point, in 1979, d’Alpuget was author of the critically well-received Kirby biography, had two novels in the pipeline that would be published in the next two years to acclaim, several literary prizes and foreign translations of her works but little in the way of financial reward. </p>
<p>She wanted to write another biography and initially chose Hawke’s mentor and predecessor <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/monk-albert-ernest-11148">Albert Monk</a>, the ACTU’s first full-time president whose tenure overlapped substantially with Kirby’s at the Arbitration Commission. This idea fell victim to the resistance of Monk’s widow, who was disinclined to give d’Alpuget access to his papers.</p>
<p>D’Alpuget has said that “the Hawke book came about because of the Kirby book”, and there is a symbiotic feel to the projects, even down to their respective book launches. Nearly five years to the day after Hawke launched d’Alpuget’s Kirby biography at Canberra’s Lakeside Hotel, Kirby launched d’Alpuget’s Hawke biography at the same venue. </p>
<p>Melbourne Psychosocial Group members Graham Little and Angus McIntyre, and psychiatrist Michael Epstein, all attended the latter. The Kirby book required mastering the intricacies of Australia’s unique industrial relations system and d’Alpuget did so convincingly. </p>
<p>The language and concepts she acquired enabled her to understand Hawke’s long engagement with labour market theory and practice which dated from his research at Oxford in the mid-1950s on wage fixing under the Australian arbitration system. Interviewing Hawke for the Kirby biography brought about the fateful re-meeting of biographer and subject.</p>
<h2>Conscious motives</h2>
<p>What were d’Alpuget’s conscious motives for the Hawke biography? In 2014 she presented it as a simple instrumental decision after she unsuccessfully “tried and tried” to get Monk’s widow to give her access to his papers: “She turned me down … So I thought, okay, I’ll try the second president.”</p>
<p>Earlier, in <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">On Longing</a> in 2008, d’Alpuget “noted that the news media presentation of [Hawke] was mostly so simplified as to be not much more than a cartoon”. D’Alpuget </p>
<blockquote>
<p>was offended that public debate relied on such spindly legs, and wanted to do something about it; I wanted to make my own presentation of [Hawke] in a biography.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Earlier again, in 1986, d’Alpuget <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3538950-rooms-of-their-own">told Jennifer Ellison</a> that </p>
<blockquote>
<p>with the Hawke biography – I just had to make some money. I mean, that wasn’t the only reason, but I had that practical reason. Nobody can expect to make money out of writing fiction, so I wanted to write a book which I thought would finance me for a couple of novels, which it has.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The interrelated fiction and financial factors behind the book were related earlier still, in 1985, <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/487319">to Candida Baker</a>, “because I knew it would help make me so well-known in Australia that all future fiction writing would be easy to sell”.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507327/original/file-20230131-18-jkczh4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507327/original/file-20230131-18-jkczh4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507327/original/file-20230131-18-jkczh4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507327/original/file-20230131-18-jkczh4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507327/original/file-20230131-18-jkczh4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507327/original/file-20230131-18-jkczh4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507327/original/file-20230131-18-jkczh4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507327/original/file-20230131-18-jkczh4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>D’Alpuget <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3538950-rooms-of-their-own">told Ellison</a> another factor was that Hawke “wasn’t entirely happy” about another biography being written at the time, though she does not specify whether that concern related to the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/6939252">John Hurst</a> or <a href="https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/1980/642-october-1980-no-25/9261-major-don-grant-reviews-bob-hawke-a-portrait-by-robert-pullan-and-hawke-the-definitive-biography-by-john-hurst">Robert Pullan</a> book. </p>
<p>D’Alpuget also <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3538950-rooms-of-their-own">evinced</a> genuine interest in Australia’s arbitration system; Hawke had wanted to do a doctoral thesis on it, and had spent half a lifetime working in it, while she had written a “part-history of that system” in the Kirby biography.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>And there was a genuinely shared curiosity: you know, if you’ve once dreamed of going to Krakatoa and then you meet someone who has travelled there, you want to talk to him or her.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>D’Alpuget told Baker that Hawke had rung her in 1978 to say that Hurst was thinking of doing a biography of him, wanting to know how much demand on his time a biographer was likely to make: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>So we had a talk about it, and I said as a joke, “Well if somebody’s going to do a biography of you, why don’t you let me do it?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This has been d’Alpuget’s most frequent response to questions about the book’s genesis. A more expansive account was given at a Canberra Times Literary Luncheon in 1982, shortly after its launch.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[I]n 1978 he got in touch with me and he said that somebody wanted to do his biography and I was the only biographer he knew and how much time was he going to have to devote to it.</p>
<p>So we had this conversation, you see, and it was going on and I didn’t know at that stage really but I perceived it intuitively that he’s a man who leaves a great deal unspoken and that you have to understand what he’s saying intuitively. And I thought while he was talking, that he was thinking that if you were going to be the subject of a life, he would quite like me to do it. That’s what I thought in any case.</p>
<p>So I said jokingly – as any shrink will tell you, there are no jokes, especially in these circumstances – I said jokingly, ‘Well if you’re going to have a biography done, why don’t you let me do it?’. And he laughed and so I laughed and that was the end of it. It was officially a joke.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the same speech, d’Alpuget says that as early as February 1976 she had a sense of how interesting Hawke could be as a subject when a woman sitting next to her at a Canberra dinner party one Saturday night, who knew Hazel Hawke, raised Bob’s intriguing mother. The woman told d’Alpuget:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I’ve already complained to Hazel about how aggressive Bob is,” because Hawke in those days was extraordinarily aggressive, he was like a blast of a furnace fire.</p>
<p>I said, “Oh yes”.</p>
<p>And she said, “And Hazel said, "if you think Bob is aggressive, you ought to meet his mother”.</p>
<p>Anyway when I heard that, I thought, there’s a story in that man, because it seemed to me that there was in that remark – that Hazel has repeated to me – an effect or, if you like, the tension between free will and determinism which I think is the tension or the dynamic of all narrative.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>D’Alpuget refers to this 1976 dinner party conversation as the “seed” of the Hawke book, and the 1978 conversation with Hawke, triggered by their discussion of Hurst’s planned biography, as its “germination”. In between, in 1977, growth was driven by “that marvellous human need – that is, the need to eat”. </p>
<h2>A 'warts and all’ biography</h2>
<p>Little income had accrued from the Kirby book despite its critical success; <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Blanche-d'Alpuget-Monkeys-in-the-Dark-9781743312254">Monkeys in the Dark</a> had been rewritten and found a publisher but had not yet come out; and d’Alpuget wanted to apply for a Literature Board grant to enable her to continue writing. When her original plan to write a biography of Monk fell over, “I started thinking again about Hawke”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>So I approached him […] in late 1978, because by then it was obvious that he would have to make his move to parliament either soon or not at all. I was very conscious [of] my effrontery […] and I expected, I think, that he’d either laugh about it again or just turn me down flat, as Mrs Monk had done.</p>
