Armstrong, Mick: The radicalisation of the (Australian) campuses 1967-74

Mick Armstrong ‘The radicalisation of the campuses 1967-74‘, Australian National University course material for ‘Marxist interventions’ course Based on a chapter from Armstrong’s (now hard to get) book, One, Two Three, What are We Fighting For? (Socialist Alternative, Melbourne 2001).

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Bright, Denis: The income divide in Australia: The return of class-based politics?

Bright, Denis ‘The income divide in Australia: the return of class-based politics?‘, Australian Independent Media Network, 19 May 2016 Gets beyond the politics of campaigning to look at some statistics – some of which have been used previously in the

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Muldoon, Paul & Adrian Little: Indigenous reconciliation opens old wounds

Muldoon, Paul & Adrian Little ‘Indigenous reconciliation is hard, it re-opens wounds to heal them‘, The Conversation, 11 May 2016 First of a series, linking from this article, about the issues surrounding reconciliation (or treaty), starting from the assumption that

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McLean, Ian: With secrecy and despatch (review of exhibition)

McLean, Ian ‘With secrecy and despatch‘, Artlink, April 2016 This is a review of an exhibition (With Secrecy and Despatch, 9 April-12 June) at the Campbelltown Arts Centre on Australian and Canadian contemporary Indigenous art. It also touches on When

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Bongiorno, Frank: lessons from history on election campaigning

Bongiorno, Frank ‘Lessons from history in how to run a good election campaign – or how to avoid a really bad one‘, The Conversation, 9 May 2016 Don’t make yourself a big target, don’t write a (policy) book – or

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The dogs of war at home and abroad: miscellany

(Australian Electoral Commission) As the election is announced, complete with warlike metaphors, it is timely to look at some other slices of our history, past and present, where war is rather more real or more possible. (Honest History will probably

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Daley, Paul: Australian patriotism: it’s not about war, it’s in our love of the land

Paul Daley ‘Australian patriotism: it’s not about war, it’s in our love of the land‘, Guardian Australia, 7 May 2016 updated Daley rejects violent metaphors for election campaigns and suggests patriotism, always evoked at such times, is more subtle and

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Commonwealth Budget 2016 and the size and direction of government

‘Commonwealth Budget 2016 and the size and direction of government’, Honest History, 5 May 2016 updated There has been lots of Budget analysis. Honest History wishes only to note the specifically commemorative elements and pick out some other aspects that

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Brown, AJ: Reforming the Federation requires strong bipartisan support

Brown, AJ ‘To really reform the federation, you must build strong bipartisan support‘, The Conversation, 26 April 2016 Includes results of a survey of politicians, state and federal. The survey found an issue that stood out. But where the most

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Henry, Adam Hughes: The Gatekeepers of Australian Foreign Policy 1950-1966

Henry, Adam Hughes The Gatekeepers of Australian Foreign Policy 1950-1966, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, 2015 Analyses the role of, and networks between, important individuals, elected and in the bureaucracy, as they influenced the direction of Australian foreign policy during

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Orthodoxy at the top (review of Henry’s The Gatekeepers)

‘Orthodoxy at the top’ (review of Henry’s The Gatekeepers), Honest History, 26 April 2016 Derek Abbott* reviews The Gatekeepers of Australian Foreign Policy 1950-1966 by Adam Hughes Henry Examinations of the ‘culture’ of institutions, industries and sectors of society are

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McAuley, Ian: How the deficit obsession is eroding the budget’s usefulness

McAuley, Ian ‘How the deficit obsession is eroding the budget’s usefulness‘, The Conversation, 21 April 2016 Over many years the budget has morphed from an economic statement explaining how the government allocates resources, to a fiscal statement. The emphasis has

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Kaine, Sarah: State of the union(s): perfect storm weakened workers’ voices

Kaine, Sarah ‘The state of the union(s): how a perfect storm weakened the workers’ voices‘, The Conversation, 21 April 2016 The author says that, given the current political focus on unions, an observer would think Australian unions were at the

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Twenty-five years since Deaths in Custody Royal Commission: Honest History miscellany

‘Twenty-five years since Deaths in Custody Royal Commission: Honest History miscellany’, Honest History, 15 April 2016 Taking a line through the dozen or so news reports and pieces of commentary below, we do not attempt any summing up other than

