Click here for all items related to: Ruling ourselves Australia has followed its own unique path toward nationhood and an unknown future, drawing on different traditions adapted to our own time and place. The themes here include political, constitutional, law…
Stephens, David: Keating sinks AUKUS – and it’s not all about the subs and the nuclear waste
David Stephens* ‘Keating sinks AUKUS – and it’s not all about the subs and the nuclear waste’, Honest History, 12 August 2024 Update 2 September 2024: Paddy Gourley in Pearls and Irritations. A bit broader in scope but still right…
FROM THE HONEST HISTORY VAULT: the persistence of Trump requires we look again at this famous study of bullshit
Over the years, Honest History has publicised the academic work of the late Professor Harry Frankfurt (1929-2023), a philosopher who famously nailed the phenomenon of ‘bullshit’, distinguishing it from lying but still excoriating its egregiousness. Harry Frankfurt 2017 (Wikipedia American…
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Stephens, David: Thales-War Memorial link remembered as a new Audit Office report is released – and a timely JCPAA report on integrity
David Stephens* ‘Thales-War Memorial link remembered as a new Audit Office report is released – and a timely JCPAA report on integrity’, Honest History, 27 June 2024 Update 28 June 2024: Defence refers another Thales contract to the National Anti-Corruption…
Book note: John Burton’s work on conflict resolution and peace more than ever relevant today
John Wear Burton (1915-2010) was a public servant, diplomat and academic who made distinguished contributions to the discipline of conflict resolution. Just published is a collection of extracts from his work: John W. Burton: a Pioneer in Conflict Analysis and Resolution: Key…
Stephens, David: 2024 Budget Rabbit-Hole Report: $8m More For The Australian War Memorial
David Stephens* ‘2024 Budget Rabbit-Hole Report: $8m more for the Australian War Memorial’, Honest History, 17 May 2024 (This post also appears on our sister website, defendingcountry.au. Earlier related material can be found linked from the Honest History home page.)…
Waterford, Jack: Our glorious tradition of being not very good at fighting wars
Jack Waterford ‘Our glorious tradition of being not very good at fighting wars‘, Canberra Times, 26 January 2024; pdf from our subscription; also in Pearls and Irritations (no paywall). Update 29 January 2024: two articles taking a wide view of Australia…
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Defending Country website launches to keep the War Memorial honest about Frontier Wars
This media release has gone out today. It advises of the launch of our associate website defendingcountry.au. Honest History’s long time interest in the War Memorial and the Frontier Wars will continue on the new site. *** 15 November 2023…
Stephens, David: Remembrance Day mysteries at the War Memorial: answers to Senate Questions on Notice
David Stephens* ‘Remembrance Day mysteries at the War Memorial: answers to Senate Questions on Notice’, Honest History, 11 November 2023 updated Accountability via Senate Estimates Committees is a slow process. The difficult or embarrassing questions often get ‘taken on notice’,…
Stephens, David: Nine embarrassing minutes: the Australian War Memorial at Senate Estimates
David Stephens* ‘Nine embarrassing minutes: the Australian War Memorial at Senate Estimates’, Honest History, 5 November 2023 updated When the government changed it looked, just for a moment, as if some of our less accountable institutions, like the Australian War…
Stephens, David: After the Voice: Kim Beazley’s opportunity to give Truth-telling a big boost at the War Memorial
David Stephens* ‘After the Voice: Kim Beazley’s opportunity to give Truth-telling a big boost at the War Memorial’, Honest History, 19 October 2023 updated Update 23 October 2023: a version of this piece appeared on Pearls and Irritations. *** Michelle…
Marr, David: Killing for Country: A Family Story
David Marr Killing for Country: A Family Story, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2023; available electronically A gripping reckoning with the bloody history of Australia’s frontier wars. David Marr was shocked to discover forebears who served with the brutal Native Police in…
Stanley, Peter: “We have seized their country by the right of might”: David Marr’s Killing for Country
Peter Stanley* ‘“We have seized their country by the right of might”: David Marr’s Killing for Country’, Honest History, 8 October 2023 Peter Stanley reviews Killing for Country: A Family Story, by David Marr Brothers Reginald and D’arcy Uhr, the…
Roggeveen, Sam: The Echidna Strategy: Australia’s Search for Power and Peace
Sam Roggeveen The Echidna Strategy: Australia’s Search for Power and Peace, La Trobe University Press, Melbourne, 2023 The Echidna Strategy overturns the conventional wisdom about Australia’s security. Australia will need to defend itself without American help, but this doesn’t need…
Broinowski, Richard: Sam Roggeveen’s Echidna Strategy: priorities in foreign and defence policy
Richard Broinowski* ‘Sam Roggeveen’s Echidna Strategy: priorities in foreign and defence policy’, Honest History, 2 October 2023 updated Richard Broinowski reviews The Echidna Strategy: Australia’s Search for Power and Peace, by Sam Roggeveen Sam Roggeveen came from the Australian government’s…
Book note: Time to Listen: an Indigenous Voice to Parliament by Melissa Castan and Lynette Russell
This thin (96 pp) but very useful book is notable for three things: ease of reading; reminding us that WEH Stanner’s famous ‘great Australian silence’ was not just accidental but deliberate; more importantly, stressing that the point of having a…
What First Nations people said about invasion, the Frontier Wars and sovereignty: extracts from the Referendum Council report 2017
What First Nations people said about invasion, the Frontier Wars and sovereignty: extracts from the Referendum Council report 2017 Recent controversy about what was or was not included in the Uluru Statement somewhat missed an important point: the strength and…
Reynolds, Henry: Truth-Telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement
Henry Reynolds Truth-Telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement, NewSouth, Sydney, 2021 If we are to take seriously the need for telling the truth about our history, we must start at first principles. What if the sovereignty of the First…
Broinowski, Alison: Can we handle the truth? Henry Reynolds’ major 2021 work is crucial reference in this year of the Voice
Alison Broinowski* ‘Can we handle the truth? Henry Reynolds’ major 2021 work is crucial reference in this year of the Voice’, Honest History, 24 August 2023 Alison Broinowski reviews Truth-Telling: History, Sovereignty and the Uluru Statement, by Henry Reynolds Originally…
Game changer: defence industry ‘revolving door’ database to be created
Long-time journalist and peace campaigner Michelle Fahy has been awarded a $60 000 grant from the Jan de Voogd Peace Fund to build a database of the notorious revolving door between government and the arms industry in Australia. More on…
Stephens, David: Making the best of the Ben Roberts-Smith fiasco
David Stephens* ‘Making the best of the Ben Roberts-Smith fiasco‘, Pearls and Irritations, 2 August 2023 updated There may be an upside to the Ben Roberts-Smith case. Not for the family of Ali Jan or the people of Afghanistan. Not…
Stephens, David: What happens if the War Memorial Council goes in 13 different directions?
David Stephens* ‘What happens if the War Memorial Council goes in 13 different directions?’, Honest History, 20 July 2023 updated Honest History recently received an unsigned letter from the Hon. Kim Beazley AC, Chair of the Council of the Australian…
War Memorial Council Chair Kim Beazley explains how the Council works
Recently, it became clear that there were differences of view on the Council of the Australian War Memorial about how the Memorial should in future recognise and commemorate the Australian Frontier Wars. The letter below to Council Chair Kim Beazley…
Quarterly Essay 90: Voice of Reason – On Recognition and Renewal, by Megan Davis: Book Note
Update 11 July 2023: Professor Davis with Professor Mark Kenny of the ANU on an Australia Institute Webinar. Update 26 June 2023: Professor Davis on Australian Story on the ABC, including transcript. *** Professor Megan Davis is Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous…
Dobell, Graeme: Fire, ash and official secrecy
Graeme Dobell ‘Fire, ash and official secrecy‘, Inside Story, 5 June 2023 Long read reviewing Born of Fire and Ash: Australian Operations in Response to the East Timor Crisis 1999–2000, an official war history. Craig Stockings’s work on the official…
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Stephens, David: ‘Alice in Wonderland’: dissembling and dithering in Senate Estimates
David Stephens* ‘”Alice in Wonderland’: dissembling and dithering in Senate Estimates’, Honest History, 16 June 2023 updated Update 9 July 2023: See below under ‘And there’s this …’ for our follow-up on one of the War Memorial’s claims. *** Senate…
Audit Office to look into aspects of the War Memorial’s Big Build
Update 10 June 2023: ‘Audit is now open for contribution, with contribution expected to remain open until 1 October 2023’. Please look closely at the Audit criteria (see below) and address them. This is not the place for a generalised…
Stephens, David: And another thing: yet more on Ben Roberts-Smith
David Stephens* ‘And another thing: yet more on Ben Roberts-Smith’, Honest History, 6 June 2023 updated 18 August 2023: Stokes/Seven resisting respondents’ access to emails. ‘As part of its application for a third-party costs order, Nine is seeking to show…
Stephens, David: Pearls and Irritations nails it again and again: recent food for thought (but it’s not like the Main Stream Media)
David Stephens* ‘Pearls and Irritations nails it again and again: recent food for thought (but it’s not like the Main Stream Media)’, Honest History, 19 May 2023 updated Update later this day: Speaking of … there’s a nice piece in…
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The Voice to Parliament Handbook by Thomas Mayo and Kerry O’Brien: Book Note
Update 1 August 2023: Eight retired judges support the Yes case, led by Mary Gaudron, former High Court judge: [W]e confidently believe that, by raising the quality of our public debate, the proposed Voice will both enrich our democracy and…
Medals and meltdowns – and gunrunners getting an inside track: non-MSM news roundup
Noel Turnbull, Vietnam veteran and fellow traveller with Honest History, has posted this piece on his blog. It’s about the medals being given to Vietnam veterans and their families on the 50th anniversary of Australia’s departure from that war. Turnbull…
Stephens, David: Movement at the Memorial: recent remarks from Chair Kim Beazley hold promise of change – but more needed
David Stephens* ‘Movement at the Memorial: remarks from Chair Kim Beazley hold promise of change – but more needed’, Honest History, 10 April 2023 updated (pdfs from our Canberra Times subscription: page 1 article, page 2 article, editorial) Update 15…
War Memorial Big Build is still on Audit Office’s draft work program: have your say
For the third year in a row, the management of the $550m redevelopment project at the Australian War Memorial is on the draft work program of the Australian National Audit Office as a potential performance audit. The ANAO is asking…
Credibility gap at the War Memorial: Frontier Wars initiative lagging (Media release)
5 April 2023 Credibility gap at the War Memorial: Frontier Wars initiative lagging There is a credibility chasm between the willingness of Australian War Memorial Chair, Kim Beazley, to properly recognise and commemorate the Australian Frontier Wars and, on the…
Government announces more money for National Library’s Trove service – but more needed for NLA and other national cultural institutions
Finance Minister Gallagher has announced $33m of extra funding for the National Library’s highly valued and much used Trove service. Further pre-Budget announcements are expected affecting the cultural institutions. For earlier stories covering the range of needs of national cultural…
Stephens, David: Australian War Memorial $550 million redevelopment: Memorial provides some important clarifications and corrections
David Stephens* ‘Australian War Memorial $550 million redevelopment: Memorial provides some important clarifications and corrections’, Honest History, 17 March 2023 updated Update 5 June 2023: War Memorial answer to Question on Notice from Senator Shoebridge confirms that wrong information was…
Stephens, David: Another skirmish of attrition in Senate Estimates
David Stephens* ‘Another skirmish of attrition in Senate Estimates’, Honest History, 23 February 2023 Honest History watched this live on 15 February for the War Memorial’s appearance. We glanced at the video (from 20.07). Nothing leapt out from either medium.…
Stephens, David: A narcissist always searching for a new niche? Brendan Nelson’s autobiography: Part II: From the Big Build via the Frontier Wars to Boeing – but a lot left out
David Stephens* ‘A narcissist always searching for a new niche? Brendan Nelson’s autobiography’, Honest History, 21 February 2023: Part II: ‘From the Big Build via the Frontier Wars to Boeing – but a lot left out’ Part I of this…
Nelson, Brendan: Of Life and Of Leadership
Brendan Nelson Of Life and Of Leadership, Connor Court, Brisbane, 2022 From his Roman Catholic, Labor leaning family upbringing in Launceston, to Adelaide and the transformation given him by the Jesuits, Brendan Nelson graduated in medicine. The joys and wounding…
Stephens, David: A narcissist always searching for a new niche? Brendan Nelson’s autobiography: Part I: From Med School to the War Memorial via the Menin Gate
David Stephens* ‘A narcissist always searching for a new niche? Brendan Nelson’s autobiography’, Honest History, 19 February 2023: Part I: From Med School to the War Memorial via the Menin Gate’ Part II of this review *** David Stephens reviews…
Australian War Memorial to stay in Defence/Veterans Affairs portfolio
Honest History had put in a submission to the National Cultural Policy review, arguing that the Australian War Memorial should be moved to the Arts portfolio, from the Defence/Veterans’ Affairs portfolio. It had been located there for nearly 40 years…
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Latest on arms company money going to War Memorial: small change for them but how much influence does it deliver?
Update 15 February 2023: Chris Knaus in Guardian Australia on the facts below. *** Last November, Greens Senator Shoebridge asked Australian War Memorial Director Anderson in Senate Estimates (page 38 of the Hansard pdf) for up-to-date information on the amount…
Stephens, David: Kim Beazley, Chair of War Memorial Council, makes welcome progress towards proper recognition of Frontier Wars – but now needs to drag others along, too
David Stephens* ‘Kim Beazley, Chair of War Memorial Council, makes welcome progress towards proper recognition of Frontier Wars – but now needs to drag others along, too’, Honest History, 7 February 2023 updated Update 22 June 2023: Earlier this month,…
National Cultural Policy documents: strong emphasis on First Nations
PM’s speech. Statement from PM and Minister Burke. The full policy. Commentary (and others linked from there). I would ask the arts community to join with me in urging us to take forward those steps together later this year by…
Carlson, Bronwyn: ‘Change the date’ debates about January 26 distract from the truth telling Australia needs to do
Bronwyn Carlson ‘“Change the date” debates about January 26 distract from the truth telling Australia needs to do‘, The Conversation, 26 January 2023 updated As every year for many years, 26 January generated debates this year, made more significant by…
From the Honest History vault: late Senator Jim Molan’s final book reviewed by Richard Broinowski
Major General Senator Jim Molan has died after a long illness. Last year, Honest History published a review by Richard Broinowski of Senator Molan’s book, Danger on our Doorstep. ‘The impact of Jim Molan’s book’, Broinowski said, ‘will unfortunately be…
Fernandes, Clinton: Subimperial Power: Australia in the International Arena
Clinton Fernandes Subimperial Power: Australia in the International Arena (Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2022); electronic version available How does Australia operate in the world? And why? In this closely evidenced, original account, former Australian Army intelligence analyst Clinton Fernandes categorically…
Broinowski, Alison: Reckless self-endangerment: Clinton Fernandes on Australia as a sub-imperial power
Alison Broinowski* ‘Reckless self-endangerment: Clinton Fernandes on Australia as a subimperial power’, Honest History, 28 December 2022 Alison Broinowski reviews Clinton Fernandes, Subimperial Power: Australia in the International Arena Australia is supposed to be significant internationally, yet Australians are remarkably…
Australia-India relations before the Quad: Book Note on Rising Power and Changing People
The Quad brings Australia together with India (and Japan and the United States). According to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Quad ‘is a diplomatic network of four countries committed to supporting a free and open Indo-Pacific that…
Lockhart, Greg: Australia and the Vietnam War: Part 2 – No-win situation
Greg Lockhart* ‘Australia and the Vietnam War: Part 2 – No-win situation’, Honest History, 20 December 2022 Greg Lockhart is a leading historian of Australia’s Vietnam War (Nation in Arms: the Origins of the People’s Army of Vietnam; The Minefield: an…
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Lockhart, Greg: Australia and the Vietnam War: Part 1 – Neo-Colonial Race Strategy
Greg Lockhart* ‘Australia and the Vietnam War: Part 1 – Neo-Colonial Race Strategy’, Honest History, 14 December 2022 updated Greg Lockhart is a leading historian of Australia’s Vietnam War (Nation in Arms: the Origins of the People’s Army of Vietnam;…
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Undue influence and the revolving door: Michelle Fahy tackles subjects the Main Stream Media leaves alone
Michelle Fahy has for years been an assiduous researcher and thoughtful writer on the arms industry and related topics. She has just made two notable contributions. The first was her speech to last month’s conference of the International Peaceful Australia…
Manning, Paddy: The Successor: the High-Stakes Life of Lachlan Murdoch
Paddy Manning The Successor: the High-Stakes Life of Lachlan Murdoch, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2022 As heir apparent to his father’s global media empire, Lachlan Murdoch is one of the world’s most powerful people. Yet despite a life in the spotlight,…
Broinowski, Richard: Buccaneers down through the generations: Lachlan Murdoch
Richard Broinowski* ‘Buccaneers down through the generations: Lachlan Murdoch’, Honest History, 3 December 2022 Richard Broinowski reviews The Successor: the High-Stakes Life of Lachlan Murdoch, by Paddy Manning The tradition of swashbuckling press barons in the English-language is not new.…
From the Honest History vault: Gough Whitlam remembered, 47 years on from The Dismissal
When Gough Whitlam died full of years in 2014 we collected lots of resources, reminiscences and recalibrations. Here they are again. Despite everything else Whitlam did, perhaps he is still most remembered for what happened on 11 November 1975. Which…
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From the Honest History vault: another look at AUKUS and our ‘strategic environment’
Today in Pearls and Irritations, retired diplomat Dennis Argall had some perceptive things to say on the Greg Sheridan interview in The Australian with the prime minister. The breadth of the issues discussed should remind us (Lest We Forget as…
Lee, David: John Curtin
David Lee John Curtin, Connor Court, Brisbane, 2022 (Australian Biographical Monographs 16) Acclaimed by many as Australia’s greatest prime minister, John Curtin overcame alcoholism and a troubled relationship with the Scullin Labour Government to win the Labor leadership by one…
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Piggott, Michael: A slim but masterful biographical introduction to John Curtin
Michael Piggott* ‘A slim but masterful biographical introduction to John Curtin’, Honest History, 14 October 2022 Michael Piggott reviews John Curtin by David Lee (Australian Biographical Monographs 16) Are you heartily sick of ex-prime ministers yet? Just last year there…
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Arrow, Michelle & Frank Bongiorno: The real “history war” is the attack on our archives and libraries
Michelle Arrow & Frank Bongiorno ‘The real “history war” is the attack on our archives and libraries‘, Brisbane Times, 16 September 2022 (and other Nine Newspapers) updated; pdf from our subscription Chronicles the gradual running down of our national cultural…
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The death of Queen Victoria: compare and contrast
We found this below from a quick shuffle through the National Library’s excellent Trove resource. There is masses more, but this will do, both on that death and for any interesting comparisons that may be drawn with this week’s event.…
Beaumont, Joan: Australia’s Great Depression: How a Nation Shattered by the Great War Survived the Worst Economic Crisis it has Ever Faced
Joan Beaumont Australia’s Great Depression: How a Nation Shattered by the Great War Survived the Worst Economic Crisis it has Ever Faced, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2022; electronic version available How a nation still in grief from the Great War…
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Wright, Claire EF: Australian resilience in 1929-32 has relevance to post-Pandemic Australia, as Joan Beaumont’s strong synthesis shows
Claire EF Wright* ‘Australian resilience in 1929-32 has relevance to post-Pandemic Australia, as Joan Beaumont’s strong synthesis shows’, Honest History, 5 September 2022 Claire EF Wright reviews Joan Beaumont’s Australia’s Great Depression: How a Nation Shattered by the Great War…
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Molan, Jim: Danger On Our Doorstep
Jim Molan Danger On Our Doorstep, Harper Collins, Sydney, 2022; electronic version available What are Australia’s options in confronting a rising and belligerent China? For the first time in nearly 80 years, war on our doorstop is not just possible,…
Broinowski, Richard: This book will increase hostility between Australia and China
Richard Broinowski* ‘This book will increase hostility between Australia and China’, Honest History, 19 August 2022 Richard Broinowski reviews Jim Molan’s Danger On Our Doorstep As I write, the risk of war with China over Taiwan grows exponentially. Nancy Pelosi’s…
Menadue, John: Our dangerous ally could drag us into war with China
John Menadue ‘Our dangerous ally could drag us into war with China‘, Pearls and Irritations, 3 August 2022 The US is the most aggressive and violent country in the world. It is addicted to a belief in its exceptionalism, grounded…
Patience, Allan: Can Australia become a confident, independent country?