<p>Anyway I was surprised by his reaction, which was positive and interested and, I think, despite my work with Kirby, I hadn’t realised at that stage just how flattering it is to be made the subject of a book, nor I think had Hawke realised just how traumatic it can be. We made this agreement in principle [that]
assuming I could get a grant, I would start work on him in 1980.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the interim d’Alpuget completed her second novel, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/3409302">Turtle Beach</a>, which would be another critical success upon publication in 1981. </p>
<p>From the vantage point of late 1979, however, when after four years’ full-time writing d’Alpuget still did not have “even enough to pay the telephone bill”, she decided she would either have to make some money or return to journalism, “a fate worse than death”. She hoped and expected that a Hawke biography would be financially rewarding. It was one of the things that kept her going.</p>
<p>D’Alpuget got the Literature Board grant. On 3 January 1980 – her 36th birthday and just a few months after Hawke’s reneged marriage proposal drove her to suicidal, then homicidal, thoughts – the first interview for <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">Robert J. Hawke: A Biography</a> was conducted. </p>
<p>“We set up a meeting […] in Sandringham just around the corner from his house, in the house of a friend of mine,” d’Alpuget recalls. Says Hawke: “It developed rather intimately … but it didn’t affect what I had to say.”</p>
<p>Hawke’s agreement was conditional on it being a “warts and all” portrait, a judgment based on his belief that voters understood he was human like them. “I just reckon I know the Australian people,” he said, conflating them with Australian men. “A hell of a lot of them could recognise themselves in both my drinking and my womanising. I think they make a judgment on the full person.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mG6Le84x8TY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Bob Hawke wanted a ‘warts and all’ biography, believing Australians would recognise themselves in his drinking and womanising.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unlike the Kirby biography, the book did not immediately find a publisher. Peter Ryan at Melbourne University Press “knocked it back straight off – said, ‘Oh no, he’s alive!’” In a letter to d’Alpuget later, Ryan reiterated his “old-hat preference for "Life” which is dead, career complete, personality finished and the surrounding events reduced to proportion by the perspective of the years". Penguin Books also rejected the proposal.</p>
<h2>A ‘cowboy’ publisher: Morry Schwartz</h2>
<p>D’Alpuget’s literary agent, Rose Creswell, suggested Morry Schwartz, whose innovative Melbourne publishing house Outback Press had recently folded: but not before releasing contemporary Australian classics like Kate Jennings’ <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/69664">Come to Me, My Melancholy Baby</a> and <a href="https://www.ideanow.online/a-book-about-australian-women">A Book about Australian Women</a> by Carol Jerrems and Virginia Fraser. </p>
<p>Outback Press also had some unlikely commercial successes, including the Kate Jennings-edited <a href="https://readingaustralia.com.au/books/mother-im-rooted/">Mother, I’m Rooted: An anthology of Australian women poets</a>, which sold 10,000 copies in an Australia, whose then population was less than 14 million people.</p>
<p>Schwartz had a colourful reputation – “the kindest thing said about him was that he was ‘a cowboy’,” says d’Alpuget – and was a long shot as a publishing bet. But the book was a long shot for Schwartz, too. There were two biographies in the marketplace already. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507304/original/file-20230131-24-gz5oia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507304/original/file-20230131-24-gz5oia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507304/original/file-20230131-24-gz5oia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507304/original/file-20230131-24-gz5oia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507304/original/file-20230131-24-gz5oia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507304/original/file-20230131-24-gz5oia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507304/original/file-20230131-24-gz5oia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507304/original/file-20230131-24-gz5oia.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Cowboy publisher’ Morry Schwartz (right), pictured at an Outback Press launch, with launcher Gough Whitlam (left) and author Deane Wells (centre).</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More serious still was Hawke’s extreme behaviour when drunk, and political embarrassments which made some conclude his ascent was over. “It was thought that he’d absolutely shot himself in the foot,” d’Alpuget recalls. Max Suich told her, for example, upon hearing about the planned biography, “Well you’d better be quick, dear, because he’ll be ‘Bob Who?’ in six months.”</p>
<p>She and Creswell flew to Melbourne to talk to Schwartz. The meeting took place in the street. “Morry, who was around thirty and drop-dead good-looking, conducted the interview leaning against a low, fast, navy blue–coloured car that he owned, or hired, or had borrowed,” says d’Alpuget. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>One was never quite sure. He rested an elbow on the car roof and from time to time turned his Hollywood profile to snatch another black grape from the bunch he held by its stem between thumb and first finger.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Schwartz backed the book with zest, offering an advance big enough to research the book properly. </p>
<p>In d’Alpuget’s view he did this for two reasons: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[F]irst, he was a businessman, and sensed the book could become a best-seller if Hawke’s career flourished. Second, as a Jew, he deeply appreciated Hawke’s support for Israel at a time when doing so was literally dangerous and potentially disastrous for Hawke’s career. Of these two, I think the second reason was paramount.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In d’Alpuget’s estimation, Schwartz was also capable of publishing the book with unusual speed. “I have attacks of being politically canny,” she <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3538950-rooms-of-their-own">said later</a> of her conviction that Malcolm Fraser would call the federal election early and that the book therefore must, to avoid irrelevancy, be out before the end of 1982.</p>
<p>D’Alpuget had the Literature Board grant, the agreement of her subject, a publishing contract, a healthy advance on royalties, had begun conducting interviews and was on her way to producing the book. Hawke’s memory of the process was “a hell of a lot of interviews”.</p>
<p>In a letter written late in the manuscript’s preparation, d’Alpuget <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-344188450/findingaid">told</a> Peter Ryan that, “To say … working with him is a nightmare is the blandest understatement: once, in a 2-hour taping session, there were 27 telephone calls.” </p>
<h2>On the road to the Labor leadership</h2>
<p>Four things were happening simultaneously, in fact, in the nearly three years between the first interview in January 1980 and the book’s publication in October 1982. </p>
<p>Firstly, Hawke was on the road to seizing the Labor leadership, the necessary prelude to becoming prime minister. Secondly, d’Alpuget was making a political intervention to help Hawke achieve his goal. Thirdly, d’Alpuget was symbolically reclaiming Hawke as a man before, after publication, putting him aside. And fourthly, through the biographical process conducted by d’Alpuget, Hawke was settling and projecting an identity which formed the personal plank of the platform from which he pursued and conducted his prime ministership.</p>
<p>The first of these elements, that Hawke was bent on seizing the Labor leadership, was widely known and understood at the time, though <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/500808">the story</a> behind-the-scenes – that Hawke “had more blood on him than the entire stage at the end of Hamlet” – still remains largely submerged. Hawke had been vaunted as a potential prime minister for years. </p>
<p>His leadership credentials were the focus even at the press conference when he announced his candidature for the seat of Wills, as Hurst and Pullan both pointed out in their biographies. “Newspaper files had grown fat on reports of his deeds and on speculation about where he was headed,” <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8213926-the-hawke-years">Mills notes</a>, “[and] he was in demand by TV interviewers.”</p>
<p>D’Alpuget argued in her biography of Hawke that his success in using the media, at least that outside Canberra, “was so great largely because publicity – being the centre of attention – corresponded perfectly with a major element in his personality, laid in infancy and childhood”. </p>