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Stephens, David: Bill Shorten’s Royal Commission proposal: Labor and banks go way, way back

Stephens, David ‘Bill Shorten’s Royal Commission proposal: Labor and the banks go way, way back‘, Pearls and Irritations, 9 April 2016 and updated Update of some earlier material on the Honest History site about the history of Labor’s relations with

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Marsh, Ian: What’s wrong with Australian politics (Parts 1-3)

Marsh, Ian ‘What’s wrong with Australia’s political system?‘; ‘Disaffected electorates? Dysfunctional political systems?‘; ‘What’s wrong with Australian politics?‘ Pearls and Irritations, 4, 5, 7 April 2016 updated People fail to recognise ‘that the political world is … a complex interdependent

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Labor call for banking Royal Commission has historical echoes aplenty

Update December 2017: a Royal Commission of a different feather is announced. Update June-September 2016: more from Humphrey McQueen and others. Update 9 April 2016: updated article on Pearls and Irritation website. ______________ Opposition Leader Shorten has called for a

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Daley, Paul: Lachlan Macquarie was no humanitarian

Daley, Paul ‘Lachlan Macquarie was no humanitarian: his own words show he was a terrorist‘, Guardian Australia, 5 April 2016 Discusses the strategy employed towards Indigenous Australians by New South Wales Governor (1810-22) Lachlan Macquarie. Macquarie is perhaps the most

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Daley, Paul: It’s not “politically correct” to say Australia was invaded, it’s history

Daley, Paul ‘It’s not “politically correct” to say Australia was invaded, it’s history‘, Guardian Australia, 30 March 2016 updated This article comments on the Daily Telegraph‘s comment on a diversity guide at the University of New South Wales, pointing out

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Review note: Certain Admissions by Gideon Haigh is a very Melbourne story

‘Review note: Certain Admissions by Gideon Haigh is a very Melbourne story’, Honest History, 24 March 2016 Update 30 August 2016: the book won the Ned Kelly award for 2016. This is a gripping ‘true crime’ story by a prolific

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Terrorism reprise in the wake of Belgian attacks and Lindt inquest: resources from the Honest History vault

We thought it would be useful today to bring out of the vault a collection we put together about a year ago on background to the then new anti-terrorism laws. It hangs off a review by Jeff Sparrow of a

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Wahlquist, Calla: how Australia embraced gun control after Port Arthur

Wahlquist, Calla ‘It took one massacre: how Australia embraced gun control after Port Arthur‘, Guardian Australia, 15 March 2016 Twenty years on from the Port Arthur massacre (35 dead, 23 wounded), the article traces how Prime Minister announced a package

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Liddle, Celeste: Looking past White Australia and white feminism

Liddle, Celeste ‘Looking past White Australia and white feminism‘, New Matilda, 9 March 2016 updated Update 17 March 2016: Liz Conor writes in New Matilda (excerpt from forthcoming book). Includes cringe-making cartoons and advertisements depicting Indigenous women. _______________ Arrernte woman

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Bentley, Tom & Jonathan West: Time for a new consensus

Bentley, Tom & Jonathan West ‘Time for a new consensus: fostering Australia’s comparative advantages‘, Griffith Review 51 supplement, March 2016; available as pdf and electronically Australia has emerged from a spectacular resources boom without any clear approach to achieving growth

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Defending the national tuckshop (again): Defence White Paper miscellany

Update 1 April 2016: four pieces on the South China Sea from former diplomats Broinowski, Miller and Woodward, published in Pearls and Irritations. ____________________   The title of this piece is pinched shamelessly from that of Michael Cathcart’s excellent book

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Cox, Eva: Feminism has failed and needs a rethink

Cox, Eva ‘Feminism has failed and needs a rethink‘, The Conversation, 8 March 2016 The author says women achieved formal legal equality ‘but moving past that into wider social equity changes seems definitely to have stalled’. Partly due to neo-liberalism,

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Review note: Remembering Ben Chifley by Suzanne Martin: well meant but flawed

‘Review note: Remembering Ben Chifley by Suzanne Martin: well meant but flawed’, Honest History, 5 March 2016 This is a well meant but flawed book about one of our most attractive prime ministers. The author is Chifley’s great-niece, her sisters

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Marshall, Daniel: Does Australia need a Queer History month?