Allan Patience ‘Can Australia become a confident, independent country?‘, Pearls and Irritations, 5 August 2022 The article examines the prospects for the Australian-American ‘alliance’ at a time of increasing uncertainty. Given the restricted military capability that Australia possesses (for example,…
From the Honest History vault: Review of Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia (2018), edited by Anita Heiss
Just after Garma and at a time when the Voice is growing, along with the push to properly recognise and commemorate the Australian Frontier Wars, it seemed like a good chance to run again our review of the ground-breaking collection,…
Daley, Paul: Jesustown: A Novel
Paul Daley Jesustown: A Novel, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2022 From award-winning journalist Paul Daley comes a gripping multi-generational saga about Australian frontier violence and cultural theft that will capture the national imagination … Morally bereft popular historian Patrick Renmark…
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Stephens, David: Paul Daley’s novel Jesustown is as complex and troubling as our Australian history
David Stephens* ‘Paul Daley’s novel Jesustown is as complex and troubling as our Australian history’, Honest History, 3 July 2022 David Stephens reviews Jesustown: A Novel, by Paul Daley Important novels are grounded in an appreciation of human nature and…
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An agenda for Albanese (3): Afghanistan reports, like suicide study, should be out in the open – to ensure War Memorial can be ‘a place of truth’
The new Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Matt Keogh, announced the other day that a report into the Department of Veterans’ Affairs claims processing system had finally been made public. The report had been commissioned by the previous government in September…
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Broinowski, Alison: Review: The daughters of John Burton are determined to correct the public record of their parents
Alison Broinowski ‘Review: The daughters of John Burton are determined to correct the public record of their parents‘, Canberra Times, 11 June 2022 (pdf from our subscription) updated Review of Persons of Interest: An Intimate Account of Cecily and John…
Stephens, David: An historical agenda for the Albanese Government
David Stephens* ‘An historical agenda for the Albanese Government’, Honest History, 7 June 2022 updated History is not just a matter for historians, museums and school teachers. How we deal with our past shapes the present and future of all…
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Eureka Street Plus gets under way with Father Frank Brennan on the Uluru Statement
Eureka Street has been around for a long time as a thoughtful, judicious commentator on affairs, with a special interest in religious matters. (It is a publication of Jesuit Communications Australia.) Eureka Street Plus proposes to deliver bi-monthly essays, roundtables,…
Stephens, David: As the War Memorial destruction goes on, and Boeing’s man takes control, FOI throws dim light on the process
David Stephens* ‘As the War Memorial destruction goes on, and Boeing’s man takes control, FOI throws dim light on the process’, Honest History, 5 May 2022 updated The destruction of the Australian War Memorial is unstoppable. And Brendan Nelson, the…
Stephens, David: Lest We Forget#8: Has the Australia that the Great War Diggers fought for been captured by spivs and oligarchs?
David Stephens* ‘Lest We Forget#8: Has the Australia that the Great War Diggers fought for been captured by spivs and oligarchs?’ Honest History, 25 April 2022 We began this Lest We Forget series by referring to Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s 2017 use…
Finnane, Mark: A Museum of Australian Policing: That’s a good idea, but what stories will it tell?
Mark Finnane* ‘A Museum of Australian Policing: That’s a good idea, but what stories will it tell?’, Honest History, 9 April 2022 In one of the flurry of pre-Budget news drops, the Home Affairs Minister, Karen Andrews, announced recently that…
Odgers, Brett: Still talking to the War Memorial? The review and regeneration of Anzac Parade, Canberra
Brett Odgers* ‘Still talking to the War Memorial? The review and regeneration of Anzac Parade, Canberra’, Honest History, 1 March 2022 [In the lead up to Anzac Day and as we confront another war in Europe, how we treat our…
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Knapman, Gareth: The Batman Treaty’s feudal obligation to the Kulin and the unpaid debt of $68 million a year
Gareth Knapman* ‘The Batman Treaty’s feudal obligation to the Kulin and the unpaid debt of $68 million a year’, Honest History, 10 February 2022 [Dr Knapman is writing a book which addresses the question, how did British colonial figures understand…
Turnbull, Noel: The commemoration industry and the militarization of Australian history
Noel Turnbull ‘The commemoration industry and the militarization of Australian history: a speech given to the Middle Park Men’s Group‘, 24 November 2021’, Noel Turnbull, 27 November 2021 [W]hat concerns me is the way Australia has developed a commemoration industry…
Stuart Macintyre on Post-War Reconstruction: From the Honest History vault
In 2015, the late Professor Stuart Macintyre published a great book on Post-War Reconstruction, describing the work of politicians and bureaucrats in Australia during and after the Second World War. Australia’s Boldest Experiment: War and Reconstruction in the 1940s won…
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Wareham, Sue: Transparency lacking in Australian defence policy
Sue Wareham ‘Transparency lacking in Australian defence policy‘, Independent Australia, 19 October 2021 updated Update 28 October 2021: see also this from Marcus Reubenstein reprinted in Pearls & Irritations. Update 30 November 2021: Mike Scrafton in Pearls & Irritations analyses…
Piggott, Michael: Out of Tune, but still mouldering: the National Archives of Australia
Michael Piggott* ‘Out of Tune, but still mouldering: the National Archives of Australia’, Honest History, 20 September 2021 This article follows Michael Piggott’s earlier piece, ‘Mouldering away: how long a journey for our National Archives?’, which coincided with a campaign…
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Menadue, John: Our democracy is decaying from within
John Menadue ‘Our democracy is decaying from within‘, Pearls & Irritations, 16 September 2021 Former senior public servant and businessman calls for a summit of community leaders to help chart democratic renewal. With the loss of trust in our political…
The Secret State, the rule of law and whistle blowers: Bernard Collaery Zoom event from Manning Clark House, Canberra, 26 September
Sunday 26 September 2021, 4pm to 5.30pm This is a Zoom event due to the COVID-19 lockdown Bernard Collaery is a former ACT Attorney-General and a prominent Canberra lawyer. He was lawyer for Witness K, the former ASIS officer turned…
Wareham, Sue: “No Australian who has ever fallen in our uniform has ever died in vain, ever”: the PM and the AWM
Sue Wareham ‘“No Australian who has ever fallen in our uniform has ever died in vain, ever”: the PM and the AWM‘, Pearls & Irritations, 31 August 2021 Weaves together the claims of the Prime Minister that Australian soldiers never…
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Knapman, Gareth: Bain Attwood on the not so terra nullius: a review article
Gareth Knapman* ‘Bain Attwood on the not so terra nullius’: a review article’, Honest History, 31 August 2021 In 2020, Bain Attwood published Empire and the Making of Native Title: Sovereignty, Property and Indigenous People. Attwood presents a compelling argument…
Barlow, Karen: National Capital Authority finds little support or understanding: poll
Karen Barlow ‘National Capital Authority finds little support or understanding: poll‘, Canberra Times, 9 August 2021 Reports poll from The Australian Institute (national poll of 1004 people) where respondents were asked whether they ‘agree or disagree that the National Capital…
Strangio, Paul: Who were Australia’s best prime ministers? We asked the experts
Paul Strangio ‘Who were Australia’s best prime ministers? We asked the experts‘, The Conversation, 2 August 2021 Survey of 60 or so academic experts, 2020 and 2010. Sets out criteria (longevity, achievements, management of party, relations with electorate) and ranks…
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Piccini, Jon: The forgotten Australian veterans who opposed National Service and the Vietnam War
Jon Piccini ‘The forgotten Australian veterans who opposed National Service and the Vietnam War‘, The Conversation, 26 July 2021 Article comes out on the 50th anniversary of announcement by McMahon Government of withdrawal of Australian troops from Vietnam. Author has…
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Holbrook, Carolyn, James Walter & Paul Strangio: Is the COVID vaccine rollout the greatest public policy failure in recent Australian history?
Carolyn Holbrook, James Walter & Paul Strangio ‘Is the COVID vaccine rollout the greatest public policy failure in recent Australian history?‘, The Conversation, 21 July 2021 There are three principal factors for measuring public policy success or failure. The first…
Younge, Gary: Why every single statue should come down
Gary Younge ‘Why every single statue should come down‘, The Guardian (UK), 1 June 2021 updated (associated podcast; also in hard copy of The Guardian Weekly, 11 June 2021) ‘Statues of historical figures are lazy, ugly and distort history’, says…
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Menadue, John: Militarism has become the norm. We now even have an Army Lieutenant General heading the vaccine roll out
John Menadue ‘Militarism has become the norm. We now even have an Army Lieutenant General heading the vaccine roll out‘, Pearls and Irritations, 24 June 2021 updated Concerned that the states were getting the political kudos for handling quarantine ,…
Piggott, Michael: Mouldering away: how long a journey for our National Archives?
Michael Piggott* ‘Mouldering away: how long a journey for our National Archives?’, Honest History, 16 June 2021 [See also this post on the campaign to save the Archives. HH] As many Honest History supporters will know, in recent months the…
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Fahy, Michelle: Landforces’ brothers in arms: how a weapons peddler qualified for charitable status
Michelle Fahy ‘Landforces’ brothers in arms: how a weapons peddler qualified for charitable status‘, Michael West Media, 4 June 2021 [C]onsider the activities of a not-for-profit organisation that many Australians will be astounded to discover has gained privileged charitable status…
Save the National Archives of Australia! More than 150 leading Australian writers, researchers and thinkers have signed an Open Letter to the Prime Minister
The open letter. Media release below. Coverage in media, particularly The Australian by Gideon Haigh on 12 June (pdf from a subscription) and editorial. Video with Graeme Davison. Genevieve Jacobs in The Riot Act. David Smith, ALP member for Bean,…
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Newton, Douglas: Private Ryan and the Lost Peace: A Defiant Soldier and the Struggle against the Great War
Douglas Newton Private Ryan and the Lost Peace: A Defiant Soldier and the Struggle against the Great War, Longueville Media, Sydney, 2021 Imagine the Great War ending early, in 1915, or 1916, or even 1917. Imagine round-table negotiations and a…
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Stephens, David: Everyman as soldier: how men in suits in drawing rooms conned the people – and their families – into fighting on
David Stephens* ‘Everyman as soldier: how men in suits in drawing rooms conned the people – and their families – into fighting on’, Honest History, 28 May 2021 David Stephens reviews Douglas Newton’s Private Ryan and the Lost Peace: A…
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Wakeling, Adam: A House of Commons for a Den of Thieves: Australia’s Journey from Penal Colony to Democracy
Adam Wakeling A House of Commons for a Den of Thieves: Australia’s Journey from Penal Colony to Democracy, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2020 In 1788, Great Britain founded a colony in Australia to swallow up its criminals. And swallow them…
Myrtle, John: A textbook on the early history of the Wide Brown Land
John Myrtle* ‘A textbook on the early history of the Wide Brown Land’, Honest History, 19 March 2021 John Myrtle reviews A House of Commons for a Den of Thieves: Australia’s Journey from Penal Colony to Democracy, by Adam Wakeling…
Collard, Sarah: ‘It must all be a part of our reckoning with the truth’: Albanese acknowledges Frontier Wars in House
Sarah Collard ‘“It must all be a part of our reckoning with the truth’”: Albanese acknowledges Frontier Wars in House‘, SBS/NITV News, 16 February 2021 updated Update 23 February 2021: Paul Daley in Guardian Australia Albanese’s fine words in federal…
Stephens, David: Day Break by Amy McQuire and Matt Chun: a children’s book focusses sharply on 26 January
David Stephens* ‘Day Break by Amy McQuire and Matt Chun: a children’s book focusses sharply on 26 January’, Honest History, 31 January 2021 Much of the debate about Australia Day/Invasion Day 26 January has been between grown-ups. This book, Day…
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McQuire, Amy: If your child asks why Australia is celebrating a day of invasion, what will you tell them?