<p>Beginning with his parents, Hawke “relished and had the knack of mesmerizing” his audience. D’Alpuget <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">quotes</a> Hawke’s personal assistant, Jean Sinclair, on the extrapolation of this to his later career. “It was cruel to watch Bob with journalists,” Sinclair told her. “They were lambs to be slaughtered.”</p>
<p>Canberra Press Gallery journalists proved a tougher audience than those outside the national capital, however, and parliament itself was the prism through which gallery journalists rated politicians. </p>
<p>As a parliamentarian and as shadow minister for industrial relations, Hawke failed to enchant gallery journalists, impress Labor colleagues, or cow conservative prime minister Malcolm Fraser. In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6701134-the-hawke-ascendancy">The Hawke Ascendancy</a>, Paul Kelly quotes from a 1981 report by Laurie Oakes, then Canberra bureau chief for the Ten Network, after Hawke guest-compered a popular daytime television program, The Mike Walsh Show.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Since Mr Hawke entered Parliament he has not done himself justice. He does not perform nearly as well in Parliament – or in Caucus by all accounts – as he did yesterday as a television compere. His media skills are unquestioned. But a politician requires other skills as well […]</p>
<p>Mr Fraser so far has not found Mr Hawke much more difficult to deal with than a number of other Opposition frontbenchers … There is more to politics, especially in the big league at the national level, than making like a television star.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In private, including among members of the Labor caucus, comments were frequently much the same. Labor frontbencher Senator Susan Ryan <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/710142.Catching_the_Waves">shared</a> Oakes’ assessment of Hawke, rather than that of her friend d’Alpuget.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Blanche, characteristically, had formed an instant and immovable view: her subject should become prime minister of Australia as soon as possible. I was very far from that view. Often on a Canberra Sunday evening, a regular night off for us both, we would debate and argue Bob’s leadership potential. </p>
<p>She made some memorable observations about him; memorable because they turned out later to be true. When I pointed out that his contribution in the parliament and shadow Cabinet was, although perfectly workmanlike, not spectacular, she said that Bob would only flourish fully in the number one position: only leadership could provide the optimal psychological environment for him.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Some other Labor frontbenchers like Tom Uren <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7764293-straight-left">thought</a> Hawke “brought a charisma, a folksy, friendly, ‘good bloke’ relationship with the Australian people he had built up over the years” as ACTU president – the same point Labor frontbencher Mick Young made at greater length to biographer John Hurst, quoted by him on the opening page of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6939252-hawke">Hawke, the Definitive Biography</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507454/original/file-20230131-25-tln02j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507454/original/file-20230131-25-tln02j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507454/original/file-20230131-25-tln02j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507454/original/file-20230131-25-tln02j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507454/original/file-20230131-25-tln02j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507454/original/file-20230131-25-tln02j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507454/original/file-20230131-25-tln02j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507454/original/file-20230131-25-tln02j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Susan Ryan said Blanche believed ‘her subject should become prime minister of Australia as soon as possible’; she was ‘very far from that view’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Museum of Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But at the time d’Alpuget was writing her book, that sentiment was still a minority one and did not deliver Hawke the numbers to displace Bill Hayden. Was d’Alpuget’s biography part of some Hawke master plan to seize The Lodge? Not according to d’Alpuget <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3538950-rooms-of-their-own">in March 1985</a>, two and a half years after the book’s publication.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>People ever afterwards said, “Oh isn’t Hawke clever!” It’s faintly irritating. I had to consider all these bloody things, all the time. Bob had no idea of the timing, in fact for ages it was unreal to him, and it was only right towards the end of the process, when I started showing him the manuscript to read, that it started to become real. Up until then he’d been interviewed by at least five million people, and it was just something that he did. Part of the day’s work.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hawke himself said he had not considered writing an autobiography or organising for someone else to write his biography. “No, I hadn’t thought about it at all,” he said. “I was extraordinarily busy, couldn’t do it myself. I was just doing my job. This came along. I knew she could write.” Hawke didn’t want a hagiography.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I wasn’t regarded as a lilywhite kind of person (and) I was more than happy to stand on my record of achievement … I don’t think it did me any damage. I think on balance it probably helped. I think people made a judgment about me. On the whole they knew the foibles but they knew the pretty substantial record of achievement I had under my belt.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/vale-susan-ryan-pioneer-labor-feminist-who-showed-big-difficult-policy-changes-can-and-should-be-made-146996">Vale Susan Ryan, pioneer Labor feminist who showed big, difficult policy changes can, and should, be made</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A biography to ‘help Hawke achieve his goal’</h2>
<p>The second thing happening in this period was a political intervention by d’Alpuget to help Hawke achieve his goal. D’Alpuget did not declare this as her intention. Nevertheless, the Hawke biography was authorised and d’Alpuget had her subject’s cooperation. </p>
<p>D’Alpuget was not going to write a book that would hurt Hawke’s chance of winning the Labor leadership and thereafter the prime ministership, though upon first reading some did not grasp the sophistication of her approach. </p>
<p>It was a sign of Hawke’s self-confidence as well as, he would say, his confidence in the Australian people, that it had to be a “warts and all” portrayal, and d’Alpuget largely provided it. “I’d become convinced that despite all evidence to the contrary, he would somehow make it to prime minister,” d’Alpuget says.</p>
<p>Another aspect of her role in this was not publicly known. Hawke asked d’Alpuget to try and turn a Hayden vote for him. “Bob had told me how he was going to unseat Hayden,” d’Alpuget says. “And he’d asked my help with a particular Hayden supporter in the caucus. He’d asked my help in trying to turn this person, to vote for him.”</p>
<p>There was a “unique angle” according to d’Alpuget: “I was good friends with this person.” It was Susan Ryan. In the second edition of her Hawke biography, d’Alpuget would describe herself openly as a “Hawke camp insider” in the notes at the front; but not in the first edition. It was concealed even from her publisher, Morry Schwartz, at the time.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was incredibly frustrating. Because the book came out in October, and all of this was going on October, November, December, January, February – all of this plotting and so forth.</p>
<p>So maybe it was sort of November, December, January. And I knew what was happening. [A]nd and I couldn’t say a word – I couldn’t say to Morry, “Morry, print some more copies!” I didn’t tell anybody.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This underlines the dual nature of the author as both biographer and political player. While those roles were congruent, d’Alpuget’s verve and high estimation of her subject underpinned artistic risks from which a lesser, more instrumentally focused, biographer in this situation would shrink.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507280/original/file-20230131-22-kpf32l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507280/original/file-20230131-22-kpf32l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507280/original/file-20230131-22-kpf32l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507280/original/file-20230131-22-kpf32l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507280/original/file-20230131-22-kpf32l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=905&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507280/original/file-20230131-22-kpf32l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507280/original/file-20230131-22-kpf32l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507280/original/file-20230131-22-kpf32l.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1137&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The choice of cover photograph for <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">Robert J. Hawke</a> is an example. “Morry Schwartz and I sat on the floor in his office in Melbourne and we went through gazillions of photographs,” d’Alpuget recalls. “And we picked that one. If you know Bob, you know he’s drunk.”</p>