Marshall, Daniel ‘Does Australia need a Queer History month?‘ The Conversation, 3 March 2016 In the wake of the Safe Schools controversy and just after the NSW Parliament and NSW Police apologise for the treatment of Gay and Lesbian marchers

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Abjorensen, Norman: The meaning of John Howard

Abjorensen, Norman ‘The meaning of John Howard‘, Inside Story, 1 March 2016 updated Written to mark the 20th anniversary of the coming to power of the Howard Government. Abjorensen is the doyen of the rise and fall of prime ministers,

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Murphy, Katharine: The politics we deserve

Murphy, Katharine ‘The politics we deserve‘, Meanjin, 74, 4, Summer 2015 The writer is deputy political editor of Guardian Australia. We are posting this link not much more than four months after the article was written – we had missed

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Wilkie, Douglas: La Trobe’s decision to postpone gold exploitation until after 1851

Wilkie, Douglas ‘Ten thousand fathoms deep: Charles Joseph La Trobe’s decision to postpone gold exploitation until after Separation from New South Wales in 1851‘, La Trobeana, 14, 1, March 2015, pp. 6-14 The beginning of the Victorian gold rushes and

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Venturini, VG (George): Towards an Australian republic

Venturini, VG (George) ‘Towards an Australian republic: parts 1-10’, Australian Independent Media Network, 2-11 February 2016 A series of essays from a veteran Australian commentator. The titles of all ten essays and links to them are set out below: Towards

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Daley, Paul: Peter FitzSimons gives republicanism a megaphone

Daley, Paul ‘Love him or hate him, Peter FitzSimons gives republicanism a megaphone‘, Guardian Australia, 24 February 2016 Looks at the rejuvenation of republicanism under Peter FitzSimons, including the support that has been extracted from most State premiers and chief

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Walter, James: can Turnbull manage the ultra-conservatives?

Walter, James ‘A liberal leading the Liberals: can Turnbull manage the ultra-conservatives?‘ The Conversation, 24 February 2016 Comments on the government decision to inquire into Safe Schools, an education program supporting gender-diverse children. Conservatives have claimed the program leads to

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Illogical two per centers still thrive in defence spend debate

Ahead of tomorrow’s release of the Defence White Paper we have this from the prime minister: Defence spending will reach 2% of Australia’s gross domestic product (GDP), the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull has confirmed, sticking with a commitment made by his predecessor,

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Could Veterans’ Affairs portfolio changes follow departure of Minister?

Stuart Robert MP, the Minister for Human Services, Veterans’ Affairs and Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of Anzac is leaving the Ministry. While the departure of the Minister arises from matters unconnected with his current three jobs, it

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Online gem No. 6: Selected political records of the Commonwealth Parliament

Online gem No. 6: Selected political records of the Commonwealth Parliament (11 February 2016) Any week when the Australian Parliament is sitting brings a sharpened focus on the House on the Hill, even for those Australians who do not live

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It’s a system, dammit, not a horse-race (review of Griffith Review 51)

‘It’s a system, dammit, not a horse-race’ (review of Griffith Review 51), Honest History, 2 February 2016 David Stephens reviews Griffith Review 51, ‘Fixing the system’, edited by Julianne Schultz and Anne Tiernan  Once upon a time gentlemen who made

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Schultz, Julianne, Anne Tiernan, et al.: Fixing the system

Schultz, Julianne, Anne Tiernan, et al. ‘Fixing the system‘, Griffith Review, 51, January 2016, available online to subscribers Collection of nearly thirty essays on how to foster ‘a society that really works’. Authors include the editors, Carmen Lawrence, Chris Wallace,

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High Commissioner Fisher talks up the war, January 1916: highlights reel

‘High Commissioner Fisher talks up the war, January 1916: Honest History highlights reel’, Honest History, 2 February 2016 Andrew Fisher left the Australian prime ministership on 30 October 1915 and, with his family, travelled to London to take up the

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Headon, David & John Uhr, ed.: Eureka: Australia’s greatest story

David Headon & John Uhr, ed. Eureka: Australia’s Greatest Story, Federation Press, Sydney, 2015; electronic version available Papers from a conference held in Canberra, December 2014, plus some additional papers. The editors of this book boldly proclaim that Eureka is