Amy McQuire ‘If your child asks why Australia is celebrating a day of invasion, what will you tell them?‘, Guardian Australia, 26 January 2021 First Nations children are silenced even though the most brutal acts of colonisation were perpetrated and…
Piggott, Michael: An out-of-shape homage to Ned Kelly’s murdered victims at Stringybark Creek
Michael Piggott* ‘An out-of-shape homage to Ned Kelly’s murdered victims at Stringybark Creek’, Honest History, 25 January 2021 Michael Piggott reviews Doug Morrissey’s Ned Kelly: The Stringybark Creek Police Murders With this book, Doug Morrissey and Connor Court Publishing end…
Morrissey, Doug: Ned Kelly: The Stringybark Creek Police Murders
Doug Morrissey Ned Kelly: The Stringybark Creek Police Murders, Connor Court Publishing, Brisbane, 2020 Doug Morrissey presents the definitive account of the Stringybark Creek Police Murders. The ambush murder of three policemen at Stringybark Creek in October 1878 was Ned…
Piggott, Michael: What are we to make of Edmund Barton, our first prime minister? An exhibition in Canberra
Michael Piggott* ‘What are we to make of Edmund Barton, our first prime minister? An exhibition in Canberra’, Honest History, 4 January 2021 Michael Piggott reviews an exhibition at Parliament House, Canberra: ‘Edmund Barton: Australia’s first Prime Minister’. The exhibition…
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Myrtle, John: Review note: Kieran Finnane’s Peace Crimes
John Myrtle* ‘Review note: Kieran Finnane’s Peace Crimes’, Honest History, 26 November 2020 Richard Broinowski concluded his recent review of Project Rainfall[1], a history of Pine Gap, by noting that ‘in the Australian parliament, Pine Gap has become a non-issue,…
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Kenny, Mark: Why looking back is the only way forward: COVID-19, the Federation, and the chance of genuine reconciliation
Mark Kenny ‘Why looking back is the only way forward: COVID-19, the Federation, and the chance of genuine reconciliation: 2020 Henry Parkes Oration‘, Parkes Foundation, 19 October 2020 Makes the case for an Indigenous museum; contrasts it with spending on…
Fahy, Michelle: LobbyLand ‘culture of cosiness’: colossal conflicts of interest in Defence spending blitz
Michelle Fahy ‘LobbyLand “culture of cosiness”: colossal conflicts of interest in Defence spending blitz‘, Pearls and Irritations, 13 October 2020 updated On corporate influence on government policy and how weapons makers cultivate relationships with politicians and top officials in the…
Dapin, Mark: Public Enemies: Russell “Mad Dog” Cox, Ray Denning and the Golden Age of Armed Robbery
Mark Dapin Public Enemies: Russell “Mad Dog” Cox, Ray Denning and the Golden Age of Armed Robbery, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2020; electronic version available In the Australia of the 1960s, 70s and 80s, armed robbers were the top of…
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Myrtle, John: Australian armed robbers Russell Cox and Ray Denning: it was a different world then
John Myrtle* ‘Australian armed robbers Russell Cox and Ray Denning: it was a different world then’, Honest History, 11 September 2020 John Myrtle reviews Mark Dapin’s Public Enemies: Russell “Mad Dog” Cox, Ray Denning and the Golden Age of Armed…
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Bongiorno, Frank: An obedient nation of larrikins: why Victorians are not revolting
Frank Bongiorno ‘An obedient nation of larrikins: why Victorians are not revolting‘, The Conversation, 10 September 2020 Update 21 September 2020: Dave Milner in The Shot newsletter on the low-key Melburnian cope. Speculates about what (mostly supportive) Victorian attitudes to…
Wareham, Sue: This government needs to stop militarising our biggest challenges
Sue Wareham* ‘This government needs to stop militarising our biggest challenges‘, Canberra Times, 7 September 2020 (pdf from our subscription) Criticises the focus on using the Australian Defence Force to deal with domestic emergencies, including the current pandemic. The risk…
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Khaki all the way down: John Menadue and Bruce Haigh on Australian militarism
John Menadue’s website Pearls and Irritations continues to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. This week, Menadue himself posted a thoughtful piece, ‘Military and security agencies are eroding civil society‘. We are encouraged to celebrate the disastrous Gallipoli invasion…
Cashen, Phil: The White Australia Policy: always in the background
Phil Cashen ‘The White Australia Policy: always in the background‘, Shire at War, 28 July 2020 From down Alberton, Gippsland, Victoria way comes this detailed post from blogger-historian, Phil Cashen. It looks at the treatment of the White Australia Policy…
Collaery, Bernard: Oil under Troubled Water: Australia’s Timor Sea Intrigue
Bernard Collaery Oil under Troubled Water: Australia’s Timor Sea Intrigue, Melbourne University Press, 2020; electronic edition available In May 2018 Bernard Collaery, a former Attorney-General of the Australian Capital Territory and long-term legal counsel to the government of East Timor,…
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Broinowski, Alison: ‘A petroleum-intoxicated kleptocracy’: Bernard Collaery on Australia and Timor-Leste
Alison Broinowski* ‘“A petroleum-intoxicated kleptocracy”: Bernard Collaery on Australia and Timor-Leste’, Honest History, 4 August 2020 Alison Broinowski reviews Bernard Collaery’s, Oil under Troubled Water: Australia’s Timor Sea Intrigue ©Alison Broinowski 2020 In response to the ‘war on terror’, multiple…
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Stephens, David: From the Honest History vault: Three reviews of books on the black history of the wide brown land
David Stephens* From the Honest History vault: Three reviews of books on the black history of the wide brown land, Honest History, 28 June 2020 Black Lives Matter. Indigenous incarceration and deaths in custody at grossly disproportionate rates. Honest History…
Four posts from Pearls and Irritations, an excellent non-MSM blog
Just posted today on Pearls and Irritations is historian, Henry Reynolds, on some history currently hitting the headlines, noting among other things how graffiti on statues got more coverage in some corners of the media than the destruction of an…
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Three reads for a wet weekend – including a long read on the orange elephant in the room of 2020
Inside Story, The Conversation and the New York Review of Books. All part of the mainstream media, but regularly carrying well-written, substantial think pieces, riffing off current events, but always with current relevance. Inside Story has a piece by Norman…
Anthony, Thalia & Stephen Gray: Was there slavery in Australia? Yes. It shouldn’t even be up for debate
Thalia Anthony & Stephen Gray ‘Was there slavery in Australia? Yes. It shouldn’t even be up for debate‘, The Conversation, 11 June 2020 Comprehensive catalogue of slavery in Australia, with slavery being defined as by the United Nations. Article 1…
Edwards, Peter: Law, Politics and Intelligence: A Life of Robert Hope
Peter Edwards Law, Politics and Intelligence: A Life of Robert Hope, NewSouth, Sydney, 2020 Robert Marsden Hope (1919–99), a NSW Supreme Court judge, shaped the structures, operations and doctrines of Australia’s intelligence agencies more than any other individual. Commissioned by…
Broinowski, Alison: Hope of both sides
Alison Broinowski * ‘Hope of both sides’, Honest History, 12 June 2020 ©Alison Broinowski 2020 Alison Broinowski reviews Law, Politics and Intelligence: A Life of Robert Hope, by Peter Edwards Just when Ministers were taking advantage of the pandemic to…
Abjorensen, Norman: Before the triumphs and the tragedies
Norman Abjorensen ‘Before the triumphs and the tragedies‘, Inside Story, 2 June 2020 Review of Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin: The Making of the Modern Labor Party, by Liam Byrne. It was a time of intense political ferment [says…
Liddle, Celeste: Seeing the con in reconciliation
Celeste Liddle ‘Seeing the con in reconciliation‘, Eureka Street, 28 May 2020 Arrernte feminist writer on the annual disappointment of Reconciliation Week, which began on 27 May. Comments section is strong also. We don’t have ‘land rights’ [says Liddle], just…
High Court opens way to access to Queen-Kerr letters; now up to the National Archives
Update 16 June 2020: National Archives continues to delay. Update 3 June 2020: Chris Knaus in Guardian Australia on Archives’ disappointing first reaction. Update 2 June 2020: Daniel Sleiman in Eureka Street. Update 1 June 2020: Jenny Hocking in Pearls…
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Scrimgeour, Anne: On Red Earth Walking: The Pilbara Aboriginal Strike, Western Australia 1946–1949
Anne Scrimgeour On Red Earth Walking: The Pilbara Aboriginal Strike, Western Australia 1946–1949, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2020 The book is reviewed for Honest History by Rolf Gerritsen. Other reviews: Kathy Gollan in Newtown Review of Books; Jan Richardson in…
Gerritsen, Rolf: A tour de force investigation of Indigenous and labour history
Rolf Gerritsen* ‘A tour de force investigation of Indigenous and labour history’, Honest History, 12 May 2020 Rolf Gerritsen reviews On Red Earth Walking: The Pilbara Aboriginal Strike, Western Australia 1946-1949, by Anne Scrimgeour This history is the product of…
Wareham, Sue: Prioritising health
Sue Wareham ‘Prioritising health‘, Pearls and Irritations, 11 May 2020 Global military spending continues to rise. Critical health goals could be achieved for a fraction of what we spend on wars. Focussing funding on health rather than military spending, globally…
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Smaal, Yorick & Mark Finnane: Diggers doing time? Australian courts martial 1914-19
Yorick Smaal & Mark Finnane* ‘Diggers doing time? Australian courts martial 1914-19’, Honest History, 30 April 2020 [Note: The authors are seeking help from volunteer citizen historians. See the endnote. HH] From 1916, Anzac Day was commemorated to remember the…
Stephens, David: Book received: Democratic Adventurer: Graham Berry and the Making of Australian Politics, by Sean Scalmer
David Stephens ‘Book received: Democratic Adventurer: Graham Berry and the Making of Australian Politics, by Sean Scalmer’, Honest History, 19 April 2020 updated This new hardback from Monash University Publishing promises to be a detailed ‘life and times’ of an…
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Irving, Terry: The Fatal Lure of Politics: The Life and Thought of Vere Gordon Childe
Terry Irving The Fatal Lure of Politics: The Life and Thought of Vere Gordon Childe, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2020 Renowned Australian-born archaeologist and prehistorian Vere Gordon Childe (1892–1957) had a lifelong fascination with socialist politics. In his early life…
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Holt, Stephen: A genuine Aussie digger: Vere Gordon Childe 1892-1957
Stephen Holt* ‘A genuine Aussie digger: Vere Gordon Childe 1892-1957’, Honest History, 19 April 2020 Stephen Holt reviews The Fatal Lure of Politics: The Life and Thought of Vere Gordon Childe, by Terry Irving The Honest History project, since it…
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Bond, Catherine: Tyrannical power exercised untyrannically?
Catherine Bond ‘Tyrannical power exercised untyranically?‘ Inside Story, 1 April 2020 updated Law has always been crucial to Australia’s involvement in war, whether through existing defence legislation or new provisions designed to deal with a developing incident or conflict. Law…
Wareham, Sue: Healthcare not warfare
Sue Wareham ‘Healthcare not warfare‘, Pearls and Irritations, 6 April 2020 updated Update 11 May 2020: Sue Wareham on the need to prioritise health care over defence spending. Update 23 April 2020: Allan Behm in Guardian Australia argues for a…
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Fahy, Michelle: Brothers-in-Arms: the high-rotation revolving door between the Australian government and arms merchants
Michelle Fahy* ‘Brothers-in-Arms: the high-rotation revolving door between the Australian government and arms merchants‘, Michael West Media, 11 March 2020 A disturbing number of Australia’s military personnel, senior defence and intelligence officials and politicians leave their public service jobs and…
Ruby, Felicity: Silent partners: US bases in Australia
Felicity Ruby ‘Silent partners: US bases in Australia‘, Australian Foreign Affairs, Issue 8, February 2020, pp. 29-54 [T]here is very little public understanding or discussion of these bases, or their uses, or the way in which they have constrained Australian…
Hocking, Jenny: Archival secrets and hidden histories
Jenny Hocking ‘Archival secrets and hidden histories‘, Griffith Review 67: Matters of Trust, February 2020 Access is the pivot between archives and history; it is the filter through which an archival record steps out from a shadowy past and becomes…
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Smith, Zoe: ‘The Great Australian Silence’: Sexual violence in Australian history
Zoe Smith ‘“The Great Australian Silence”: Sexual violence in Australian history‘, History Matters (University of Sheffield), 5 February 2020 From the first establishment of European settlements in Australia, forced sexual relations perpetrated by white settlers have remained relatively unspoken about…
Fahy, Michelle: Selling arms with impunity
Michelle Fahy ‘Selling arms with impunity‘, Pearls and Irritations, 30 January 2020 updated Detailed piece by a researcher into the arms trade. Covers: government funding for Australian arms exports; role of federal, state and local governments; developments in the United…
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Stephens, David: War Memorial picks up ‘small change’ donations from military industries
David Stephens* ‘War Memorial picks up “small change” donations from military industries’, Honest History, 28 January 2020 updated Over the years, Honest History has closely followed the donations the Australian War Memorial receives from the military industries, the manufacturers of…
Seccombe, Mike: All up in arms: close ties between government and military industries
Mike Seccombe ‘All up in arms: close ties between government and military industries‘, Saturday Paper, 25-31 January 2020 (paywall; full copy from the paper we bought!) Weaves together themes related to what has come to be called ‘the military-industrial-commemorative complex’:…
From the Honest History vault: Anachronism in Canberra as Department of Veterans’ Affairs survives machinery of government changes
Update 12 February 2020: Darren Chester MP remains as Minister, though now in Cabinet and with the title of ‘Veterans’ Affairs’ again, rather than ‘Veterans’, as he had been since May. The Prime Minister has announced machinery of government changes…
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Farrelly, Elizabeth: Dull, wasteful and overblown – is this the best Australia can do?
Elizabeth Farrelly ‘Dull, wasteful and overblown – is this the best Australia can do?‘, Age, 30 November 2019 Architecture critic and commentator looks at the expansion plans for the Australian War Memorial against a backdrop of consideration of Canberra’s planning:…
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Abjorensen, Norman: Cometh the hour, cometh the leader?