<p>The picture, by American photographer Rick Smolan, shows Hawke, eyes heavy-lidded, head leaning sideways on a hand with a cigar clenched between two fingers, his expression poised between bored bemusement and impending explosion. Hawke’s crisp, stylish business attire is juxtaposed against his intense, glowering gaze. The cover’s drama is heightened by its stark black and white palette and the containment of Hawke’s face in a tight square at its centre.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/summits-old-and-new-what-was-bob-hawkes-1983-national-economic-summit-about-187763">Summits old and new: what was Bob Hawke's 1983 National Economic Summit about?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Reclaiming Hawke – and putting him aside</h2>
<p>The third thing happening during this period was d’Alpuget symbolically reclaiming Hawke as a man and then putting him aside. </p>
<p>The background was Hawke’s years of hard drinking, philandering and fighting with wife Hazel, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15843718-hazel">from whom</a> he had only a few months earlier tried to separate in order to marry d’Alpuget, but failing since neither would agree to be the one to walk out of the marriage. </p>
<p>“It was a very difficult situation for him because Hazel hated me,” d’Alpuget says, and Hazel knew about their previous relationship and assumed, correctly, that it had resumed. Moreover, Hazel Hawke was not the only hostile rival d’Alpuget had to contend with in the writing of the book. There was also Jean Sinclair and others.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[Hazel] said to me a marvellous thing once, much later. She said, ‘Blanche, you know what Bob’s like. When he’s drunk he’d fuck a goat’. […] But she talked to me, while hating me. So he had the difficulty of Hazel being against me, and also of course he was in a very long term relationship with Jean Sinclair, his private secretary. And Jean was aware of our relationship. </p>
<p>So he had this great difficulty – trapped – three women. Jean and I managed to get on well, well enough – we were professional about it. But it was difficult for him. So he took minimal interest in the book for those personal reasons.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wJR-HuXYy8Q?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Bob Hawke, a known philanderer, was in a long-term relationship with his private secretary, Jean Sinclair, as well as having an affair with Blanche.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>D’Alpuget thanks Sinclair in the foreword to <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">Robert J Hawke: A Biography</a> for “spending so much time in passing messages to him from me, and in finding research material”. She describes Sinclair in the body of the book as “Hawke’s right arm” and spends a few pages sketching out her story as, like Hawke, an “exotic” ACTU employee. </p>
<p>Sinclair was schooled at Melbourne Girls’ Grammar School, had an economics degree from the University of Melbourne, had worked for the management consulting firm McKinsey and was a director of her family company.</p>
<p>Sinclair’s <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">description</a> to d’Alpuget of the state of the ACTU administration upon taking up her job in 1973 is vivid, and familiar to anyone familiar with the labour movement at that time: variations of this kind of administrative chaos were replicated at busy union head offices around the country.</p>
<p>D’Alpuget describes how Sinclair bore the workplace brunt of Hawke’s belief that “every day contained forty-eight hours and that he should be awake and occupied for all of them”, and remarks that “a good week for her was one in which she dissuaded him from committing himself to a major scheme: agreeing to write a book, for example”. </p>
<p>Sinclair was Hawke’s personal assistant and companion for more than twenty years, and <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">she and d’Alpuget</a> “disliked each other”. The extra demands on Hawke’s time would have been only one of the reasons Sinclair opposed the book given her own ongoing relationship with him.</p>
<h2>Fighting Hazel</h2>
<p>Hazel Hawke’s cooperation did not come without a fight. Hazel <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6030107-my-own-life">wrote a letter</a> to the editor of The Age in November 1979 registering her “utter revulsion” at press coverage of a court case involving a prominent politician’s son. “My main argument is that any politician or public figure must be assessed on his job performance, and that whether his wife and family are glamorous and interesting or have two heads and are naughty should be irrelevant,” she wrote. </p>
<p>She continued that “no public figure who is good enough” needs the ego-boosting or public image softening that “nice little stories” involving their families entail, and further, that, “The electorate which makes this demand avoids its responsibility of properly assessing the worth and performance of that figure on the contribution he makes, or does not adequately make, in his particular area of public affairs.”</p>
<p>In the foreword to <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">Robert J. Hawke</a>, d’Alpuget says the only area she avoided, at Hazel’s request, was the Hawke children “whose privacy has already been invaded over many years”. It was, she wrote, “a price worth paying for her help and unflinching frankness, both in giving information and in reading the manuscript for accuracy of detail”. D’Alpuget wrote that she had been “guided by her perceptions a great deal, while exercising the responsibility to reach my own conclusions”. </p>
<p>Hazel in turn, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6030107-my-own-life">in her own memoirs</a> published after Hawke’s prime ministership was over, characterised herself as an opponent of the biography, then a reluctant starter and, ultimately, a supporter. She felt Hawke’s flaws being brought into the open ahead of his run for the prime ministership had a kind of inoculation effect, as well as relieving the pressure she personally felt over public perceptions of
their marriage.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[I]n May 1980, Blanche d’Alpuget, who was writing a biography of Bob, came to our house to talk with me about the book. This was not easy for me […] I was not in favour of the biography.</p>
<p>Although Bob had authorised the book, it had been embarked upon without my approval even though it would clearly need to refer to myself, the children and Bob’s personal life. But now it was happening and I would cooperate. </p>
<p>I must say that I have since been glad the book was written. It broached areas of Bob’s life, drunkenness and marital problems, which could have been used against him later by the sensationalist press. When he entered parliamentary politics, voters had an understanding of the man they were considering for election. The biography also released me from feeling I needed to protect the marriage totally from public scrutiny.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sue Pieters-Hawke has written that her mother was “distressed and angry” about her father’s relationship with d’Alpuget, and that wider knowledge of their relationship affected the interviews Blanche obtained from Hazel loyalists amongst the Hawke family’s closest friends. </p>
<p>“Intimates who knew of Blanche’s relationship with Bob closed ranks in support of Hazel,” Pieters-Hawke <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15843718-hazel">says</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As Marj White put it, “I said, ‘Well, my mouth’s closed. Anything that appears in that book will be absolutely mundane. I will not relate anything personal’.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>D’Alpuget had, in fact, pulled off a coup in terms of her power vis-à-vis the two other women closest to Hawke at that time. Within only a few months of Hawke ceasing contact and then breaking his offer to leave Hazel and marry d’Alpuget, she was spending hours interviewing him at a house a couple of minutes from his own in Royal Avenue, Sandringham, had his intimate amanuensis Sinclair passing messages and doing minor research for her, and had Hawke’s wife corralled into an interview against her will. </p>