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Melleuish, Gregory: Australian head of state but de facto monarchy

Melleuish, Gregory ‘An Australian head of state won’t save us from being a de facto monarchy‘, The Conversation, 27 January 2016 Prime ministers have become quasi-monarchs (despite their elected status) which is a particular worry given the poor quality of

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Organ, Michael K.: Governor Macquarie’s Aboriginal War of 1816

Organ, Michael K. ‘Secret service: Governor Macquarie’s Aboriginal War of 1816: Proceedings of the National Conference of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Mittagong, 25-26 October 2014‘, University of Wollongong Research Online Detailed analysis of Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s punitive actions against

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Patience, Allan: Can we afford Australia’s federal system?

Patience, Allan ‘Can we continue to afford Australia’s federal system?‘ Pearls and Irritations, 18 January 2016 The article looks at the issues facing Australia and anticipates the forthcoming White Paper on the reform of federalism. It is now more obvious

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Browne, Peter: Postwar boomer (RG Menzies 50 years on)

Browne, Peter ‘Postwar boomer‘, Inside Story, 18 January 2016 Long essay looking back from Sir Robert Menzies’ retirement 50 years ago to the events of his 16-year reign (and even glances at his earlier time in office in 1939-41). Menzies

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Latimore, Jack et al: New News 2015: From the ground up: New Media and Indigenous reporting

Latimore, Jack, Allan Clarke, Paul Daley, Amy McQuire, and Steve Hodder Watt ‘New News 2015: From the ground up: New Media and Indigenous reporting’, Wheeler Centre, 10 October 2015 One hour video of panel discussion, chaired by Latimore, who is

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Honest History Christmas miscellany 2015: lots to read and ponder

‘Honest History Christmas miscellany 2015: lots to read and ponder’, Honest History, 20 December 2015 Christmas often brings a reckoning and it is the same in our compact little enterprise. We would have loved to have afforded some of the

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World War I internment case rings ‘national security’ bells today

What happens in Marrickville today would have been of interest to the enforcers of the War Precautions Act 1914 had it happened a century ago. Sunday, 22 November 2015, saw the Gallipoli Centenary Peace Campaign (GCPC) and St Brigid’s Parish

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Eltham, Ben: for a new thing, innovation has been around for a while

Eltham, Ben ‘Malcolm “Boom Boom” Turnbull is an old ideas man‘, New Matilda, 10 December 2015 Anyone older than 40 should be able to remember at least three ‘innovation statements’ by Australian governments. They may also have a shelf of

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Appleby, Gabrielle: what say do our elected representatives have in going to war?

Appleby, Gabrielle ‘What say do our elected representatives have in going to war?‘ The Conversation, 10 December 2015 updated The authorisation of military force is one of the most serious and consequential powers that governments possess. This power should be

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Three essays on the Cronulla riots 10 years on

Update 14 December 2015: the World Socialist Web Site weighs in with some detailed analysis of the court decision on the proposed Cronulla commemorative barbecue by the Party for Freedom. WSWS has also sent us a link to its 2006

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Powell, Graeme with Stuart Macintyre: Land of opportunity (Post-War Reconstruction archives)

Powell, Graeme with Stuart Macintyre Land of Opportunity: Australia’s Post-War Reconstruction, National Archives of Australia, Canberra, 2015 This is 336 pages (30 chapters) of guidance to the files of the National Archives of Australia on a crucial decade of Australia’s

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Whiteford, Peter: is welfare sustainable?

Whiteford, Peter ‘Is welfare sustainable?‘ Inside Story, 22 November 2015 Looks at recent government statements about social services expenditure then moves on to detailed historical consideration of the issue. Most of the graphs go back to 1995 and cover, for

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Eureka 161 years on: Honest History miscellany

‘Eureka 161 years on: Honest History miscellany’, Honest History, 1 December 2015 Thursday this week, 3 December, is the 161st anniversary of Eureka. Honest History has collected resources on Eureka over the last couple of years and here are links

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Stephens, David: will the new Anzac centenary minister be too busy to bother?