Norman Abjorensen ‘Cometh the hour, cometh the leader?‘ Inside Story, 18 November 2019 Marks the release of an updated edition of the author’s The Manner of Their Going: Prime Ministerial Exits in Australia. (Michael Piggott reviewed the first edition of…
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Tanter, Richard: Pine Gap history – dogged by censorship and dereliction of duty
Richard Tanter ‘Pine Gap history – dogged by censorship and dereliction of duty‘, Pearls and Irritations, 14 November 2019 Melbourne University academic and peace activist, Richard Tanter, looks at a release of heavily redacted official papers relating to Pine Gap.…
Macklin, Robert: Castaway: The Extraordinary Survival story of Narcisse Pelletier, a Young French Cabin Boy Shipwrecked on Cape York in 1858
Robert Macklin Castaway: The Extraordinary Survival story of Narcisse Pelletier, a Young French Cabin Boy Shipwrecked on Cape York in 1858, Hachette, Sydney, 2019 In 1858, fourteen-year-old French cabin boy Narcisse Pelletier was aboard the trader Saint-Paul when it was wrecked off…
Flora, Steve: Robert Macklin’s Castaway is an interesting and informative read in a modest-sized, though wide-ranging, book
Steve Flora* ‘Robert Macklin’s Castaway is an interesting and informative read in a modest-sized, though wide-ranging, book’, Honest History, 10 September 2019 Steve Flora reviews Castaway: The Extraordinary Survival story of Narcisse Pelletier, a Young French Cabin Boy Shipwrecked on…
Gilling, Tom: Project Rainfall: The Secret History of Pine Gap
Tom Gilling Project Rainfall: The Secret History of Pine Gap, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2019; electronic version available Pine Gap is a top secret American spy base on Australian soil, but how much do we really know about it? At…
Broinowski, Richard: Pine Gap, part of the United States war machine, should not be a non-issue in Australia
Richard Broinowski* ‘Pine Gap, part of the United States war machine, should not be a non-issue in Australia’, Honest History, 9 September 2019 Richard Broinowski reviews Tom Gilling’s Project Rainfall: The Secret History of Pine Gap In his 1980 book…
Toohey, Brian: Secret: The Making of Australia’s Security State
Brian Toohey Secret: The Making of Australia’s Security State, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2019 Elected governments pose the greatest threat to Australians’ security. Political leaders increasingly promote secrecy, ignorance and fear to introduce new laws that undermine individual liberties and…
Broinowski, Alison: State of insecurity: how government secrecy preserves power and conceals stuff-ups
Alison Broinowski* ‘State of insecurity: how government secrecy preserves power and conceals stuff-ups’, Honest History, 3 September 2019 Alison Broinowski reviews Secret: The Making of Australia’s Security State, by Brian Toohey If you’re old enough to remember the National Times…
Willheim, Ernst: The saga of Bernard Collaery and Witness K continues
Ernst Willheim ‘The saga of Bernard Collaery and Witness K continues‘, Pearls and Irritations, 28 August 2019 updated Extensive notes for a speech given to the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Canberra, 27 August. [The speech] is about Australian commercial…
Quiggin, John: Forget the generation gap – the gulf between rich and poor tells the real story of our times
John Quiggin ‘Forget the generation gap – the gulf between rich and poor tells the real story of our times‘, Guardian Australia, 26 August 2019 Commentary on a Grattan Institute study of the generation gap and ensuring a ‘fair go’…
Davidson, Jared: Dead Letters: Censorship and Subversion in New Zealand 1914-20
Jared Davidson Dead Letters: Censorship and Subversion in New Zealand 1914-20, Otago University Press, Dunedin, 2019 Intimate and engaging, this dramatic narrative weaves together the personal and political, bringing to light the reality of wartime censorship. In an age of growing…
McLeod, John: State surveillance in Great War New Zealand
John McLeod* ‘State surveillance in Great War New Zealand’, Honest History , 14 August 2019 John McLeod reviews Jared Davidson’s Dead Letters: Censorship and Subversion in New Zealand 1914-20 Jared Davidson’s Dead Letters reveals the history of postal censorship in…
Broinowski, Richard: “How to Defend Australia” is an important wake-up call
Richard Broinowski ‘“How to Defend Australia” is an important wake-up call‘, Australian Outlook, 14 July 2019 updated Hugh White’s latest book How to Defend Australia is reviewed by former senior diplomat, Richard Broinowski AO. ‘Hugh White should be praised’, says…
Scappatura, Vince: The US Lobby and Australian Defence Policy
Vince Scappatura The US Lobby and Australian Defence Policy, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2019 Australian society and its leaders generally take for granted the importance and value of this nation’s relationship with the United States. The US is commonly thought…
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Broinowski, Alison: Unreliable protection from unnecessary enemies: Scappatura on the US Lobby and us
Alison Broinowski* ‘Unreliable protection from unnecessary enemies: Scappatura on the US Lobby and us’, Honest History, 25 June 2019 Alison Broinowski reviews Vince Scappatura, The US Lobby and Australian Defence Policy A blast of fresh air blew through the Australian…
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Megarrity, Lyndon: The Whitlam connection: local government in the Hawke era
Lyndon Megarrity ‘The Whitlam connection: local government in the Hawke era‘, Government News, 27 May 2019 ‘Hawke and Whitlam were different in many ways, but they were united in their support for local government’s role in the federal system and…
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Sheehan, Mark J., ed.: Advocates and Persuaders
Mark J. Sheehan, ed. Advocates and Persuaders, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2019; electronic version available The authors of Advocates and Persuaders aim to demystify the political practice of lobbying. They believe that lobbying has a significant role to play in a healthy…
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Warhurst, John: Case studies on the role of pressure groups, lobbyists and public relations people in our democracy
John Warhurst* ‘Case studies on the role of pressure groups, lobbyists and public relations people in our democracy’, Honest History, 20 May 2019 John Warhurst reviews Mark J. Sheehan, ed., Advocates and Persuaders Advocates and persuaders, also known as peak…
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Myrtle, John: “A man of intriguing contradictions”: Edward St John and the South Africa Defence and Aid Fund
John Myrtle* ‘”A man of intriguing contradictions”: Edward St John and the South Africa Defence and Aid Fund’, Honest History, 17 May 2019 Edward St John QC, a prominent Sydney barrister and human rights campaigner, was a founding member and…
Hardie, Elsbeth: The Passage of the Damned: What Happened to the Men and Women of the Lady Shore Mutiny
Elsbeth Hardie The Passage of the Damned: What Happened to the Men and Women of the Lady Shore Mutiny, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2019 In an extraordinary move, in 1797, the British government pressed a small group of French and…
Flora, Steve: Story of 1797 mutiny is a work in search of an identity
Steve Flora* ‘Story of 1797 mutiny is a work in search of an identity’, Honest History, 13 May 2019 updated Steve Flora reviews Elsbeth Hardie’s The Passage of the Damned: What Happened to the Men and Women of the Lady…
Duffy, Michael & Nick Hordern: World War Noir: Sydney’s Unpatriotic War
Michael Duffy & Nick Hordern World War Noir: Sydney’s Unpatriotic War, NewSouth, Sydney, 2019 It seems that not even world war could stop crime in Sydney. In fact, World War Noir confirms that war and crime — in the form of…
Pender, Margaret: Refuting the War Memorial view of Australia’s World War II – or, at least Sydney’s
Margaret Pender* ‘Refuting the War Memorial view of Australia’s World War II – or, at least Sydney’s’, Honest History, 5 May 2019 Margaret Pender reviews World War Noir: Sydney’s Unpatriotic War, by Michael Duffy and Nick Hordern World War Noir: Sydney’s…
Parliamentary committee recommends national resting place for Indigenous remains – but resists temptation to push hard for corporate dollars for national institutions
Update 20 May 2019: Paul Daley in Guardian Australia makes a useful comparison. Update 17 April 2019: Gina Fairley in ArtsHub comments. Update 5 April 2019: Canberra Times story on the puzzlement of MOADOPH on what the report said about…
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ABC RN Late Night Live: Everyone loves Trove
ABC RN ‘Everyone loves Trove‘, Late Night Live, 20 March 2019 Phillip Adams talks to Liz Stainforth, visiting researcher from the UK, and Alison Dellit, National Library officer in charge of Trove, described as a ‘digital heritage aggregator, which is…
Abbott, Derek: Giving practical effect to good intentions: Australian volunteers at work
Derek Abbott* ‘Giving practical effect to good intentions: Australian volunteers at work’, Honest History, 24 March 2019 Derek Abbott reviews Peter Britton’s Working for the World: The Evolution of Australian Volunteers International Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) delivering services on behalf of,…
Britton, Peter: Working for the World: The Evolution of Australian Volunteers International
Peter Britton Working for the World: The Evolution of Australian Volunteers International, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2019 Since 1951 thousands of volunteers from all over Australia have worked in developing countries across the world. This is the story of the…
Brett, Judith: From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia got Compulsory Voting
Judith Brett From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia got Compulsory Voting, Text, Melbourne, 2019; electronic version available It’s compulsory to vote in Australia. We are one of a handful of countries in the world that enforce this rule…
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Jones, Benjamin T.: Australia’s national heroes of the electoral system again show there is more to us than Anzac
Benjamin T. Jones* ‘Australia’s national heroes of the electoral system again show there is more to us than Anzac’, Honest History, 13 March 2019 Benjamin T. Jones reviews Judith Brett’s From Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage: How Australia got Compulsory…
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Arrow, Michelle: The Seventies: The Personal, the Political and the Making of Modern Australia
Michelle Arrow The Seventies: The Personal, the Political and the Making of Modern Australia, NewSouth, Sydney, 2019; electronic version available In 1970 homosexuality was illegal, God Save the Queen was our national anthem and women pretended to be married to access the…
Daley, Paul: As the toll of Australia’s frontier brutality keeps climbing, truth telling is long overdue
Paul Daley ‘As the toll of Australia’s frontier brutality keeps climbing, truth telling is long overdue‘, Guardian Australia, 4 March 2019 updated Major article on our continuing neglect of killings of Indigenous Australians from 1788 till at least 1928. Examines…
Fahey, John: Australia’s First Spies: The Remarkable Story of Australia’s Intelligence Operations, 1901-45
John Fahey Australia’s First Spies: The Remarkable Story of Australia’s Intelligence Operations, 1901-45, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2018; available electronically The first systematic account of Australian intelligence operations in the early 20th century offers fascinating new insights into Australian politics…
Blaxland, John: Intelligence as an arm of government in peace and war
John Blaxland* ‘Intelligence as an arm of government in peace and war’, Honest History, 4 March 2019 John Blaxland reviews John Fahey’s Australia’s First Spies: The Remarkable Story of Australia’s Intelligence Operations, 1901-45 John Fahey’s Australia’s First Spies is indeed,…
Crowe, Shaun: Whitlam’s Children: Labor and the Greens in Australia
Shaun Crowe Whitlam’s Children: Labor and the Greens in Australia, MUP Academic, Melbourne, 2018; electronic version available Over the past three decades, progressive politics in Australia has undergone a gradual but unmistakable transformation. Where the Australian Labor Party once enjoyed…
Warhurst, John: Whitlam’s Children is lively, well-written and well-researched
John Warhurst* ‘Whitlam’s Children is lively, well-written and well-researched’, Honest History, 20 February 2019 Shaun Crowe’s Whitlam’s Children: Labor and the Greens in Australia is reviewed by John Warhurst When Gough Whitlam died in October 2014 his memory was claimed…
Edwards, John: John Curtin’s War (Volumes I and II)
John Edwards John Curtin’s War: Volume I, Penguin Random House, Sydney, 2017; Volume II, Penguin Random House, Sydney, 2018; also available electronically Using much new material John Edwards’ vivid, landmark biography places Curtin as a man of his times, puzzling…
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Soutphommasane, Tim: Why being an Australian citizen doesn’t mean others will believe you truly belong
Tim Soutphommasane ‘Why being an Australian citizen doesn’t mean others will believe you truly belong‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 10 February 2019 The ideal of White Australia was seminal and for all the success of Australian multiculturalism, we remain conditioned by…
Stephens, David: John Curtin’s War leaves questions unanswered, despite John Edwards’ best efforts
David Stephens* ‘John Curtin’s War leaves questions unanswered, despite John Edwards’ best efforts’, Honest History, 12 February 2019 David Stephens reviews John Curtin’s War (Volumes I and II) by John Edwards John Curtin has over the years become the Mount…
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Holbrook, Carolyn: Failure to attach: Australians and their Federation
Carolyn Holbrook ‘Failure to attach: Australians and their Federation: History and Policy Conference, King’s College, London, 17 December 2018‘, Soundcloud The Australian federation was hailed as a beacon of democratic governance at the time of its establishment in 1901—a cutting-edge…
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Bromfield, Nicholas: The genre of Prime Ministerial Anzac Day addresses, 1973–2016
Nicholas Bromfield ‘The genre of Prime Ministerial Anzac Day addresses, 1973–2016‘, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 64, 1, March 2018, pp. 81-97 Statistical analysis based on the author’s PhD thesis. Includes some interesting insights. The last quarter of a…
George, Denise: Mary Lee: The Life and Times of a “Turbulent Anarchist” and Her Battle for Women’s Rights
Denise George Mary Lee: The Life and Times of a “Turbulent Anarchist” and Her Battle for Women’s Rights, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2018 Suffragist and social justice advocate Mary Lee was determined to leave the world a better place than she…
Burton, Pamela: Mary Lee: a turbulent anarchist in late 19th century Adelaide
Pamela Burton* ‘Mary Lee: a turbulent anarchist in late 19th century Adelaide’, Honest History, 27 January 2019 Pamela Burton reviews Mary Lee: The Life and Times of a “Turbulent Anarchist” and Her Battle for Women’s Rights, by Denise George This…
Humphrey McQueen and Celeste Liddle – and lots of others – on Australia Day
Here is a link to a piece by Humphrey McQueen just published in Overland (though a version of it appeared two years ago on the Honest History site). McQueen takes a fresh approach to the long-running issues surrounding Australia Day.…
Ashenden, Dean: Saving the War Memorial from itself
Dean Ashenden ‘Saving the War Memorial from itself‘, Inside Story, 15 January 2019 updated Long article canvassing many aspects of the War Memorial’s current direction, from its refusal to recognise the Frontier Wars, to the composition of its Council, and…
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Stretton, Hugh: ‘I am here to barrack for more historical education’: how to use history
Hugh Stretton ‘”I am here to barrack for more historical education”: how to use history’, Honest History, 19 December 2018 updated Hugh Stretton (1924-2015) was one of Australia’s most distinguished social scientists. Hugh Stretton: Selected Writings, edited by Graeme Davison,…
Davis, Glen: By-law 418: an episode in the anti-Vietnam War movement in Victoria
Glen Davis* ‘By-law 418: an episode in the anti-Vietnam War movement in Victoria’, Honest History, 17 December 2018 We are approaching the 50th anniversary (9 April 2019) of the successful campaign to defeat by-law 418. This campaign of civil disobedience…
Jones, Benjamin T., Frank Bongiorno & John Uhr, ed.: Elections Matter: Ten Federal Elections that Shaped Australia
Benjamin T. Jones, Frank Bongiorno & John Uhr, ed. Elections Matter: Ten Federal Elections that Shaped Australia, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2018 Taking ten examples, this book argues that elections do matter (even when it seems they don’t). It is…
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Abjorensen, Norman: Whether elections matter is a complex and ambiguous issue – as a consideration of this quirky collection discloses
Norman Abjorensen* ‘Whether elections matter is a complex and ambiguous issue – as a consideration of this quirky collection discloses’, Honest History, 9 December 2018 Norman Abjorensen reviews Elections Matter: Ten Federal Elections that Shaped Australia, edited by Benjamin T.…
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Stephens, David: If the Australian War Memorial holds ‘the soul of the nation’ why is the Memorial Council so full of brass?
David Stephens ‘If the Australian War Memorial holds “the soul of the nation” why is the Memorial Council so full of brass?’, Honest History, 28 November 2018 updated The Director of the Australian War Memorial, Dr Brendan Nelson, often tells…
Byrne, Frank with Frances Coughlan and Gerard Waterford: Living in Hope
Frank Byrne with Frances Coughlan and Gerard Waterford Living in Hope, Ptilotus Press, Alice Springs, 2017 A memoir of boyhood by a man who was removed as a child – from country, from culture and language, from family, from his…
Stephens, David: Out of the great Australian silence: Frank Byrne’s Stolen Generations story
David Stephens* ‘Out of the great Australian silence: Frank Byrne’s Stolen Generations story’, Honest History, 22 November 2018 David Stephens reviews Living in Hope, by Frank Byrne with Frances Coughlan and Gerard Waterford. The book is the winner of the Small…
Stephens, David: Another wrinkle on why the Australian War Memorial will not commemorate the Frontier Wars: in 2013 it offloaded the job to the other end of Canberra’s lake
David Stephens ‘Why the Australian War Memorial will not commemorate the Frontier Wars: in 2013 it offloaded the job to the other end of Canberra’s lake – plus some statutory sleight of hand’, Honest History, 19 November 2018 updated Senator…
Stephens, David: War Memorial comes clean – sort of – about the help it receives from arms dealers Northrop Grumman and Raytheon
David Stephens ‘War Memorial comes clean – sort of – about the help it receives from arms dealers Northrop Grumman and Raytheon’, Honest History, 18 November 2018 updated A short while ago we pointed to what looked like an error…
Stephens, David: Did the War Memorial deliberately mislead the Parliament about the money it gets from arms companies – or is it just careless about accountability?
David Stephens* ‘Did the War Memorial deliberately mislead the Parliament about the money it gets from arms companies – or is it just careless about accountability?’ Honest History, 26 October 2018 Update 18 November 2018: the War Memorial provides an…
Fahy, Michelle: Invictus Games, glossing over inconvenient truths – the arms trade and the British royals
Michelle Fahy ‘Invictus Games, glossing over inconvenient truths – the arms trade and the British royals‘, Pearls and Irritations, 19 October 2018 updated Michelle Fahy from Medical Association for Prevention of War provides a forensic analysis of the links between…
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Fernandes, Clinton: Island off the Coast of Asia: Instruments of Statecraft in Australian Foreign Policy
Clinton Fernandes Island off the Coast of Asia: Instruments of Statecraft in Australian Foreign Policy, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2018 Island off the Coast of Asia: Instruments of Statecraft in Australian Foreign Policy is an unprecedented 230-year Australian study that reveals…
Broinowski, Alison: Is Australia’s foreign and defence policy machinery broken beyond repair?
Alison Broinowski* ‘Is Australia’s foreign and defence policy machinery broken beyond repair?’ Honest History, 17 October 2018 Alison Broinowski reviews Clinton Fernandes, Island off the Coast of Asia: Instruments of Statecraft in Australian Foreign Policy Australia’s fundamental interests have endured…
Holt, Stephen: Is Ordinary Joe our most forgotten PM?
Stephen Holt ‘Is Ordinary Joe our most forgotten PM?‘ Canberra City News, 3 October 2018 In this article, Canberra (indeed Belconnen, Canberra) writer, Stephen Holt, presents Joseph Cook, Australia’s prime minister for 16 months in 1913-14, later Minister for the…
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Lydon, Jane & Lyndall Ryan, ed.: Remembering the Myall Creek Massacre
Jane Lydon & Lyndall Ryan, ed. Remembering the Myall Creek Massacre, NewSouth, Sydney, 2018; electronic version available The 1838 Myall Creek Massacre is remembered for the brutality of the crime committed by white settlers against innocent Aboriginal men, women and…
Goreng Goreng, Tjanara: A powerful remembrance of the Myall Creek massacre and of all that is reprehensible about the colonisation of Australia
Tjanara Goreng Goreng* ‘A powerful remembrance of the Myall Creek massacre and of all that is reprehensible about the colonisation of Australia’, Honest History, 16 October 2018 Tjanara Goreng Goreng reviews Remembering the Myall Creek Massacre, edited by Jane Lydon…
Wakeling, Adam: Stern Justice: The Forgotten Story of Australia, Japan and the Pacific War Crimes Trials
Adam Wakeling Stern Justice: The Forgotten Story of Australia, Japan and the Pacific War Crimes Trials, Penguin Viking, Melbourne, 2018; e-book available While the Nuremberg trials at the end of the Second World War are infamous, as are the atrocities…
Burton, Pamela: Stern justice not without controversy: Japanese war crimes trials after World War II
Pamela Burton* ‘Stern justice not without controversy: Japanese war crimes trials after World War II’, Honest History, 12 October 2018 Pamela Burton reviews Stern Justice: The Forgotten Story of Australia, Japan and the Pacific War Crimes Trials, by Adam Wakeling…
Morrissey, Doug: Ned Kelly: Selectors, Squatters and Stock Thieves
Doug Morrissey Ned Kelly: Selectors, Squatters and Stock Thieves, Connor Court Publishing, Brisbane, 2018 Doug Morrissey’s acclaimed book Ned Kelly: A Lawless Life (2015) was short listed for the prestigious Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Australian History in 2016. This, his second…
Piggott, Michael: Flourishing myths and the weight of evidence: Ned Kelly again
Michael Piggott* ‘Flourishing myths and the weight of evidence: Ned Kelly again’, Honest History, 12 October 2018 Doug Morrissey’s Ned Kelly: Selectors, Squatters and Stock Thieves is reviewed by Michael Piggott Doug Morrissey’s new book has several preliminaries. As well…
Bell, Diane: Clare Wright’s You Daughters of Freedom is a Big Book about Big Ideas
Diane Bell* ‘Clare Wright’s You Daughters of Freedom is a Big Book about Big Ideas’, Honest History, 7 October 2018 Diane Bell reviews You Daughters of Freedom: The Australians Who Won the Vote and Inspired the World: Democracy Trilogy, Book…
Wright, Clare: You Daughters of Freedom: The Australians Who Won the Vote and Inspired the World: Democracy Trilogy, Book Two
Clare Wright You Daughters of Freedom: The Australians Who Won the Vote and Inspired the World: Democracy Trilogy, Book Two, Text, Melbourne, 2018 For the ten years from 1902, when Australia’s suffrage campaigners won the vote for white women, the…
Broinowski, Richard: Is Asia closer to war than at any time in recent history – and do we care enough about this?