<p>This was an act of triumphant repossession, all in the name of a greater good the other two women were hard pressed to obstruct: Hawke’s advancement.</p>
<p>Hawke would foreswear alcohol in the interests of his political career, while Hazel fell more deeply into its clutches. “The monster drink had gone from Bob’s life but infidelity had not,” Hazel <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6030107-my-own-life">wrote later</a> in her memoir. “I felt extremely unsure about our future and was lonely. Now I would often drink alone, at home, with my solitary dinner, a very unwise practice.”</p>
<p>Sue Pieters-Hawke <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15843718-hazel">says</a> her mother was “distressed and angry” about Bob and Blanche’s ongoing relationship, and “was by now capable of striking back when she, too, had been drinking”. Hazel made a number of phone calls to Morry Schwartz’s office demanding information about the book, making it clear that Hawke and d’Alpuget were lovers. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RfGuv6V7nO0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Sue Pieters-Hawke says her mother, Hazel, was ‘distressed and angry’ about Bob and Blanche’s ongoing relationship.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once, after newspapers in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra published a photograph of subject and biographer on the steps of Parliament House, Hazel phoned the Schwartz office and told the person who answered the phone, “Get that fucking bitch off the front page or I’ll blow the whistle. I’ll blow the whistle and he’ll never be prime minister.”</p>
<p>The intensity of Hazel Hawke’s battle against the biography is revealed in letters at the time from d’Alpuget to Peter Ryan, her old publisher and mentor at Melbourne University Press, to whom she sent “the Bird Tome” for critique prior to finalising the manuscript.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Hazel Hawke, who is a hill-billy termagant, is doing hand-springs in her efforts to prevent publication of the book. I have left out […] that she is a lush and a bully and have presented her as quite the Cecil Brunner rose. For that I get an hour & a half of telephone abuse. </p>
<p>At this very moment she is, no doubt, giving the Bird the rounds of the kitchen about it all. What she wants, I think, is a hagiography of herself, and pillorying of him. She hates him, & her greatest pleasure in life is to make him suffer. Were her portrait ever to be painted it would be with a log, a banjo and a vat of moonshine.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507336/original/file-20230131-4114-zdodrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507336/original/file-20230131-4114-zdodrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507336/original/file-20230131-4114-zdodrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507336/original/file-20230131-4114-zdodrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507336/original/file-20230131-4114-zdodrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507336/original/file-20230131-4114-zdodrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507336/original/file-20230131-4114-zdodrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507336/original/file-20230131-4114-zdodrw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blanche wrote in private correspndence: ‘Hazel hates him, & her greatest pleasure in life is to make him suffer.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Russel McPhedran/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the acknowledgements of <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">Robert J. Hawke</a>, d’Alpuget thanks Ryan for reading the manuscript when she had reached “exhaustion and despondency” under pressure of meeting the tight publication deadline. This perhaps explains the closing paragraph of the letter from d’Alpuget to Ryan containing her unvarnished comment on Hazel that, “She would make great copy in the Lodge. But I don’t think we can look forward to that.” </p>
<p>It was a brief down beat in d’Alpuget’s usually unrelenting belief that Hawke would indeed make The Lodge. She subsequently revised her view of Hazel’s capacity to perform as a prime ministerial spouse, based on actual performance. </p>
<p>“I was wrong,” d’Alpuget says now. “I had seen only her worst self. Once in The Lodge she rose to the challenge.” Hazel had hypnotherapy to stop smoking, moderated her drinking and conquered her shyness to become a good public speaker. Says d’Alpuget, “Hazel changed into the model prime ministerial wife.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-larrikin-as-leader-how-bob-hawke-came-to-be-one-of-the-best-and-luckiest-prime-ministers-91152">The larrikin as leader: how Bob Hawke came to be one of the best (and luckiest) prime ministers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Hawke was ‘a fighter by nature’</h2>
<p>In her speech at the book’s launch at Canberra’s Lakeside Hotel in October 1982, d’Alpuget describes Hawke as a “fighter” by nature who had fought with many, including her, and had fought for the book.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We had an argument at our first interview for this book and almost three years later, when he was reading the final manuscript before it went for typesetting, we were still arguing. We were arguing over adjectives and nouns and verbs and my interpretations. While the book was being written and particularly in the last few weeks, Bob has had to argue with those who thought that a mid-term career biography should not be published.</p>
<p>Indeed, he has fought for this book and he’s done so because he shares, I believe, my view that people should be able to make judgments not guesses about their political leaders, and that therefore the more we know about them the better. He has maintained this principle despite the fact that from the outset of my work on his biography, he knew it would be treated as a curiosity, misused, trivialised and distorted. And I must say that events have borne out that weary foreknowledge grossly.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>D’Alpuget told the audience she had tried to write a frank account and that the biography was intended as “an early step in a movement for more penetrating analyses of people in Australian public life”.</p>
<p>It was a significant break from the usual mould of contemporary political biography, and initial reactions and calculations about it were wider of the mark the closer one got to Parliament House, Canberra. Many Canberra Press Gallery journalists assumed it would seriously damage Hawke’s standing. </p>
<p>So did some of Hawke’s rivals on the opposition frontbench, like fellow leadership aspirant Paul Keating. Hawke recalled a member of Labor’s NSW Right faction telling him at the time, in relation to the book, “Keating’s very, very happy, reckons that’s the end of you. With all that stuff in it, all your drinking and womanizing – that that’ll be the end of you.” Hawke replied, “Well, I think that shows how little Paul understands the electorate.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507281/original/file-20230131-168-kpf32l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="people looking at portraits of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507281/original/file-20230131-168-kpf32l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507281/original/file-20230131-168-kpf32l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507281/original/file-20230131-168-kpf32l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507281/original/file-20230131-168-kpf32l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507281/original/file-20230131-168-kpf32l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507281/original/file-20230131-168-kpf32l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507281/original/file-20230131-168-kpf32l.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Paul Keating was apparently ‘very, very happy’ about Hawke’s warts and all biography. ‘He reckons that’s the end of you.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/melodyayresgriffiths/">Melody Ayres Griffiths/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It did prove the end of the d’Alpuget relationship, though. “I’d been burnt, when we’d broken up,” she says, recalling the breach over Hawke’s failure to honour his promise to leave Hazel and marry d’Alpuget in 1979.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Although we resumed sexual relations while I was doing the book I wasn’t going to fall in love with him. And also when you study somebody to that degree, it’s like having too much chocolate. You never want to see another chocolate again! So by the end of the research, and certainly by the end of the book, I really didn’t want to see him again. I was so sick of him. You can’t give so much energy to another human being, unless it’s your own baby.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This repossession and then relinquishing of Hawke had a satisfying symmetry.