Stephens, David ‘Will the new Anzac centenary minister be too busy to bother?‘ Honest History, 1 December 2015 Update 4 December 2015: the Minister has responded on Twitter. The article looks at the ministerial workload implications of the machinery of

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Bongiorno, Frank: The Eighties: Decade that Transformed Australia

Bongiorno, Frank The Eighties: The Decade that Transformed Australia, Black Inc, Collingwood, Vic, 2015; hardback and electronic It was the era of Hawke and Keating, Kylie and INXS, the America’s Cup and the Bicentenary. It was perhaps the most controversial

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Will the new Anzac centenary minister be too busy to bother?

David Stephens ‘Will the new Anzac centenary minister be too busy to bother?’ Honest History, 1 December 2015 updated [Note: earlier, edited versions of this article appear in the Public Servant Informant supplement of the Canberra Times for 1 December 2015,

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The eighties in nine chapters (review of Bongiorno)

‘The eighties in nine chapters’ (review of Bongiorno), Honest History, 1 December 2015 Janet Wilson* reviews The Eighties: The Decade that Transformed Australia by Frank Bongiorno __________________________ Among the words and phrases that entered the lexicon in the 1980s are

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Wilkie, Douglas: the convict ship Hashemy and historical error

Wilkie, Douglas ‘The convict ship “Hashemy” at Port Phillip: a case study in historical error‘, Victorian Historical Journal, 85, 1, June 2014, pp. 31-53 Received history is that the convict ship Hashemy was turned away from Melbourne in 1849 and

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Online gem No. 5: Medico-Legal Society of Victoria: experience of war

Online gem No. 5: Medico-Legal Society of Victoria: the experience of war (26 November 2015) Here are some more items from the extensive holdings of the Medico-Legal Society of Victoria (MLSV). Online gem No. 4 also included papers from the

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Woolombi Waters, Marcus: Australia is a nation of white privilege

Woolombi Waters, Marcus ‘Whether you’re listening or not, Australia is a nation of white privilege‘, The Conversation, 17 November 2015 The author is a Kamilaroi man who has recently returned from travelling overseas for work. This article received more than

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Cochrane, Peter: Keith Murdoch and the birth of a dynasty

Cochrane, Peter ‘Book review: Before Rupert: Keith Murdoch and the birth of a dynasty‘, The Conversation, 13 November 2015 Cochrane reviews this new book by Tom DC Roberts. The book starts with Murdoch’s ‘Gallipoli letter’ but goes much further. It is

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Smith, Evan: Australia and the fascist idea of Greater Britain

Smith, Evan ‘Australia and the fascist idea of Greater Britain‘, Imperial & Global Forum, 9 November 2015 Guest blog by an Australian scholar. Shows how important to Oswald Mosley’s 1930s British Union of Fascists (BUF) was to the maintenance of

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Jakubowicz, Andrew: we need a Multiculturalism Act

Jakubowicz, Andrew ‘How national multicultural legislation would strengthen Australian society‘, The Conversation, 5 November 2015 The author looks at 40 years of history of how governments, state and federal, have dealt with multiculturalism. He finds they have lacked ‘the courage

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Menadue, John: how Kerr saved Fraser in 1975

Menadue, John ‘The Dismissal: how John Kerr saved Malcolm Fraser forty years ago‘, Pearls and Irritations, 5 November 2015 John Menadue, close to the events of the Dismissal, recalls some key events and attitudes. Malcolm Fraser’s political life was saved

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Abjorensen, Norman: The manner of their going

Abjorensen, Norman The Manner of Their Going: Prime Ministerial Exits from Lyne to Abbott, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, 2015 A study of the departures of all our prime ministers, from the one who was commissioned but never served (Lyne)

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Parting not such sweet sorrow (review of Abjorensen)

‘Parting not such sweet sorrow’, Honest History, 4 November 2015 Michael Piggott reviews Norman Abjorensen’s The Manner of Their Going: Prime Ministerial Exits from Lyne to Abbott I was in a bus on a group tour in Turkey when the news

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Daley, Paul: Dismissal bastardry 40 years on

Daley, Paul ‘Gough Whitlam: 40 years on, the Dismissal’s bastardry still intrigues‘, Guardian Australia, 31 October 2015 Grows out of the author’s involvement in the ‘Live Tweeting the Dismissal‘ exercise run by the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament

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Kevin, Tony: Legislating for War Powers Reform

Kevin, Tony ‘Legislating for War Powers Reform: a report‘, Australians for War Powers Reform, 23 October 2015 and updated This is a report of a seminar held at the Australian National University on 23 October. It is reprinted here in

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Menadue, John: The Dismissal 40 years on

Menadue, John ‘The Dismissal – forty years on: a smoking gun‘, Pearls and Irritations, 29 October 2015 Menadue was the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet at the time of The Dismissal. Here he comments on the

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Online gem No. 4: Medico-Legal Society of Victoria

Online gem No. 4: Medico-Legal Society of Victoria (26 October 2015) The Medico-Legal Society of Victoria, founded in Melbourne in 1931, was intended as a common meeting ground for the legal and medical professions and to promote discussion and understanding

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Lever, Susan: Lawrence’s Australian experiment

Lever, Susan ‘Lawrence’s Australian experiment‘, Inside Story, 22 October 2015 Almost a century on, there is still a nagging feeling that DH Lawrence, in some ways the archetypal ‘Pom passing through’ (he was here for just three months), still ‘got’

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Evershed, Nick & Michael Safi: timeline of national security changes since 2001

Evershed, Nick & Michael Safi ‘All of Australia’s national security changes since 9/11 in a timeline‘, Guardian Australia, 19 October 2015 (updated) In case you haven’t been keeping up surveillance on recent history, here is a useful guide to 2002-15,

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Menadue, John: Radicalism and terrorism

Menadue, John ‘Radicalism and terrorism‘, Pearls and Irritations, 15 October 2015 The author makes an important distinction, noting that radicalism and terrorism are not the same thing. Radical politics and radical religion are surely acceptable and widespread. But what is

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Wesley, Michael: Restless Continent

Wesley, Michael Restless Continent: Wealth, Rivalry, and Asia’s New Geopolitics, BlackInc, Melbourne, 2015; available electronically The world has never seen economic development as rapid or significant as Asia’s during recent decades. Home to three-fifths of humanity, this restless continent will

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Watching the neighbours (review of Wesley)

‘Watching the neighbours’ (review of Wesley), Honest History, 13 October 2015 Derek Abbott* reviews Michael Wesley’s Restless Continent: Wealth, Rivalry and Asia’s New Geopolitics Robert Burns enjoined us to see ourselves as others see us; Michael Wesley would also have

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Online gem No.3: Canberra’s 1940 air crash

Online gem No. 3: Canberra’s 1940 air crash (13 October 2015 updated) On the morning of 13 August 1940 a Hudson A16-97 aircraft flying from Melbourne to Canberra crashed on the eastern approaches to Canberra’s airport. All ten people on

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Hudson, Marc: 25 years of emissions cuts history

Hudson, Marc ‘25 years ago the Australian government promised deep emissions cuts, and yet here we still are‘, The Conversation, 9 October 2015 Looks at ‘the largely forgotten history’ of the 25 years since the then minister brought Australia’s first

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Bueskens, Petra: Malcolm Turnbull and small and big L liberals

Bueskens, Petra ‘Malcolm Turnbull, Immanuel Kant and the Conundrum of small and big L Liberals‘, New Matilda, 6 October 2015 updated The article is interesting because it juggles shades of meaning in Kant, strains of opinion in the Liberal Party

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Burnside, Julian: what sort of country are we?

Burnside, Julian ‘What sort of country are we?‘ The Conversation, 29 September 2015 Article based on the Hamer Oration, delivered 28 September. Examines incidents in Australia’s treatment of refugees over the last decade and a half, considering Tampa, the Pacific

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Triggs, Gillian, et al: Anzac spirit and human rights

Triggs, Gillian, et al War and Peace: the ANZAC Spirit and Human Rights, Australian Human Rights Commission, Sydney 2015 Papers from a conference held by the Commission in May 2014. There is an introduction from Professor Triggs and papers from

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Grudnoff, Matt & Dan Gilchrist: decline of Australian foreign aid

Grudnoff, Matt & Dan Gilchrist Charity Ends at Home: the Decline of Foreign Aid in Australia – Policy Brief, September 2015, Australia Institute & Jubilee Australia Research Centre, Canberra, 2015 A brief historical view of Australia’s foreign aid performance over