Richard Broinowski* ‘Is Asia closer to war than at any time in recent history – and do we care enough about this?’ Honest History, 28 September 2018 Richard Broinowski reviews The Four Flashpoints: How Asia Goes to War, by Brendan…
Taylor, Brendan: The Four Flashpoints: How Asia Goes to War
Brendan Taylor The Four Flashpoints: How Asia Goes to War, La Trobe University Press/Black Inc., Melbourne, 2018 In this revelatory analysis, geopolitical expert Brendan Taylor examines the four Asian flashpoints most likely to erupt in sudden and violent conflict: the…
Stephens, David: It’s a cultural thing – isn’t it?
David Stephens ‘It’s a cultural thing – isn’t it?‘ Inside Story, 5 September 2018 A parliamentary inquiry seems to be carefully avoiding the real challenge for Australia’s national museums, archives and libraries … [The inquiry by the Joint Committee on…
Megarrity, Lyndon: Northern Dreams: The Politics of Northern Development in Australia
Lyndon Megarrity Northern Dreams: The Politics of Northern Development in Australia, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2018 Northern Dreams brings to life the passionate arguments about Northern Australia’s national significance and analyses the political debates that have periodically drawn the public’s…
Gerritsen, Rolf: An essential and well-timed volume on the development of northern Australia
Rolf Gerritsen* ‘An essential and well-timed volume on the development of northern Australia’, Honest History, 3 September 2018 Rolf Gerritsen reviews Lyndon Megarrity’s Northern Dreams: The Politics of Northern Development in Australia We are nearing the institutional fag end of…
Flanagan, Richard: The world is being undone before us. If we do not reimagine Australia, we will be undone too
Richard Flanagan ‘The world is being undone before us. If we do not reimagine Australia, we will be undone too‘, Guardian Australia, 5 August 2018 Speech at Garma festival, NT, by distinguished author. (Over 500 comments at time of this…
Whish-Wilson, Senator Peter: Ten questions for Brendan Nelson, speaking on Friday at the Tamar Valley Peace Festival
Senator Peter Whish-Wilson* ‘Ten questions for Brendan Nelson, speaking on Friday at the Tamar Valley Peace Festival’, Honest History, 1 August 2018 updated This article is posted as a contribution to public debate. These issues are also canvassed elsewhere on…
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Douglas, Bob: What will it take to restore governance to its rightful owners?
Bob Douglas ‘What will it take to restore governance to its rightful owners?’, Pearls and Irritations, 26 July 2018 Around the world, and also here in Australia, voters are turning away from the political process, alarmed at the capture of…
Keating, Michael: The future Budget outlook – a comment on the Parliamentary Budget Office report on trends affecting the sustainability of Commonwealth taxes
Michael Keating ‘The future Budget outlook – a comment on the Parliamentary Budget Office report on trends affecting the sustainability of Commonwealth taxes‘, Pearls and Irritations, 24 July 2018 The independent Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) has released a report on…
Morris, Shireen: The Uluru Statement from the Heart: why I have hope
Shireen Morris ‘The Uluru Statement from the Heart: why I have hope‘, Legal Affairs (University of Melbourne), 19 July 2018 The Uluru Statement created a massive political opportunity that is not going away. The opportunity remains alive and growing –…
Gullibility on steroids? An Australian precedent for politicians believing – or pretending to believe – what Moscow tells them
We posted this in February 2017 in response to a previous protestation by President Trump about what the Russians had been doing and when they had been doing it. It’s well worth running again. Update 20 July 2018: the story…
Jones, Benjamin T.: Where does Mark Latham sit among Labor rats?
Benjamin T. Jones ‘Where does Mark Latham sit among Labor rats?‘ Independent Australia, 13 July 2018 Historical survey from 1911 through Hughes, Lyons, Lang and the Groupers, with a few more mentioned in the comments from readers. ‘Contrary to [Graham]…
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Morrissey, Douglas: Stringybark Creek and Glenrowan still resonate but can we ever hit the right note? Ned Kelly movies considered
Douglas Morrissey* ‘Stringybark Creek and Glenrowan still resonate but can we ever hit the right note? Ned Kelly movies considered’, Honest History, 9 July 2018 Recently, there has been an abundance of enthusiastic moviemakers wanting to make films about Ned…
Whiteford, Peter: Good times, bad times
Peter Whiteford ‘Good times, bad times‘, Inside Story, 5 July 2018 Looks at recent evidence of growing inequality in Australia, mostly driven by gains among the highest earners. There is little doubt that inequality is worse now than it was…
Bongiorno, Frank: From “Toby Tosspot” to “Mr Harbourside Mansion”, personal insults are an Australian tradition
Frank Bongiorno ‘From “Toby Tosspot” to “Mr Harbourside Mansion”, personal insults are an Australian tradition‘, The Conversation, 29 June 2018 ‘Political name-calling and insults are sometimes like water off a duck’s back. But others can stick.’ A useful survey. Frank…
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Broinowski, Alison: Australia, 2018: Lies, cover-ups and suppression of free speech
Alison Broinowski ‘Australia, 2018: Lies, cover-ups and suppression of free speech‘, Independent Australia, 20 June 2018 Honest History’s vice president summarises the current state and recent history of freedom in the wide brown land whose young men died in the…
Ryan, Lyndall: The Sydney Wars 1788-1817: mythbusting around the Harbour and the Hawkesbury
Lyndall Ryan* ‘The Sydney Wars 1788-1817: mythbusting around the Harbour and the Hawkesbury’, Honest History, 19 June 2018 Lyndall Ryan reviews The Sydney Wars: Conflict in the Early Colony, 1788-1817 by Stephen Gapps It seems extraordinary that, after 230 years,…
Gapps, Stephen: The Sydney Wars: Conflict in the Early Colony, 1788-1817
Stephen Gapps The Sydney Wars: Conflict in the Early Colony, 1788-1817, NewSouth, Sydney, 2018 The Sydney Wars tells the history of military engagements between Europeans and Aboriginal Australians – described as “this constant sort of war” by one early colonist –…
Schultz, Julianne & Sandra Phillips, ed.: Griffith Review 60: First Things First
Julianne Schultz & Sandra Phillips, ed. Griffith Review 60: First Things First, April 2018 After more than two hundred years of largely unresolved disputes, Australia needs to hear the voices of Australia’s First Nations – and act on them. First…
McKenna, Mark: First Things First and finding a way through
Mark McKenna* ‘First Things First and finding a way through’, Honest History, 12 June 2018 Mark McKenna reviews Griffith Review 60: First Things First As editor Julianne Schultz explains in her introduction, ‘First Things First’ – a title suggested by…
Lambert, Michael: Review of Fair Share by Stephen Bell and Michael Keating: Part I; Part II
Michael Lambert ‘Review of Fair Share by Stephen Bell and Michael Keating; Part I; Part II‘, Pearls and Irritations, 28-29 May 2018 The coverage of topics [in the Bell-Keating book] is extensive. While its overall theme is exploring the mitigation…
Burden, Gemmia: The violent collectors who gathered Indigenous artefacts for the Queensland Museum
Gemmia Burden ‘The violent collectors who gathered Indigenous artefacts for the Queensland Museum‘, The Conversation, 28 May 2018 Detailed examination of the links between frontier violence and museum collecting. While there is no evidence of the museum being directly involved…
Stephens, David: War Memorial fundraising probe should come up with donations code of practice
David Stephens* ‘War Memorial fundraising probe should come up with donations code of practice’, Honest History, 29 May 2018 updated Update 10 June 2018: Toni Hassan in Fairfax with quotes from Director Nelson and Honest History spokesperson. Update 31 May…
Troughton, Geoffrey & Philip Fountain, ed.: Pursuing Peace in Godzone: Christianity and the Peace Tradition in New Zealand
Geoffrey Troughton & Philip Fountain, ed. Pursuing Peace in Godzone: Christianity and the Peace Tradition in New Zealand, Victoria University Press, Wellington, 2018 This is a book about how New Zealanders have been inspired by visions for peace. Focusing on…
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Hynd, Douglas: Is peace as interesting as war?
Douglas Hynd* ‘Is peace as interesting as war?’ Honest History, 23 May 2018 Douglas Hynd reviews Pursuing Peace in Godzone: Christianity and the Peace Tradition in New Zealand, edited by Geoffrey Troughton and Philip Fountain Towards the conclusion of Judith…
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Whyte, Sally: War Memorial should ditch weapons manufacturers: Anti war organisation
Sally Whyte ‘War Memorial should ditch weapons manufacturers: Anti war organisation‘, Canberra Times, 21 May 2018 updated Interview with Sue Wareham of Medical Association for Prevention of War (and one of Honest History’s distinguished supporters). Wareham discusses MAPW’s submission to…
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Taffe, Sue: A White Hot Flame: Mary Montgomerie Bennett – Author, Educator, Activist for Indigenous Justice
Sue Taffe A White Hot Flame: Mary Montgomerie Bennett – Author, Educator, Activist for Indigenous Justice, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2018 Mary Montgomerie Bennett (1881–1961) is an important but under-recognised figure in Australian history. A member of a successful squatting…
Burton, Pamela: A White Hot Flame: Mary Montgomerie Bennett – Author, Educator, Activist for Indigenous Justice
Pamela Burton* ‘This white hot flame burned bright’, Honest History, 19 May 2018 Pamela Burton reviews A White Hot Flame: Mary Montgomerie Bennett – Author, Educator, Activist for Indigenous Justice by Sue Taffe This well-researched biography of Mary Montgomerie Bennett…
Mitchell, Adrian: Peat Island: Dreaming and Desecration
Adrian Mitchell Peat Island: Dreaming and Desecration, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2018 For just over 100 years an institution for the mentally ill has stood on little Peat Island, in the lower Hawkesbury. It was decommissioned in 2010; quite empty now,…
Myrtle, John: Removing the cloak of mystery from an island in the Hawkesbury
John Myrtle* ‘Removing the cloak of mystery from an island in the Hawkesbury’, Honest History, 18 May 2018 Adrian Mitchell’s Peat Island: Dreaming and Desecration is reviewed by John Myrtle Anyone travelling by road or rail north from Sydney to…
Reynolds, Henry: The fighting retreat of the Anglo-Australians
Henry Reynolds ‘The fighting retreat of the Anglo-Australians‘, Pearls and Irritations, 16 May 2018 Anglo-Australian atavism is at the root of the recent moves for an upgraded Captain Cook Memorial and related stuff, the defence of Australia Day, and the…
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Daley, Paul: The National Picture: overwhelming reminder of wilful gaps in Australia’s history
Paul Daley ‘The National Picture: overwhelming reminder of wilful gaps in Australia’s history‘, Guardian Australia, 14 May 2018 Review of a new exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ‘The National Picture: the art of Tasmania’s Black War’. The…
Honest History’s submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Canberra’s National Institutions – and the proposed $500m extension to the Australian War Memorial
Note: This post has grown since it began and now covers two closely related matters: the Honest History submission to the parliamentary inquiry into Canberra’s national institutions; the proposed $500m extension of the Australian War Memorial – an underground project…
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Reynolds, Henry: Australia’s perpetual ‘war footing’
Henry Reynolds ‘Australia’s perpetual “war footing”‘, Pearls and Irritations, 7 May 2018 Riffs off a belligerent interview in 2013 by then Defence Minister, Senator David Johnston. [Johnston] clearly took it for granted that there was a need for Australian military…
Morrissey, Doug: The Irishness of Ned Kelly: romance and reality
Doug Morrissey* ‘The Irishness of Ned Kelly: romance and reality’, Honest History, 23 April 2018 Fenian martyr or common criminal? Ned Kelly is a celebrity in both the Australian and Irish republican canons of heroes. In Ireland, he is honoured…
Heiss, Anita, ed.: Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia
Anita Heiss, ed. Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2018 What is it like to grow up Aboriginal in Australia? This anthology, compiled by award-winning author Anita Heiss, showcases many diverse voices, experiences and stories in order to…
Stephens, David: This book about growing up Aboriginal in Australia is not just one for whitefellers of a certain age
David Stephens ‘This book about growing up Aboriginal in Australia is not just one for whitefellers of a certain age’, Honest History, 20 April 2018 David Stephens reviews Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia, edited by Anita Heiss It makes a…
Keating, Michael: Why Australia needs a stronger revenue base
Michael Keating ‘Why Australia needs a stronger revenue base‘, Pearls and Irritations, 19 April 2018 Former senior public servant stresses the importance of boosting the revenue base through taxation. Fundamentally the reason for taxation is to pay for the services…
Waller, Mike: The real problem with our banks – “it’s leverage, stupid”
Mike Waller ‘The real problem with our banks – “it’s leverage, stupid”‘, Pearls and Irritations, 10 April 2018 Former Australian Public Service senior official and BHP economist writes about banking issues. We are more than a decade on from the…
McKenna, Mark: Quarterly Essay 69: Moment of Truth: History and Australia’s Future
Mark McKenna Quarterly Essay 69: Moment of Truth: History and Australia’s Future, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2018; electronic version available Australia is on the brink of momentous change, but only if its citizens and politicians can come to new terms with…
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Piggott, Michael: Time for something from the heart, from and for all of us: Mark McKenna’s Quarterly Essay 69
Michael Piggott* ‘Time for something from the heart, from and for all of us: Mark McKenna’s Quarterly Essay 69’, Honest History, 10 April 2018 Michael Piggott reviews Mark McKenna’s Quarterly Essay 69: Moment of Truth: History and Australia’s Future Sixteen…
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Stephens, David: Brendan Nelson’s bunker and with cap in hand: contrasts in funding our national cultural institutions
David Stephens* ‘Brendan Nelson’s bunker and with cap in hand: contrasts in funding our national cultural institutions’, Honest History, 9 April 2018 updated Update 11 May 2018: Honest History’s submission to the JSCNET Inquiry into Canberra’s National Institutions The Director…
Daley, Paul: A $500m expansion of the war memorial is a reckless waste of money
Paul Daley ‘A $500m expansion of the war memorial is a reckless waste of money‘, Guardian Australia, 9 April 2018 Picks up the issue also canvassed by David Stephens of Honest History. Having spent more than half a billion dollars…
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Daley, Paul: Uluru, reconciliation and republic: a chance to reimagine Australia?
Paul Daley ‘Uluru, reconciliation and republic: a chance to reimagine Australia?‘ Guardian Australia, 4 April 2018 There is an awakening among constitutional progressives that perhaps the Australian republic ought not be so divorced from the cry out of Uluru last…
Gainsborough, Vance: Review note: Meanjin Autumn 2018: ‘the moral consequences of the things we do’
Vance Gainsborough* ‘Review note: Meanjin Autumn 2018: “the moral consequences of the things we do”‘, Honest History, 5 April 2018 Like all issues of this venerable but feisty publication, Meanjin Autumn 2018 has a lot of meaty content, so this…
Mills, Stephen: Dick Casey’s Forgotten People
Stephen Mills ‘Dick Casey’s Forgotten People‘, Inside Story, 25 February 2018 updated We missed this piece when it first came round but it is worth drawing attention to for its careful study of a notable piece of election year propaganda,…
Want to buy (or sell) some ‘Made in Australia’ military kit?
Following recent announcements about an increased Australian arms export drive, there has come to light online this interesting resource: the Australian Military Sales Catalogue 2018, Edition 2, published by the Australian Military Sales Office. This glossy document now includes ‘a…
Jones, Benjamin T.: This Time: Australia’s Republican Past and Future
Benjamin T. Jones This Time: Australia’s Republican Past and Future, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2018; e-book available In This Time, Benjamin T. Jones charts a path to an independent future. He reveals the fascinating early history of the Australian republican movement of…
Warhurst, John: Republican past – and invigorating present and future
John Warhurst ‘Republican past – and invigorating present and future’, Honest History, 23 March 2018 This Time: Australia’s Republican Past and Future by Benjamin T. Jones is reviewed by John Warhurst Ben Jones represents the next generation of Australian republicans…
Robison, Richard: Why the Coalition, conservatives and big business are terrified by Emma Alberici
Richard Robison ‘Why the Coalition, conservatives and big business are terrified by Emma Alberici‘, Independent Australia, 2 March 2018 update A further contribution to the debate on ABC economics correspondent Emma Alberici’s analysis of Australia’s corporate tax system. (Our post…
Taflaga, Marija: The end of the era of mass politics?
Marija Taflaga ‘The end of the era of mass politics?‘, Inside Story, 26 February 2018 Historical look at the trajectory of the major parties in Australia. Healthy or not, our parties are here to stay. The combination of the preferential…
Schultz, Julianne & Jane Camens, ed.: Griffith Review 59: Commonwealth Now
Julianne Schultz & Jane Camens, ed. Griffith Review 59: Commonwealth Now, January 2018 At the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in April athletes from countries that were once a part of the British Empire will battle for gold –…
Abbott, Derek: Griffith Review 59: a timely survey of ‘Commonwealth Now’
Derek Abbott* ‘Griffith Review 59: a timely survey of “Commonwealth Now”’, Honest History, 28 February 2018 Derek Abbott reviews Griffith Review 59: Commonwealth Now, edited by Julianne Schultz and Jane Camens Given the current and continuing debates in this country…
Reynolds, Henry: A hundred years of mateship?