They next met three years into Hawke’s prime ministership for a newspaper profile d’Alpuget undertook for the Sydney Morning Herald. “The room was quiet and felt empty,” d’Alpuget reported, and Hawke was distant. “Hawke has defined his Prime Ministership as super-respectable,” she <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Paul-Kelly-End-of-Certainty-9781741754988">wrote</a>. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>He said repeatedly that physically he was on top of the world. Indeed, his skin tone and colour looked excellent. But […] my overwhelming impression was of a lack of vitality, that he was vanishing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/blanche-dalpuget/on-lust-and-longing">Two years after that</a> Hawke rang d’Alpuget and their relationship resumed; covert meetings were organised during the latter years of his prime ministership. In December 1991 he was ousted as prime minister by Paul Keating and he resigned from parliament shortly afterwards. </p>
<p>The Hawke marriage ended in 1994 and Bob married d’Alpuget in 1995. They spent 24 years together until his death in 2019.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jW-thSZX0VU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Bob and Blanche spent 24 years married, until his death in 2019.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Settling and projecting an identity</h2>
<p>Three of the four things happening simultaneously between January 1980 when d’Alpuget conducted her first interview for <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">Robert J. Hawke</a>, and October 1982 when it was published, have so far been canvassed. </p>
<p>Hawke was on the road to seizing the Labor leadership, the necessary prelude to him becoming prime minister. D’Alpuget was making a political intervention to help Hawke achieve that goal. D’Alpuget was symbolically reclaiming Hawke as a man before relinquishing him post-publication.</p>
<p>The fourth thing happening was that, through the biographical process conducted by d’Alpuget, Hawke settled and projected an identity which formed the personal plank of the platform from which he pursued and conducted his prime ministership. </p>
<p>D’Alpuget describes Robert J. Hawke as “a well-built book” with a good structure. “It’s internally strong,” <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3538950-rooms-of-their-own">she said later</a>. “I was actually thinking of the architecture of a Congregationalist church I’d seen in South Australia when I was writing it: well-proportioned stone, four-square.” </p>
<p>In the process of construction, it could be argued that d’Alpuget did some rewiring of her subject, or at least enabled him to do some rewiring of himself through the biographical process, that helped stabilise his behaviour and settle his life generally, junking the self-destructive behaviour which jeopardised the achievement of his political goals.</p>
<p>It is not a claim that should be overstated; Hawke’s personality is highly distinctive and of robust continuity. Nor is it a proposition that can be dismissed. </p>
<p>Some of d’Alpuget’s impact on Hawke was straightforward and attitudinal – for example, concerning the position of women. In <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6077969-robert-j-hawke">Robert J. Hawke</a>, d’Alpuget describes his unreconstructedly sexist attitudes about, and behaviour towards, women, noting it did not change until Hawke in his fifties read Simone de Beauvoir’s <a href="https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-second-sex-9780099595731">The Second Sex</a>.</p>
<p>D’Alpuget <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/487319">omits to mention</a> that she was the one who lent Beauvoir’s book to him. The Hawke Government went on to pass landmark sex discrimination and affirmative action legislation for women through the auspices of the Minister for the Status of Women, Senator Susan Ryan. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/anne-summers-new-memoir-and-the-bitter-struggle-over-memory-narratives-of-feminism-105845">Anne Summers' new memoir and the bitter struggle over memory narratives of feminism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Earliest memories and uncomfortable truths</h2>
<p>In other respects, though, the change in Hawke’s behaviour between 1979 when he was largely written off by political insiders because of his reckless, drunken and abusive behaviour, and the early 1980s when he gave up alcohol and (at least publicly) curtailed his obvious philandering, was dramatic. </p>
<p>Even if one ascribes the change entirely to his May 1980 decision to give up alcohol, the question remains, how was he able to give up drinking this time when he had failed on all previous attempts?</p>
<p>Upon the book’s publication, d’Alpuget <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2504064">described it as</a> “an attempt on my part to wrap a narrative around an analysis of personality”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I spend the first 76 pages of the Hawke biography on his infancy, childhood and youth. That’s really an unusually long time to devote to that sort of early conditioning but I thought it was essential to give it so much time to adequately be able to explain what comes later, and that is Hawke, the folk hero of the 1970s. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>D’Alpuget went on to describe the unusual family dynamic before concluding that for Hawke, “In psychological terms, which I don’t use at all in the book, I think it was a <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/psychology/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/hypercathexis">hypercathexis</a> of his intellect”. This was a rare intrusion of psychological jargon, which d’Alpuget kept from the biography itself. While jargon free, however, there is no mistaking the bent with which she approached the project.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.freud.org.uk/education/resources/the-interpretation-of-dreams/">The Interpretation of Dreams</a> Freud wrote of “the royal road to the unconscious”. In the therapeutic setting, patients undergoing psychoanalysis lie on a couch and are questioned about their earliest memories and their dreams, and encouraged to reflect and expand upon them. </p>
<p>For Hawke it was a trip from his home on Royal Avenue, Sandringham, to the nearby home of d’Alpuget’s psychiatrist friend Michael Epstein, where she would question him about his earliest memories and encourage him to reflect and expand upon them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507340/original/file-20230131-16-rcpdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Ferdinand Schmutzer" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507340/original/file-20230131-16-rcpdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507340/original/file-20230131-16-rcpdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507340/original/file-20230131-16-rcpdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507340/original/file-20230131-16-rcpdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507340/original/file-20230131-16-rcpdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507340/original/file-20230131-16-rcpdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507340/original/file-20230131-16-rcpdqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">d'Alpuget’s questioning and encouraged reflection on Hawke’s memories is likened to Sigmund Freud’s ‘royal road to the unconscious’.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In these interviews d’Alpuget stirred up memories, unconscious and otherwise, and foreclosed resistance to them on his part when he could not or would not remember, by bringing to the biographical couch stories told to her by surviving family members. The most important was d’Alpuget’s revelation that the all-powerful Ellie Hawke had committed Bob, when he was a small child, to the teetotal path ascribed to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazirite">Nazarites</a> in the Hebrew bible, the word “nazir” having the spiritually highly charged meaning “consecrated”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My research turned up all of this stuff that he would never have told me about, [like] his mother enrolling him as a little Nazarite. They were sworn never to drink in their lives. She was a … teetotaller. Obviously in her background there’d been drunks. At the age of 8 he was sworn that alcohol would never touch his lips.</p>
<p>And when I started research I went straight to the family in South Australia and turned all of this up, and I came to him and asked him about it. I started in January. He gave up grog four months after I told him [in] February […]</p>
<p>I tell you it was a high moment when the family in South Australia told me all this background about the drinking, because no way was Bob going to tell me that, let alone Hazel. And really they were the only two people whom I’d met up until that point who knew.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hawke was “tremendously uncomfortable” when d’Alpuget raised it with him. Whether causal or coincidental, the fact that he successfully swore off alcohol within proximate range of d’Alpuget drawing key scenes like this from his childhood inescapably into his view is highly suggestive. Nor was it the only uncomfortable truth d’Alpuget brought to the surface.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We shared this other strange thing. My mother had wanted me to be a boy, and his mother had wanted him to be a girl. And unless you’ve had that experience of actual maternal rejection, which is completely denied – completely denied – at a very young age, you don’t really know what it’s like. But it gives a certain sympathy.