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Leslie, Tim, et al: Prime Ministers’ careers graphically presented

Leslie, Tim, Louis Stowasser, Ben Spraggon & Matthew Liddy ‘From Menzies to Malcolm: the careers of Australia’s prime ministers visualised‘, ABC News, 25 September 2015 Handy graphic version on one screen of the careers of 18 prime ministers, showing periods

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Nolan, Melanie: Coral Magnolia Lansbury 1929-1991

Nolan, Melanie ‘Coral Magnolia Lansbury, 1929-1991‘, Australian Dictionary of Biography, online edition, 2015 Coral Lansbury was a distinguished Australian radio scriptwriter, academic and novelist. Her son, Malcolm Bligh Turnbull, is Australia’s 29th prime minister. Nolan also presented a seminar on

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Arrow, Michelle: Damned Whores and God’s Police 40 years on

Arrow, Michelle ‘Damned Whores and God’s Police is still relevant to Australia 40 years on – more’s the pity‘, The Conversation, 21 September 2015 The article marks four decades since Anne Summers’ book. A conference is under way. Anne Summers’

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Jericho, Greg: poorest will go under as living standards ebb

Jericho, Greg ‘As the “rising tide” of living standards starts to ebb, the poorest will go under‘, Guardian Australia, 19 September 2015 Close summary analysis of the NATSEM report recently released. See also our collection of material on inequality, with

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Beams, Nick: PM Turnbull and China

Beams, Nick ‘Foreign policy dilemmas confront new Australian PM over China‘, World Socialist Web Site, 18 September 2015 Long article dissecting the new prime minister’s attitudes to China taking note of some key speeches. A useful addition to whatever analysis

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Phillips, Ben: living standard trends in Australia

Phillips, Ben Living Standard Trends in Australia: Report for Anglicare Australia, NATSEM, University of Canberra, September 1915 The report compares the living standards of different household types across the country: how they have changed since 2004 and how they are

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Brangwin, Nicole, et al: history of Australia’s defence white papers

Brangwin, Nicole, Nathan Church, Steve Dyer & David Watt Defending Australia: a History of Australia’s Defence White Papers: Parliamentary Library Research Paper 2015-16, 20 August 2015 This is a timely publication, given the recent extended commitment to Iraq-Syria, defence spending

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Abjorensen, Norman: uneasy lies the head

Abjorensen, Norman ‘Uneasy lies the head‘, Inside Story, 15 September 2015 Australia’s leading scholar of prime ministerial departures examines the latest one in its historical context, noting the difficulty that recent prime ministers (Hawke, Rudd, Gillard) have had in surviving

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Liddy, Matthew, et al: Australia’s political rollercoaster

Liddy, Matthew, Ben Spraggon, Lucy Fahey, Simon Elvery & Colin Gourlay ‘Australia’s political rollercoaster: 13 years, 66 changes‘, ABC News, 14 September 2015 Useful backgrounder on changes of leadership in all Australian jurisdictions over recent years. One more to add.

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Gorman, Sean, et al.: Griffith Review: Indigenous writing

Gorman, Sean, et al ‘Indigenous writing’, Griffith Review We apologise for not discovering this portal earlier. It links (at the time of posting, September 2015) to 54 articles from Griffith Review on Indigenous affairs and another 33 articles from the

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Inequality – six of the best from Andrew Leigh MP: highlights reel

‘Inequality – six of the best from Andrew Leigh, MP: highlights reel’, Honest History, 1 September 2015 updated Inequality has been a special interest of Honest History, as we have noted the procession of reporting organisations confirming Australia’s growing reputation

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Class War 1930

I … a member of the working class do hereby solemnly swear to protect the working class against armed and other aggression of our capitalist class enemy… should I betray the trust imposed upon me I will receive the scorn

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Calwell, AA: Be just and fear not

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Butlin, NG, et al: Government and Capitalism

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Atkinson, Alan & Marian Aveling, ed.: Australians 1838

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Argy, Fred: Australia at the Crossroads

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Beaumont, Joan: Gallipoli and Australian national identity

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Brett, Judith: Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class

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Piggott, Michael & David Stephens: Constitution Day: an old Queen and a new nation

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