Henry Reynolds ‘A hundred years of mateship?‘ Pearls and Irritations, 27 February 2018 updated A passionate piece from veteran historian Henry Reynolds. I was astonished! An SBS news report about the Turnbull visit to Washington declared that the two countries…
New Deputy PM’s workload raises questions about treatment of Veterans’ Affairs, Centenary of Anzac and Defence Personnel: new Ministry list
Update 5 March 2018: new Ministry List released. Update 1 March 2018: Sorted. McCormack’s former jobs (and the ticket for Villers-Bretonneux in April) passed to Chester. Update 28 February 2018: Reports (for example, this one) circulating of a reshuffle of…
Abjorensen, Norman: Keeping the country in the coalition
Norman Abjorensen ‘Keeping the country in the coalition‘, Inside Story, 23 February 2018 Useful background to the current upheavals within and beyond the National Party. Regardless of how this latest conflict plays out, it is just another chapter in a…
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If Michael McCormack becomes Leader of the Nationals, there’ll be an opportunity to abolish Veterans’ Affairs
Update 26 February 2018: how it turned out. Michael McCormack: the last of the line? (Queensland Times) After a glitch a few days ago, Michael McCormack MP seems to be favourite to become Leader of the Nationals and Deputy Prime…
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Clarke, Patricia: Political journalist Joe Alexander: establishing Canberra’s heritage — Parliament, diplomacy and life in suburbia
Patricia Clarke* ‘Political journalist Joe Alexander: establishing Canberra’s heritage — Parliament, diplomacy and life in suburbia‘, Honest History, 23 February 2018 Originally a lecture to the ACT Heritage Symposium in August 2017. An exploration of the career of a significant…
Stephens, David: How does the tax-paying record of large Australian companies square with our much-vaunted Australian egalitarian ethos?
David Stephens ‘How does the tax-paying record of large Australian companies square with our much-vaunted Australian egalitarian ethos?’ Honest History, 18 February 2018 updated The ABC’s chief economics correspondent, Emma Alberici, this week put out some articles on the tax…
Latimore, Jack: The stolen generations apology anniversary should stand as a day of shame
Jack Latimore ‘The stolen generations apology anniversary should stand as a day of shame‘, Guardian Australia, 13 February 2018 The difficulty and reluctance in recognising the way this intergenerational trauma impacts upon the lives of First Nations people says a…
Broinowski, Alison: The trust deficit in Canberra
Alison Broinowski ‘The trust deficit in Canberra‘, Pearls and Irritations, 13 February 2018 Looks at the implications of the appointment of Admiral Harry B. Harris as United States Ambassador to Australia. The Prime Minister has said we are joined at…
Menadue, John: We are in denial about the risks in our relationship with the United States. Part 1 of 2
John Menadue ‘We are in denial about the risks in our relationship with the United States. Part 1 of 2′, Pearls and Irritations, 8 February 2018 updated We are a nation in denial that we are “joined at the hip”…
Broinowski, Alison: Is militarism in Australia’s DNA?
Alison Broinowski ‘Is militarism in Australia’s DNA?’ Pearls and Irritations, 6 February 2018 updated Australians who don’t live in other countries don’t realise how our self-image differs from the perception, particularly in Asia, that we were militarists from the start.…
Attwood, Bain: The Good Country: The Djadja Wurrung, The Settlers and the Protectors
Bain Attwood The Good Country: The Djadja Wurrung, the Settlers and the Protectors, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2017 A local history of the Djadja Wurrung people of Central Victoria, looking at the relationship between the people of this Aboriginal nation,…
Wilkie, Ben: Complex stories of the Djadja Wurrung in Victoria’s Good Country
Ben Wilkie* ‘Complex stories of the Djadja Wurrung in Victoria’s Good Country’, Honest History, 30 January 2018 Ben Wilkie reviews Bain Attwood’s The Good Country: The Djadja Wurrung, the Settlers, and the Protectors. Bain Attwood’s most recent book appears, at…
Broinowski, Alison: Murky wars and missions unaccomplished
Alison Broinowski ‘Murky wars and missions unaccomplished‘, Pearls and Irritations, 25 January 2018 This [Syria] longest war in Australia’s history is the latest in the list of foreign conflicts in which we have joined Americans, supposedly fighting communists or terrorists,…
Miller, Geoff: White Paper versus White’s paper: some questions about Australian policies
Geoff Miller ‘White Paper versus White’s paper: some questions about Australian policies‘, Pearls and Irritations, 23 January 2018 Former senior Australian diplomat compares the official government publication with the recent Quarterly Essay by Professor Hugh White. The former is essentially…
Repost of Humphrey McQueen 2017 on Australia Day – plus other material on this perennial but important set of issues
Update 8 February 2018: Paul Daley in Guardian Australia on what the confected fuss about flying the Indigenous flag on a large Sydney coathanger says about Australia 2018: It is regrettable that anything approaching public argument over such a fundamental…
Broinowski, Alison: Incorrigible Optimist review: Gareth Evans’ account of his public life
Alison Broinowski ‘Incorrigible Optimist review: Gareth Evans’ account of his public life‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 12 January 2018 This book was launched by Bob Hawke and has been widely reviewed. (See especially Norman Abjorensen in the Canberra Times and Jock…
Three angles on security – including a bit of quis custodiet ipsos custodes
‘Three angles on security – including a bit of “quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”‘, Honest History, 10 January 2018 The Latin tag, for those who don’t know it, means roughly ‘who will guard the guards themselves?’ and it was coined by…
The World Inequality Report 2018: latest word on an Honest History ‘special subject’
For the last three years, Honest History has tracked media (mainstream and not) articles and research-based reports on inequality, its multiple causes and manifestations. The Honest History Book also focused sharply on inequality, given what seemed to us to be…
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Bongiorno, Frank: An Iced Vovo and a broken heart
Frank Bongiorno ‘An Iced Vovo and a broken heart‘, Inside Story, 5 January 2018 Honest History president and ANU professor, Frank Bongiorno, reviews volume I of former PM Kevin Rudd’s autobiography. The two Rudd prime ministerships were probably not the…
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Going deep into international taxation: these issues have been around for a long time
Many readers (and viewers) will have been following the recent publicity about the large companies who avoid paying much tax – or, in some cases, any tax. Most recently, Labor frontbencher, Andrew Leigh, weighed in, and before him there were,…
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Patience, Allan: Confecting a new China hysteria
Allan Patience ‘Confecting a new China hysteria‘, Pearls and Irritations, 12 December 2017 Australia’s diplomacy with its Asian neighbours and contenders has always been awkward. In a similar manner to Britain’s awkward partnering with Europe, so Australia is Asia’s awkward…
A Nobel achievement, partly Australian, unsung by the Australian government: the Nobel Peace Prize goes to ICAN
ICAN (the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) has received its Nobel Peace Prize at a ceremony in Oslo. Margaret Beavis writes from the Medical Association for Prevention of War; Dr Beavis is an ICAN Board member. Also this from…
Stephens, David: Review note: Great Convict Stories by Graham Seal
David Stephens ‘Review note: Great Convict Stories by Graham Seal’, Honest History, 11 December 2017 This book contains about 85 little chunks of history (two to four pages each, mostly), bound into ten bundles, with seven to eleven chunks per…
Eureka 163rd anniversary: resources on the Honest History site
Yesterday, 3 December 2017, was the 163rd anniversary of the Eureka stockade skirmish, which marked the end of a brief uprising of goldminers at Ballarat, Victoria. At least 20 miners and six soldiers were killed. The Honest History site has…
The Australian banking Royal Commission of 1935-37: a precedent unlikely to be followed
Update 27 February 2018: Nicholas Gruen in Pearls and Irritations dives deep into the issues. Update 3 December 2017: Greg Jericho in Guardian Australia looks closely at the terms of reference this time around. And so does Kevin Davis in…
Bolton, Geoffrey: The Gluckman Affair 1960: a bystander’s view
Geoffrey Bolton ‘The Gluckman Affair 1960: a bystander’s view‘, Labour History Canberra, 16 November 2017 Max Gluckman (makinganthropologypublic) John Myrtle, Honest History volunteer, author of our Online Gems, retired librarian and facilitator of this article’s republication explains its provenance: In…
Farhart, Claudia: Give Peace a Chance
Claudia Farhart Give Peace a Chance, YouTube, 6 November 2017 A 50 minute documentary featuring interviews with Australian protesters against conscription and against the Vietnam War, interspersed with comments from academics and archival film. The interviews were collected by Larry…
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Steady as she goes or wait and see? Some (mostly) non-Main Stream Media views of the Foreign Policy White Paper
The Foreign Policy White Paper would not have escaped most reasonably alert people’s notice, even as there began the cricketing equivalent of the Battle of Brisbane though, in that case, the Australians’ antagonists were Americans. (That battle was 75 years…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (29): All at once – another conscription vote and news of Bolshevik revolution
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (29): All at once – another conscription vote and news of Bolshevik revolution’, Honest History, 9 November 2017 updated The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Another run at conscription The possibility of a second conscription referendum…
Butler, Richard: Iraq 2003: the fabricated war of choice
Richard Butler ‘Iraq 2003: the fabricated war of choice‘, Pearls and Irritations, 7 November 2017 Former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has revealed a report showing that US intelligence agencies knew Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction and…
Beavis, Margaret: US militarism: what are the costs to Australia?
Margaret Beavis ‘US militarism: what are the costs to Australia?‘, Pearls and Irritations, 31 October 2017 It is time to reflect on the close enmeshment of Australian and US foreign policy, and the real costs of such close military ties.…
Broinowski, Alison: A foreign affairs Alt-White Paper
Alison Broinowski ‘A foreign affairs Alt-White Paper‘, Independent Australia, 27 October 2017 Dr Broinowski suggests what should be in the foreign policy White Paper due for release soon. The themes are independence and innovation. For other material on this subject…
Brodie, Nick: The Vandemonian War
Nick Brodie The Vandemonian War, Hardie Grant, Melbourne, 2017; available electronically The Vandemonian War had many sides and shades, but it was fundamentally a war between the British colony of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) and the Aboriginal people who lived…
Shield, John: A Vandemonian war story passionately told
John Shield* ‘A Vandemonian war story passionately told’, Honest History, 29 October 2017 John Shield reviews The Vandemonian War by Nick Brodie If you were slightly unsure about this book and its subject matter before, Nick Brodie does everybody a…
Hocking, Jenny: ‘A royal green light’: The Palace, the Governor-General and the dismissal of the Whitlam Government
Jenny Hocking ‘“A royal green light”: the Palace, the Governor-General and the dismissal of the Whitlam Government‘, Pearls and Irritations, 23 October 2017 Contrary to the accepted story that the Queen was not involved in the dismissal of the Whitlam…
Morrissey, Doug: The heritage marketing of Ned Kelly
Doug Morrissey* ‘The heritage marketing of Ned Kelly‘, Honest History, 15 October 2017 updated Ned Kelly, hero or villain, put-upon Irish victim or psychopathic killer? These questions have been around for almost the whole time since Kelly was executed almost…
The heritage marketing of Ned Kelly
Doug Morrissey* ‘The heritage marketing of Ned Kelly’, Honest History, 15 October 2017 Mention Ned Kelly and everybody has an opinion. To many people, Ned is a hero, a champion of the poor man, the quintessential Aussie battler. To others,…
Tocsin magazine brings out another edition … and here’s an apposite poem from 1917
Honest History noted a little while ago the launch of Tocsin, a publication from the John Curtin Research Centre. The centre’s inaugural gala dinner happens to be tonight, addressed by the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten. Tocsin‘s second number…
Shield, John: Dylan Voller, Kinchela and a long history of silence
John Shield* ‘Dylan Voller, Kinchela and a long history of silence’, Honest History, 9 October 2017 On 17 November, the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory will deliver its final report. No doubt…
Beavis, Margaret: A Nobel Peace Prize born in Australia
Margaret Beavis ‘A Nobel Peace Prize born in Australia‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 7 October 2017 updated Discusses the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to an Australian-founded organisation. The winner of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, the International Campaign to…
Bowen, Chris; The case for engagement with Asia
Chris Bowen ‘The case for engagement with Asia‘ (speech to the Asia Society), Chris Bowen, 29 September 2017 updated Labor Shadow Treasurer says: Australia needs a step change in our economic relationship with Asia. Our economic relationship with Asia has…
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Higgins, Claire: Asylum by Boat: Origins of Australia’s Refugee Policy
Claire Higgins Asylum by Boat: Origins of Australia’s Refugee Policy, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2017 Claire Higgins’ [book] is driven by the question of how we moved from a humanitarian approach to policies of mandatory detention − including on remote islands…
Abjorensen, Norman: The art of being prime minister (review of Strangio, ’t Hart & Walter)
Norman Abjorensen ‘The art of being prime minister‘, Inside Story, 29 September 2017 Long review of Paul Strangio, Paul ’t Hart and James Walter, The Pivot of Power: Australian Prime Ministers and Political Leadership, 1949–2016, which is the second volume…
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Butler, Richard: The Alliance: the facts and the furphies
Richard Butler ‘The Alliance: the facts and the furphies‘, Pearls and Irritations, 19 September 2017 ‘A review of how we conduct our alliance relationship with the US is urgently required’, says the author, ‘not simply because it has elected a…
Political partisans: a conservative line of succession (culminating in Tony Abbott) and the Burkes of Perth
Two new books have hit the shelves. One is thicker than the other but both take the long view. They look at nominally different sides of politics, though readers of both books might suspect considerable overlap of views between the…
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Stephens, David: Carmen Lawrence’s 2006 book Fear and Politics is still very relevant more than a decade on
David Stephens ‘Carmen Lawrence’s 2006 book Fear and Politics is still very relevant more than a decade on’, Honest History, 19 September 2017 Carmen Lawrence is a professorial fellow in the School of Psychological Science at the University of Western…
Lloyd, Christopher: The roots and limitations of Australian progressivism
Christopher Lloyd* ‘The roots and limitations of Australian progressivism’, Honest History, 20 September 2017 updated This article is a response to Frank Bongiorno’s piece in The Conversation, ‘On marriage equality, Australia’s progressive instincts have been crushed by political failure’, in…
Torsh, Daniela & Max Humphreys: On Sydney Harbour with the prime minister of South Vietnam, 1967
Daniela Torsh & Max Humphreys ‘On Sydney Harbour with the prime minister of South Vietnam, 1967‘, Honest History, 19 September 2017 This extended interview transcript is provided as a primary source for readers interested in the history of protest in…
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On Sydney Harbour with the prime minister of South Vietnam, 1967: Daniela Torsh interviews Max Humphreys
‘On Sydney Harbour with the prime minister of South Vietnam, 1967: Daniela Torsh interviews Max Humphreys’[1], Honest History, 19 September 2017 Kirribilli House from the Harbour (Wikipedia/Stephen Bain) Daniela Torsh: So Max, I’ve got a question to start with: tell…
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Bongiorno, Frank: On marriage equality, Australia’s progressive instincts have been crushed by political failure
Frank Bongiorno ‘On marriage equality, Australia’s progressive instincts have been crushed by political failure’, The Conversation, 18 September 2017 In the context of the forthcoming postal survey, the author looks at aspects of the history of sexuality in Australia. He…
Broinowski, Alison: Till war do us part
Alison Broinowski ‘Till war do us part‘, Pearls and Irritations, 30 August 2017 A Fairfax readers poll of some 1300 people showed resounding opposition to Australia sending even the token additional force to Afghanistan. The article also mentions the unwisdom…
Brett, Judith: The Enigmatic Mr Deakin
Judith Brett The Enigmatic Mr Deakin, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2017, e-book available This insightful and accessible new biography of Alfred Deakin, Australia’s second prime minister, shines fresh light on one of the nation’s most significant figures. It brings out from…
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Carr, Andrew: I’m here for an argument: why bipartisanship on security makes Australia less safe
Andrew Carr ‘I’m here for an argument: why bipartisanship on security makes Australia less safe‘, The Australia Institute, 22 August 2017 updated While bipartisanship seems to be an innocuous idea it is actually making us less safe by restricting policy…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (28): More on the 1917 Great Strike in Australia
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (28): More on the 1917 Great Strike in Australia’, Honest History, 27 August 2017 Update 28 August 2017: Unions NSW advises of its exhibition on the Great Strike. See comment below – and three pictures…
McQuire, Amy: Don’t just change the date of Australia Day … get rid of it all together
Amy McQuire ‘Don’t just change the date of Australia Day … get rid of it all together‘, Buzzfeed, 19 August 2017 Honest History doesn’t claim this is the only – or a representative – piece on the latest outbreak of…
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James, Jonathan D.: As Australia becomes less religious, our parliament becomes more so
Jonathan D. James ‘As Australia becomes less religious, our parliament becomes more so‘, The Conversation, 21 August 2017 An interesting examination as the marriage equality issue bubbles. Even though the 2016 Census revealed that more than 30% of the Australian population identify…
South China Sea, Korea and Pine Gap: three items on foreign and defence policy, historically and now
Former diplomat Mack Williams writes in Pearls and Irritations about the importance of involving South Korea in any ‘solution’ to the festering crisis on the peninsula. Williams is a former Australian ambassador to Seoul. Another former diplomat, Andrew Farran, speculates…
Myrtle, John: Observing journalism for 80 years: The Arthur Norman Smith Lecture in Journalism
John Myrtle ‘Observing journalism for 80 years: The Arthur Norman Smith Lecture in Journalism’, Honest History, 18 August 2017 updated A paper in three parts: an introduction to Arthur Norman Smith and the endowed Arthur Norman Smith Lecture in Journalism;…
Observing journalism for 80 years: The Arthur Norman Smith Lecture in Journalism
John Myrtle[1] ‘Observing journalism for 80 years: The Arthur Norman Smith Lecture in Journalism’, Honest History, 18 August 2017 updated Introduction There are three parts to this paper: an introduction to Arthur Norman Smith and the endowed Arthur Norman Smith…
Want to spend the weekend with Constitution section 44? A useful backgrounder from the Parliamentary Library
Note: related material on ‘Australian values’. Update 12 November 2017: more from former Labor speechwriter, Graham Freudenberg, who links the unsuccessful Bicentennial celebrations of 1988 with various events since (Pearls and Irritations). The disqualification of members of parliament is only…
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‘There is a land where summer skies are gleaming with a thousand dyes’: a 1977 voluntary vote plebiscite on a musical matter
Plebiscites are in the news. There have been plebiscites before in Australian history. There were two on conscription in 1916-17 and they were held against perhaps the greatest societal divisions in our history. (See our series, ‘Divided sunburnt country‘.) Forty…
Minister says stand-alone DVA will continue – but here’s some advice, just in case
We don’t quite know why he felt the need but Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Centenary of Anzac, Minister for Defence Personnel, and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Cyber Security [pause for breath],…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (26): Lest We Forget the Great Strike of 1917
‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (26): Lest We Forget the Great Strike of 1917’, Honest History, 7 August 2017 The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series One hundred years ago this week, Australia confronted not only the horrors and privations of the…
Abjorensen, Norman: Australia’s great political shift
Norman Abjorensen ‘Australia’s great political shift‘, Inside Story, 28 July 2017 On the eve of Liberal and Coalition party meetings on an issue – marriage equality – which has, for some people at least, a religious element, this piece is…
Inequality is a much more complex issue than kneejerk political responses suggest: a dozen links
Honest History has had a special interest in inequality for more than three years. Under our homepage Inequality thumbnail we have collected a mass of links to resources – reports, comments, even some policy proposals from government – which track…
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Graham, Chris: How we failed Elijah Doughty, and countless others
Chris Graham ‘How we failed Elijah Doughty, and countless others‘, New Matilda, 23 July 2017 updated Riffs from the recent conviction and sentencing (to a relatively short time in gaol) of a West Australian man for running down and killing…
Harris, Rhondda, ed.: Ashton’s Hotel: The Journal of William Baker Ashton, First Governor of the Adelaide Gaol
Rhondda Harris, ed. Ashton’s Hotel: The Journal of William Baker Ashton, First Governor of the Adelaide Gaol, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, 2017 South Australia was meant to be the perfect colony: free settlers, no crime, and no mental illness. But good…
Flynn, Rosetta: Politics (from The Woman Voter, May 1917): Honest History document
Rosetta Flynn* ‘Politics‘, The Woman Voter, 11 May 1917 (Honest History document) ‘Father, what’s politics?’ the inquiring son demanded. ‘Um – well – er – er – it’s like this, my son. There are two boys, one’s name is Liberal…
A gaol story from the city of churches (review of Ashton/Harris)
‘A gaol story from the city of churches’, Honest History, 25 July 2017 John Shield* reviews Ashton’s Hotel: The Journal of William Baker Ashton, First Governor of Adelaide Gaol, edited by Rhondda Harris We Australians love a good gaol story.…
Broinowski, Alison: Beware: armed response
Alison Broinowski ‘Beware: armed response‘, Pearls and Irritations, 19 July 2017 updated Honest History vice president comments on the government’s anti-terrorism measures. If Turnbull’s plan [National Security Statement, last month] becomes law – and the prospects of the Opposition stopping…
Arms spending and war: which comes first, at home and abroad?