There’s a certain symmetry to your lives.</p>
<p>He didn’t know that about me, but I knew that about him. And I’d discovered that in South Australia too – that his mother wanted him to be a girl. So, all the tension around masculinity. What do you get? Hypermasculinity. All the tension about, well, the disappointment about, not being a girl – well, therefore you’ve got to be prime minister. Over-compensation. And he must be a teetotaller. So for someone who wrote fiction, this was just all magic material, if you had any psychological insight. The rejection, the disappointment. It’s there, imprinted forever, like a dagger.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Empathy over shared problems like this, the novelist’s expert handling of rich source material, and a classic narrative arc emerging during research – the hero nailing himself to the cross of alcohol and then getting himself off in time to pursue the prize – all contributed to the satisfactions of the book from the readers’ standpoint. </p>
<p>“I did believe his virtues far outweighed his vices, and that he had succeeded in this enormously difficult task which was overcoming his drinking”, d’Alpuget says. “So to that extent I thought it was a book about a personal triumph. But I didn’t set out to do that. He did that. I just described what happened.”</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited extract from Chris Wallace’s book <a href="https://unsw.press/books/political-lives/">Political Lives: Australian prime ministers and their biographers</a> (UNSW Press/New South).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197911/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Wallace has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council but not in relation to this book. </span></em></p>Bob Hawke spent 24 years married to his second wife, Blanche d'Alpuget, whose canny 1981 biography helped make him ALP leader – and one of our most beloved PMs. Chris Wallace tells their story.Chris Wallace, Professor, School of Politics Economics & Society, Faculty of Business Government & Law, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1959162023-01-01T00:15:56Z2023-01-01T00:15:56ZTampa, Bali bombings, 9/11 and the Kyoto Protocol: today’s cabinet paper release shows what worried Australia in 2002<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499693/original/file-20221208-20-33blyu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2326%2C1555&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">NAA: A14482, 020309DI-03 AUSPIC/Photographer Peter West</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every year, the National Archives of Australia releases the cabinet records from 20 years earlier, and this year’s batch is out today. </p>
<p>This release, from the cabinet records of 2002, is framed by two events of the previous year. </p>
<p>The first took place in August 2001, when Australian troops boarded a Norwegian ship, MV Tampa, carrying more than 400 rescued asylum seekers. </p>
<p>The Howard government quickly introduced legislation to forbid “unauthorised arrivals” from landing on the Australian mainland. It also determined that those arriving by boat would be processed offshore.</p>
<p>The second event of 2001 was the Al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on the US mainland on September 11. These attacks ushered in <a href="https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/cabinet/latest-cabinet-release/2001-cabinet-papers-context">a new securitised era</a> in global and Australian politics that has lasted to the present day. They also led to two wars in which Australia participated. The first, in Afghanistan, lasted from 2001 until 2022. The second, the intervention by the “coalition of the willing” in Iraq, was launched in 2003 following decisions in Washington in 2002.</p>
<p>The two events of 2001, the Tampa and 9/11, overwhelmed Labor’s campaign and contributed to the third consecutive victory of the Coalition parties in the federal election held in November that year.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499701/original/file-20221208-20-jbhhtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The Howard government cabinet at Parliament House in 2002." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499701/original/file-20221208-20-jbhhtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499701/original/file-20221208-20-jbhhtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499701/original/file-20221208-20-jbhhtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499701/original/file-20221208-20-jbhhtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499701/original/file-20221208-20-jbhhtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499701/original/file-20221208-20-jbhhtw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499701/original/file-20221208-20-jbhhtw.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Howard government cabinet at Parliament House in 2002.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NAA: A14482, 020470-13a AUSPIC/Photographer David Foote</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-politics-explainer-the-mv-tampa-and-the-transformation-of-asylum-seeker-policy-74078">Australian politics explainer: the MV Tampa and the transformation of asylum-seeker policy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The ‘Pacific Solution’ and immigration</h2>
<p>Many of the cabinet records of 2002 relate to the Howard government’s continuation of its “Pacific Solution”. </p>
<p>They include offshore processing in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, building a new immigration detention facility on Christmas Island, and revamping immigration centres on the mainland. </p>
<p>A conference in Indonesia in February 2002 led to the “Bali Process”, an official international forum to facilitate discussion and information-sharing on issues related to people-smuggling.</p>
<p>Other papers relate to Australia’s normal immigration program, which included a “special humanitarian program” for refugees not coming by boat. </p>
<p>Thus, refugees attempting to come by boat were excluded. But others who were lucky to be plucked from refugee camps around the world prospered. </p>
<p><a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/11/30/australia-soccer-qatar-world-cup-team-refugee-policy/">Four of the 2022 World Cup Socceroos squad</a> were born in Africa and three were refugees who entered Australia under the special humanitarian program. Defender Thomas Deng, for example, was born in Kenya to parents who had fled Sudan and moved to Australia in 2003. </p>
<h2>National security</h2>
<p>Other highlights of the cabinet papers relate to national security, foreign policy, defence and counter-terrorism. </p>
<p>The emblematic moment of 2002 came tragically for Australia on October 12, when the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group detonated a bomb in the tourist district of Bali. More than 200 people were killed, 88 Australians <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/bali-bombings">among them</a>. Two short cabinet minutes of oral reports to cabinet refer to the enormous amount of work done by agencies, particularly the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, in the Bali crisis.</p>
<p>Other papers relate to peace-keeping operations in trouble spots in the region, including East Timor, Bougainville and the Solomon Islands. The operation in the last was an overture to the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, launched in 2003.</p>
<p>There are many submissions from Defence Minister Robert Hill on the defence program and acquisitions. This was was the year Hill made the <a href="https://kokodafoundation.wildapricot.org/resources/Documents/Reid%20Hutchins%20-%20What%20was%20the%20%27Defence%20of%20Australia%27%20strategic%20policy.pdf">strongest official criticism</a> yet of the “Defence of Australia” strategy that had governed Australian defence policy since the 1980s.</p>