Christopher Pyne, Minister for Defence Industry, has been talking up the possibilities of Australia growing its arms exports industry. Fairfax’s David Wroe says Pyne ‘wants Australia to become a major arms exporter on par with Britain, France and Germany and…
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Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (25): The Free Religious Fellowship: anti-conscription – and unexpected family history
The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Chris Wade’s article, ‘Practical idealists: the Free Religious Fellowship, the Great War and conscription‘, reminds us of the breadth and depth of feeling against conscription in Great War Australia: the cause was taken up by…
Bongiorno, Frank: Donald Horne’s ‘lucky country’ and the decline of the public intellectual
Frank Bongiorno ‘Donald Horne’s “lucky country” and the decline of the public intellectual‘, The Conversation, 11 July 2017 updated Honest History’s president reviews Donald Horne: Selected Writings, edited by Nick Horne. Horne’s message [in his most famous book, The Lucky…
Reynolds, Henry: Memories and massacres
Henry Reynolds ‘Memories and massacres‘, Pearls and Irritations, 10 July 2017 For over 30 years, Henry Reynolds has been writing about massacres of Indigenous Australians. The culmination of his research was the well-received book Forgotten War in 2013. This brief…
Cain, Frank: The Wobblies at War: A History of the IWW and the Great War in Australia
Frank Cain The Wobblies at War: A History of the IWW and the Great War in Australia, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2017; first published 1993 Driven by Marxist ideology, the Industrial Workers of the World sought to draw the Australian…
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The Wobblies at War (review of Cain)
‘The Wobblies at War’ (review of Cain), Honest History, 11 July 2017 Rowan Day* reviews Frank Cain’s The Wobblies at War: A History of the IWW and the Great War in Australia This is a republication of Frank Cain’s 1993…
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Sherratt, Tim: Historic Hansard: Commonwealth of Australia parliamentary debates presented in an easy-to-read format for historians and other lovers of political speech
Tim Sherratt Historic Hansard: Commonwealth of Australia parliamentary debates presented in an easy-to-read format for historians and other lovers of political speech This is a searchable database of Commonwealth Hansard, Reps and Senate, from 1901 to so far, 1980. You…
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Allen, Liz: Australia doesn’t have a population policy – why?
Liz Allen ‘Australia doesn’t have a population policy – why?’, The Conversation, 3 July 2017 updated Despite recommendations from inquiries over a number of years, Australia lacks a population policy. Includes key graphs covering decades and concludes as follows: A…
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Gillard, Julia: John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library Anniversary Lecture, Perth
Julia Gillard ‘John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library Anniversary Lecture, Perth‘, Beyond Blue, 28 June 2017 Former prime minister, now chairperson of a mental health organisation, Beyond Blue, speaking about another former prime minister who had mental health issues. Curtin’s determination…
Gainsborough, Vance: Tocsin first and Meanjin latest: alarm bells at the bend in the river: review note
Vance Gainsborough* ‘Tocsin first and Meanjin latest: alarm bells at the bend in the river: review note’, Honest History, 2 July 2017 A ‘tocsin’ is an alarm bell or signal and ‘Meanjin’ is an Indigenous word for the bend in…
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Census results: 45.5 per cent of us had one or both parents born overseas – but does the Anglo-Celtic narrative still dominate?
The Conversation has a comprehensive coverage of the results of the 2016 Census (six articles from this week, plus earlier material), released yesterday. The Census website goes into further detail. There is also a video on the Guardian Australia site…
Stephens, David: “Australian values” and security: have we been here before?
David Stephens ‘”Australian values” and security: have we been here before?’ Honest History, 26 June 2017 updated Note: related material on section 44 of the Constitution. Update 19 October 2017: the Government’s proposed citizenship changes fail to pass the Senate.…
Piccini, Jon: Amnesty International and conscientious objection in Australia’s Vietnam War
Jon Piccini ‘Amnesty International and conscientious objection in Australia’s Vietnam War‘, JHI Blog, 13 June 2017 This small case study provides insights into how the idea of human rights has been contested over time. Australia’s two Amnesty Sections – not…
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Stephens, David: Graham Freudenberg, elegant and erudite scribe of an important era in Australian politics – and earlier
David Stephens ‘Graham Freudenberg, elegant and erudite scribe of an important era in Australian politics – and earlier’, Honest History, 22 June 2017 Norman Graham Freudenberg AM is 83 years old this year. He has written speeches for Labor leaders,…
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Talking about The Conversation: five easy pieces in just a few days
Update 22 June 2017: and, lo, just as we ruled a line and settled on the headline, The Conversation came good again with: three charts on looming differential access to the National Broadband Network (digital divide, another form of inequality);…
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Muller, Denis: Mixed media: how Australia’s newspapers became locked in a war of left versus right
Denis Muller ‘Mixed media: how Australia’s newspapers became locked in a war of left versus right‘, The Conversation, 19 June 2017 updated Historical view of the ownership and attitudes of Australian newspapers since the 19th century, though nowadays it is…
Daley, Paul: The legacy reverberates: how a repulsive image reminds us of our ugly past
Paul Daley ‘The legacy reverberates: how a repulsive image reminds us of our ugly past‘, Guardian Australia, 19 June 2017 Riffs off Every Mother’s Son is Guilty: Policing the Kimberley Frontier of Western Australia 1882-1905, by Chris Owen, the cover…
Butler, Richard: Turnbull, Trump and the Alliance
Richard Butler ‘Turnbull, Trump and the Alliance‘, Pearls and Irritations, 14 June 2017 updated Update 3 August 2017: Richard Broinowski in Pearls and Irritations on the broader implications of the Talisman Sabre/Talisman Saber joint military exercise. Update 31 July 2017:…
Russell, Sophie & Eileen Baldry: Three charts on: Australia’s booming prison population
Sophie Russell & Eileen Baldry ‘Three charts on: Australia’s booming prison population‘, The Conversation, 14 June 2017 Ten years of ABS statistics on remand versus sentenced prisoner numbers (remand numbers going up more), Indigenous imprisonment rates (going up), women in…
Patience, Allan: It’s time for new politics
Allan Patience ‘It’s time for new politics‘, Pearls and Irritations, 12 June 2017 Looks at the recent success of Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn and detects the fall of old politics and the rise of new. Only by implication are…
Sparrow, Jeff: Internment is so hot right now, but it’s nothing new in Australia
Jeff Sparrow ‘Internment is so hot right now, but it’s nothing new in Australia‘, Guardian Australia, 10 June 2017 Pauline Hanson and others have discussed the possibility of interning perceived suspicious persons. Sparrow recalls how internment was carried out in…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (24): Soldiers’ farewells and welcomes 1917
The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Phil Cashen shows in this post on the excellent Shire at War blog (‘Soldiers’ farewells and welcomes in the first half of 1917’) how intense agendas ran deep beneath the apparently simple gesture of farewelling…
Daley, Paul: Tim Fischer’s ties
Paul Daley ‘Tim Fischer’s ties‘, Museum of Australian Democracy Old Parliament House Blog, 7 June 2017 An example of how to hang an insightful biographical piece off a clothing accessory (which, in this case, itself hangs, but hangs correctly only…
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Wright, Clare: How Australia became a nation, and women won the vote
Clare Wright ‘How Australia became a nation, and women won the vote‘, The Conversation, 6 June 2017 Article to mark the 120th anniversary of the Australasian Federal Convention in Adelaide (Queensland absent). Among the outcomes of the Convention was votes…
Abjorensen, Norman: Ben Chifley’s botched attempt to nationalise Australia’s banks
Norman Abjorensen ‘Ben Chifley’s botched attempt to nationalise Australia’s banks‘, Canberra Times (Public Sector Informant), 6 June 2017 Against the background of another poke at banking power, this time by a conservative government, this is a concise summary of Chifley’s…
Five links from left field: communism, radicalism, war and peace, utopia, Tiananmen Square
Sometimes we like to post miscellanies of links – small collections that range reasonably widely but still have a theme. These five are from left field, if not entirely from the left-hand end of that rather glib and facile left-right…
Myrtle, John: Vale David Biles: A pioneer of Australian criminology
John Myrtle* ‘Vale David Biles: A pioneer of Australian criminology‘, Age, 6 June 2017 (an earlier, edited version appeared in the Canberra Times) ‘David Biles was a pioneer of criminology in Australia. Over many years he contributed to the development of…
Broinowski, Alison: The Merkel moment: wherever that works
Alison Broinowski ‘The Merkel moment: wherever that works‘, Pearls and Irritations, 30 May 2017 Chancellor Merkel’s remark that the United States is no longer reliable, and that Europe should look after itself, should also be a wake-up call for Australia.…
Putting Reconciliation Week in context: Lest We Forget Queensland Genocide
Reconciliation Week runs annually from 27 May, the anniversary of the 1967 Referendum, to 3 June, the anniversary of the Mabo decision in 1992. The theme for this year is ‘Let’s take the next steps’, which is appropriate, given the…
Patience, Allan: Australia’s involvement in an “Anglosphere” is the delusion of a golden age that never existed
Allan Patience ‘Australia’s involvement in an “Anglosphere” is the delusion of a golden age that never existed‘, The Conversation, 24 May 2017 Post-Brexit, some in Britain are turning to a resurrected Commonwealth as the basis of an alternative to Europe.…
Bottoms, Timothy: Genocide in colonial Queensland, Australia
Timothy Bottoms ‘Genocide in colonial Queensland, Australia‘, Honest History, 26 May 2017 The attached pdf is a revised and extended version of the prologue to the author’s 2013 book, Conspiracy of Silence: Queensland’s Frontier Killing Times. Honest History thanks Timothy…
Atkinson-Phillips, Alison: Remembering Colebrook and the Stolen Generations, 1997 and 20 years
Alison Atkinson-Phillips* ‘Remembering Colebrook and the Stolen Generations, 1997 and 20 years on’, Honest History, 26 May 2017 Twenty years ago, on ‘Reconciliation Sunday’, 1 June 1997, some 2000 people gathered on a vacant lot in the Adelaide hills to…
Daley, Paul: Five factors that will shape the outcome for ‘recognise’ at Uluru
Paul Daley ‘Five factors that will shape the outcome for “recognise” at Uluru‘, Guardian Australia, 24 May 2017 updated Surveys the state of play as the Uluru conference gets under way. The ‘five factors’: the lack of interest of many…
Online Gem No. 13: Researching Australia’s prime ministers
‘Online Gem No. 13: Researching Australia’s prime ministers’, Honest History, 23 May 2017 The Australia’s Prime Ministers website, published and curated by the National Archives of Australia (NAA) provides useful information on every one of Australia’s 29 prime ministers, from…
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Better not forget The Forgotten People: 75 years since RG Menzies’ direction-setting speech
There is to be a big dinner at Parliament House tonight to mark the 75th anniversary of a broadcast delivered on radio station 2GB, 3AW and others by a former prime minister, but then humble backbencher, the Right Honourable Robert…
Appleby, Gabrielle & Sean Brennan: The long road to recognition
Gabrielle Appleby & Sean Brennan ‘The long road to recognition‘, Inside Story, 19 May 2017 updated Updated 24 May 2017: Paul Daley in Guardian Australia: Given the disparate experiences [says Daley] of delegates and their divergent views (on recognition versus…
Stephens, David: Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (23): ‘A wartime police state’: Australia’s War Precautions Act during the war for freedom
David Stephens ‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (23): ‘A wartime police state’: Australia’s War Precautions Act during the war for freedom’, Honest History, 19 May 2017 updated The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series Every country at war takes measures to protect…
Stephens, David: Afghanistan infinitum or walking away? The possible cost of shared values
David Stephens ‘Afghanistan infinitum or walking away? The possible cost of shared values’, Honest History, 18 May 2017 updated Update 30 May 2017: Defence Minister Payne announces 30 more troops to be sent to Afghanistan, in a training capacity. Comments.…
Broinowski, Alison: Reading Room: Fighting with America (review of James Curran)
Alison Broinowski ‘Reading Room: Fighting with America‘, Australian Outlook, 8 May 2017 This is a review note of James Curran’s book, Fighting with America: Why Saying No to the US Wouldn’t Rupture the Alliance. Honest History previously linked to an…
Abjorensen, Norman: The party switchers
Norman Abjorensen ‘The party switchers‘, Inside Story, 9 May 2017 Provoked by the puzzling switch of former Labor leader, Mark Latham, to the Liberal Democrats, this is a concise summary of rats, code switchers and swappers of horses, state and…
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Broinowski, Alison: What Australian foreign policy?