<p>Hill presaged a new direction for strategy when he <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/when-defence-goes-around-in-circles-20020716-gdfgdf.html">remarked</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It probably never made sense to conceptualise our security interests as a series of diminishing concentric circles around our coastline, but it certainly does not do so now. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The strategic debate in which Hill engaged in 2002 <a href="https://www.defence.gov.au/about/reviews-inquiries/defence-strategic-review">continues</a> vigorously 20 years later. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-bali-bombings-transformed-our-relations-with-indonesia-192011">How the Bali bombings transformed our relations with Indonesia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Climate change, the environment and heritage</h2>
<p>Issues relating to climate change, the environment and heritage occupy as prominent a place in Howard’s 2002 cabinet as they do today. </p>
<p>Critically, following the lead of US President George W. Bush, cabinet decided not to ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. </p>
<p>The European Union and Japan ratified the protocol in 2002. But it was not until 2005, after ratification by Russia and Canada, that the protocol came into effect. Australia’s cabinet accepted advice not to burden its emissions-intensive, trade-exposed industries by accepting commitments not also accepted by competitors.</p>
<p>The decision not to ratify in 2002 was <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-wars-carbon-taxes-and-toppled-leaders-the-30-year-history-of-australias-climate-response-in-brief-169545">symbolic</a> of Australia’s failure to sustain a meaningful climate change regime in the years up to 2022.</p>
<h2>Transport and social and economic policy</h2>
<p>Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson made several submissions on transport and regional policy. In one, cabinet decided not to proceed with a proposal for a very-high-speed rail network between Brisbane and Melbourne on economic grounds. Now, 20 years later, the Albanese government has <a href="https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/c-king/media-release/high-speed-rail-gathers-speed">reversed</a> the decision.</p>
<p>Communications Minister Richard Alston obtained cabinet approval for a package of significant <a href="https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/the-sad-history-of-australian-media-reform">media reforms</a> with detrimental consequences for Australia’s media diversity. These could not, however, be implemented until after 2004 when the coalition parties gained control of the Senate. </p>
<p>Many other submissions relate to economic policy, including the first <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/intergenerational-report">Integenerational report</a>, welfare policy, health policy and agreements with the states on matters such as housing.</p>
<h2>Indigenous policy</h2>
<p>The release includes important submissions on Indigenous policy. </p>
<p>One approved a review of the operation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Commission, a body established under Hawke and dissolved in 2005. </p>
<p>In another, the government decided not to proceed with recommendations of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, including for a treaty and recognition of Indigenous people in a new preamble to the Constitution. </p>
<p>In 2007, just before its defeat, however, Howard <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/11/world/asia/11iht-australia.1.7848215.html">changed his mind</a>, at least on the Constitutional question.</p>
<p>Arguably, Howard’s 2007 change of mind was an important step in the current process towards a constitutionally enshrined Indigenous <a href="https://spectator.com.au/2021/08/why-conservatives-should-support-an-indigenous-voice-to-parliament/">Voice to Parliament</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499703/original/file-20221208-16-zjb51s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Indigenous Education Ambassadors Michael O’Loughlin (left) and Reverend Shayne Blackman (centre) meet with Dr Brendan Nelson to discuss the National Indigenous English Literacy and Numeracy Strategy in 2002." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499703/original/file-20221208-16-zjb51s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499703/original/file-20221208-16-zjb51s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499703/original/file-20221208-16-zjb51s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499703/original/file-20221208-16-zjb51s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499703/original/file-20221208-16-zjb51s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499703/original/file-20221208-16-zjb51s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499703/original/file-20221208-16-zjb51s.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indigenous Education Ambassadors Michael O’Loughlin (left) and Reverend Shayne Blackman (centre) meet with Dr Brendan Nelson to discuss the National Indigenous.
English Literacy and Numeracy Strategy in 2002.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NAA: 14482, 020239DI-004 AUSPIC/Photographer David Foote</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Inclusions and omissions</h2>
<p>Not every subject came to cabinet and some are only referenced by short minutes or oral presentations by ministers. </p>
<p>There is no submission, for example, on Howard’s finalisation of a A$25 billion <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/how-australia-blew-its-future-gas-supplies-20170928-gyqg0f.html">natural gas deal</a> to China. In this, Howard took an important step in the evolving trade relationship with China. </p>
<p>But 20 years later, the Australian people are suffering from failure by the Commonwealth and the states to establish a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-gas-trigger-wont-be-enough-to-stop-our-energy-crisis-escalating-we-need-a-domestic-reservation-policy-188057">gas reservation policy</a> on Australia’s east coast.</p>
<p>Likewise, there is only a short minute on <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/history-delivers-howard-some-heady-moments-20020615-gduaxm.html">Howard’s discussions with Bush</a> in June 2002 and too little to indicate what significance they may have had to the subsequent intervention in Iraq.</p>
<p>Cabinet records are only the top of a pyramid. Records of individual agencies (which may be requested by individual researchers separately after 20 years) are equally important to the historical record. </p>
<p>This makes it imperative for the the National Archives to be adequately resourced to carry out its essential role as the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/national-archives-gets-money-to-save-decaying-documents-20210701-p585rx.html">custodian of the records</a> of the Australian people.</p>
<p>To that end, discontinuing the efficiency dividend on the National Archives and other struggling cultural institutions would be a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-good-is-a-new-national-cultural-policy-without-history-188741">welcome start</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cabinet-papers-1994-95-keatings-climate-policy-grapples-sound-eerily-familiar-89490">Cabinet papers 1994-95: Keating's climate policy grapples sound eerily familiar</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195916/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Funding from the National Archives of Australia to David Lee in the role of Cabinet historian in 2022 is being made to the research funds of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Canberra.
David Lee is a member of the Australian Labor Party. </span></em></p>This year’s release, from the cabinet records of 2002, is framed by two events of the previous year: the Tampa affair and 9/11.David Lee, Associate Professor of History, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.