Alison Broinowski ‘What Australian foreign policy?‘ Pearls and Irritations, 26 April 2017 updated Discusses Allan Gyngell’s new book, Fear of Abandonment: Australia in the World since 1942. Gyngell, she concludes, ‘doesn’t endorse [former Prime Minister Malcolm] Fraser’s radical call for…
Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University: Contemporary Histories Blog
The group has commenced a new series on exploring contemporary histories and decision-making. It gets under way with a note from Carolyn Holbrook on ‘The Australian Federation of the Mind’. She points to something of a contradiction in the way…
Bond, Catherine: Anzac: The Landing, The Legend, The Law
Catherine Bond Anzac: The Landing, The Legend, The Law, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2017 The year 2016 marks an ‘Anzac’ anniversary of a different kind: the centenary of legal regulation over use of the term ‘Anzac’ in Australia and internationally.…
Word War One: how the law shaped the Anzac legend (review of Bond)
‘Word War One: how the law shaped the Anzac legend’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 Jo Hawkins reviews Catherine Bond’s Anzac: The Landing, The Legend, The Law In the weeks leading up to the 2015 centenary of the Gallipoli landing,…
Wallace, Donald M.: The Web of Empire (1902): highlights reel of a royal visit to Brisbane
Donald Mackenzie Wallace ‘The Web of Empire (1902): highlights reel of a royal visit to Brisbane’, Honest History, 2 May 2017 Members of the Royal Family have visited Australia regularly since Prince Alfred was here in 1867. (He was shot…
Jericho, Greg: Malcolm Turnbull’s myth of “middle Australia” ignores both gender and reality
Greg Jericho ‘Malcolm Turnbull’s myth of “middle Australia” ignores both gender and reality‘, Guardian Australia, 18 April 2017 Looks at taxation statistics to ‘highlight that middle Australia earns much less than the government would have you believe and that women…
Welcome to what? A note on immigration, multiculturalism and ‘Australian values’
Update 19 March 2018: proposal by Minister Dutton to bring white South African farmers to Australia is linked by Jon Piccini in The Conversation to a historic Australian whiteness trope. Update 19 October 2017: the Government’s proposed citizenship changes fail…
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Biddle, Nicholas: First results from the 2016 Census paint a picture of who the “typical” Australian is
Nicholas Biddle ‘First results from the 2016 Census paint a picture of who the “typical” Australian is‘, The Conversation, 11 April 2017 For the statistical agency of a supposedly diverse country to bother presenting a picture of ‘a typical Australian’…
The Constitution, White Australia and population shifts: recently on The Conversation
The online journal The Conversation continues to traverse a wide range of subject matter. Recently, we noted: Ryan Goss on how our Constitution came to be written and what we should do with it next; Benjamin T. Jones on the…
Wilkie, Douglas: Duchene/Hargraves
Douglas Wilkie Duchene/Hargraves, Historia Incognita, Melbourne, 2016 This self-published book has the long sub-title or explanatory tag of ‘Alexandre Julien Duchene, Edward Hammond Hargraves and the discovery of gold in Australia, three or four days from Sydney’. This book looks…
Discovering the discovery of gold (review of Wilkie)
‘Discovering the discovery of gold’ (review of Wilkie), Honest History, 3 April 2017 Derek Abbott* reviews Duchene/Hargraves by Douglas Wilkie Generations of Australian school children are familiar from their history text books with the story of the discovery of gold…
Butler, Richard: The myths of Australian foreign policy
Richard Butler ‘The myths of Australian foreign policy‘, Pearls and Irritations, 31 March 2017 The former senior Australian diplomat surveys the scene as Australia develops a foreign policy white paper. It will be of crucial importance in the review of…
Multiculturalism statement stresses diversity, ‘fair go’ and equality but reality is different
Update 21 March 2017: Andrew Jakubowicz in The Conversation comments on the statement. Neroli Colvin and John Tons in New Matilda. The Prime Minister and two of his ministers have released the government’s multiculturalism statement Multicultural Australia: United, Strong, Successful.…
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Turning the yellow South Australian hills green? Marian Quartly on a state of hope
‘Turning the yellow South Australian hills green? Marian Quartly on a state of hope’, Honest History, 21 March 2017 Marian Quartly* reviews Griffith Review 55: State of Hope Any collection of essays focussing on a single state of Australia will…
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Schultz, Julianne & Patrick Allington, ed.: State of Hope: Griffith Review 55
Julianne Schultz & Patrick Allington, ed. State of Hope: Griffith Review 55, January 2017 As the industrial model that shaped twentieth-century South Australia is replaced by an uncertain future, now more than ever the state needs to draw on the…
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Latham, Mark: Insiders and outsiders (2002 Menzies Lecture, London): Highlights reel
Mark Latham ‘Insiders and outsiders (The 2002 Menzies Lecture, Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, King’s College London, 17 September 2002): Highlights reel’, Honest History, 21 March 2017 updated This is a 4000 word article, originally presented as a speech and…
FitzGerald, Stephen : Managing Australian foreign policy in a Chinese world
Stephen FitzGerald ‘Managing Australian foreign policy in a Chinese world‘, The Conversation, 17 March 2017 An edited extract of the 2017 Whitlam Oration, delivered by Stephen FitzGerald, Australia’s first ambassador to the People’s Republic of China (1973-76), at the Whitlam…
Shorter hours and vigorous industrial action were all the rage 100 years ago, too
This week we heard the Greens leader, Senator Richard Di Natale, go hard for the need to debate shorter working hours. On Lateline, for example, he said this: We’ve got, in Australia, people here doing more hours than any other…
Cain, Frank: The Petrov Affair and fake documents: another look
Frank Cain* ‘The Petrov Affair and fake documents: another look’, Honest History, 15 March 2017 In a previous edition of Honest History, David Stephens referred to fake news and the seeking by Dr HV Evatt, then Leader of the Opposition,…
Leigh, Andrew: Why corporate Australia should care about inequality – Speech, Minerals Council of Australia Tax Conference, Friday 10 March 2017
Andrew Leigh ‘Why corporate Australia should care about inequality – Speech, Minerals Council of Australia Tax Conference, Friday 10 March 2017‘, Andrew Leigh MP Blog, 10 March 2017 updated Over the past generation [says Leigh], Australia has seen an increase…
True Blue but by no means politically correct – or just a different form of correctness?
Update 10 August 2017: John Roskam of the Institute of Public Affairs talks to Genevieve Jacobs of the ABC. Update 3 May 2017: Tony Abbott talks in Perth: search for ‘Western civilisation’. Update 14 April 2017: We didn’t want to…
Robertson, Joshua: $5bn used to safeguard Murray-Darling from drought largely in vain, says study
Joshua Robertson ‘$5bn used to safeguard Murray-Darling from drought largely in vain, says study‘, Guardian Australia, 2 March 2017 Reports on the political aspects of water planning in Australia. The [ANU] report, Water Reform and Planning in the Murray-Darling Basin,…
Manne, Robert: It’s time to rethink asylum-seeker policy
Robert Manne ‘It’s time to rethink asylum-seeker policy‘, The Monthly, 28 February 2017 Described as ‘an open letter to the supporters and opponents of the Nauru and Manus Island asylum seekers’, this long article canvasses the history of asylum-seeker policy…
Clanchy, Michael: In search of ‘civilised’ capitalism: a non-neoliberal approach
Michael Clanchy ‘In search of “civilised” capitalism: a non-neoliberal approach‘, Independent Australia, 28 February 2017 Socialism is not the answer, as it tends towards totalitarianism, but the ills of neoliberal capitalism still need tackling. These include boom-bust, inequality, underemployment, climate…
How defence spending gets its claws in: From the Honest History archives
Update 7 March 2017: Andrew Farran on Pearls and Irritations tries to match the F-35 to strategic imperatives. Update 3 March 2017: Steven L. Jones on The Conversation gives some background. News.com report on claimed job spin-offs. ‘A pilot’s dream‘.…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (20): The soldiers’ vote denied: making sense of the first conscription plebiscite
The ‘Divided sunburnt country’ series ‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (20): The soldiers’ vote denied: making sense of the first conscription plebiscite’, Honest History, 28 February 2017 During 2016 our ‘Divided sunburnt country’ posts (linked above) tracked events in the…
Wroe, David: The secret Iraq dossier: inside Australia’s flawed war
David Wroe ‘The secret Iraq dossier: inside Australia’s flawed war’, The Age, 25 February 2017 updated Long article, with illustrations and video, on Australia’s Iraq involvement, the key point being that the motivation – why we fought – was to…
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Hamilton, Rebecca: Australia’s refugee policy is a crime against humanity
Rebecca Hamilton ‘Australia’s refugee policy is a crime against humanity‘, Foreign Policy, 23 February 2017 The author, an Australian lawyer working in Washington, writes that a brief has been lodged with the International Criminal Court, which gives ‘every indication that…
Stephens, David: Review note: Leaders using and abusing power through the ages
David Stephens ‘Review note: Leaders using and abusing power through the ages’, Honest History, 23 February 2017 At a time when on-the-run psychological assessments of world leaders – and one leader in particular – are becoming routine news items, considered…
West, Michael: Australia’s march towards corporatocracy
Michael West ‘Australia’s march towards corporatocracy‘, The Conversation, 20 February 2017 Looks at government reliance on external consultants, compared with the Australian public service. Such is the pervasive influence of corporations and consultants over government and the de-skilling of the…
Tiffen, Rodney: How changing times made Australia’s political leaders more disposable
Rodney Tiffen ‘How changing times made Australia’s political leaders more disposable‘, The Conversation, 16 February 2017 Looks at factors behind the relatively rapid denefenestration of Australian political leaders, state and federal, since – well, since Menzies, the only one who…
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Menadue, John: The terrorism threat here is because our troops are over there
John Menadue ‘The terrorism threat here is because our troops are over there‘, Pearls and Irritations, 14 February 2017 Compared to other risks, we have little to fear from terrorism. In the last two decades only three people in Australia…
Patience, Allan: How conservative or populist is the contemporary Right in Australian politics?
Allan Patience ‘How conservative or populist is the contemporary Right in Australian politics?’ Pearls and Irritations, 14 February 2017 Examines the relationship between current apparently conservative outbreaks in Australian politics and superficially similar incidences overseas as well as historical parallels.…
Michaels, Wendy: NSW Parliamentary Trailblazers: A Fit Place for Women?
Wendy Michaels ‘NSW parliamentary trailblazers: a fit place for women?‘ Vida! Australian Women’s History Network, 9 February 2017 Mentions women in the NSW Parliament over the last century and links to an exhibition in the NSW Parliament. The review is…
Beeson, Mark: Trump triggers overdue policy debate
Mark Beeson ‘Trump triggers overdue policy debate‘, The Conversation, 8 February 2017 Whatever else Donald Trump’s election may have done, it’s had at least one welcome effect: it has finally sparked a long-overdue debate about the possible costs and benefits…
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Abjorensen, Norman: The long Liberal split
Norman Abjorensen ‘The long Liberal split‘, Inside Story, 8 February 2017 Triggered by the departure of Senator Bernardi to become an independent conservative, this piece by a long-time Liberal watcher looks at a century of splits and dissension on the…
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McKenna, Mark: The character business: On the deluge of political biography and memoir
Mark McKenna ‘The character business: on the deluge of political biography and memoir‘, The Monthly, February 2017, pp. 36-41 Discusses political biographies, autobiographies and diaries from Crossman on Crossman to David Marr on Kevin Rudd. Addresses interesting question of who…
Smith, Evan: Some highlights from the CIA’s recent document dump online
Evan Smith ‘Some highlights from the CIA’s recent document dump online‘, Hatful of History, 21 January 2017 Adelaide-based academic and blogger, Evan Smith, has trawled through this trove and made an initial listing of what is there, including 1949 reports…
Tedeschi, Mark: Murder at Myall Creek: The Trial that Defined a Nation
Mark Tedeschi Murder at Myall Creek: The Trial that Defined a Nation, Simon & Schuster, Sydney 2016 In 1838, eleven convicts and former convicts were put on trial for the brutal murder of 28 Aboriginal men, women and children at…
Keeping up with The Conversation: wide selection as Parliament returns
Whether your problem is the return to school last week or the return of Federal Parliament this week, President Trump being erratic or AFLW making a splash, if one needs distractions there seems to be more to read at the…
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Stephens, David: Opposition Leader HV Evatt receives certain assurances from Comrade Molotov: another case of “They would say that, wouldn’t they”?
David Stephens ‘Opposition Leader HV Evatt receives certain assurances from Comrade Molotov: another case of “They would say that, wouldn’t they”?’, Honest History, 7 February 2017 ‘Totally made up facts by sleazebag political operatives, both Democrats and Republicans – FAKE…
Mackay, Hugh: The state of the nation starts in your street
Hugh Mackay ‘The state of the nation starts in your street‘, The Conversation, 2 February 2017 The Gandhi Oration at the University of New South Wales, 30 January. Mackay ranges widely from politics to personal happiness, the ‘fair go’ to…
Butler, Richard: Trump: a sideshow?
Richard Butler ‘Trump: a sideshow?‘ Pearls and Irritations, 27 January 2017 updated Update 5 March 2017: More from Butler on Trump and the implications for Australia. Update 9 February 2017: related piece by Ramesh Thakur in Pearls and Irritations on…
McQueen, Humphrey: 26 January – or thereabouts
Humphrey McQueen ‘26 January – or thereabouts‘, Overland 233, Summer 2018 An earlier version of this piece was posted on the Honest History site on 23 January 2017, by courtesy of the author. Below are some of our introductory remarks…
Honest History’s Alison Broinowski quoted on 1975 Australian election and possible US involvement
Honest History vice president, Alison Broinowski, is quoted today in a story in The New Daily about whether the United States interfered in the Australian election of 1975. The article references authors Andrew Fowler and John Pilger and former CIA…
Broinowski, Alison: Don’t ask about the war
Alison Broinowski ‘Don’t ask about the war‘, Pearls and Irritations, 10 January 2017 Conservative leaders’ reputations grow over time, John Howard being an example. Howard has refused to apologise for his Iraq decision of 2003. ‘His actions and opinions have…
Stephens, David & John Myrtle: Review notes: Geoffrey Bolton on Paul Hasluck
‘Review notes: Geoffrey Bolton on Paul Hasluck’, Honest History, 11 January 2017 This book (Paul Hasluck: A Life) was published in 2014 and its author, Emeritus Professor Geoffrey Bolton, has since died. The book deserves recognition after this lapse of…
Economist Ian McAuley on Brexit, Trump and the Lucky Country: new series on Pearls and Irritations blog
The Pearls and Irritations blog is always worth following for thoughtful explications of current issues, ones which the mainstream media mostly no longer has the resources or patience to run. Today, P&I publishes nine articles (introduction plus eight) by economist…
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Barker, Renae: Australians have an increasingly complex, yet relatively peaceful, relationship with religion
Renae Barker ‘Australians have an increasingly complex, yet relatively peaceful, relationship with religion‘, The Conversation, 21 December 2016 A good subject for a time of year in Australia when those who were nominally Christian in their youth (or perhaps a…
Webster, Beth: Budget deficit hoo-ha is about 0.5% of GDP
Beth Webster ‘Budget deficit hoo-ha is about 0.5% of GDP‘, The Conversation, 20 December 2016 A useful corrective to the mainstream media-political class herd mentality that gives too much profile to deficit and surplus and not enough to what should…
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Sherratt, Tim: Turning the inside out: Keynote at Australian Society of Archivists Annual Conference 2016
Tim Sherratt Turning the inside out: Keynote presented at the Australian Society of Archivists Annual Conference, Parramatta, 2016 A detailed examination, using a case study, of ‘the workings of legislation, archival practice and technology’. In this talk, I want to…
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Culture Victoria: Out of the Closets, Into the Streets
Culture Victoria Out of the Closets, Into the Streets This project documents the very beginning of the Gay Liberation Movement in Melbourne. Through the manifestos, photographs, flyers and recollections of those who were part of the movement, this digital story…
Saying ‘No’ to the United States: new material on non-MSM Pearls and Irritations blog
Honest History is always ready to publicise material from the feisty Pearls and Irritations blog wrangled by former senior public servant and diplomat, John Menadue. Pearls and Irritations has guest blogs from many former senior players in government and academia…
Tanter, Richard: Fifty years on, Pine Gap should reform to better serve Australia
Richard Tanter ‘Fifty years on, Pine Gap should reform to better serve Australia‘, The Conversation, 9 December 2016 In the last 50 years, Pine Gap’s growth has burst its original security compound. There are now 33 separate antenna systems at…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (19) The 1916 coal strike
The Divided Sunburnt Country series ‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (19): The 1916 coal strike’, Honest History, 13 December 2016 ‘The strikes and upheavals, political and industrial, we see around us are the manifestations of a deliberate policy which aims at destroying…
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Australia in the 21st Century (A21C): We need a transformational foreign policy
Australia in the 21st Century (A21C) ‘We need a transformational foreign policy: Submission to the Minister for Foreign Affairs for the White Paper on Foreign Affairs and Trade‘, Pearls and Irritations, 9 December 2016 The submission is headed ‘FILLING THE…
Five from the Pearls and Irritations blog: China, Trump, our out of touch MSM
Honest History’s distinguished supporter, John Menadue, continues to add solid content to his Pearls and Irritations blog, both his own articles, guest bloggers and material reproduced from other sources. Apart from the important submission on foreign policy, this week’s new…
Edwards, John: The plight of the right
John Edwards ‘The plight of the Right‘, Inside Story, 5 December 2016 A long, thoughtful review of an expensive book of essays published in July, following a conference in Perth in 2014 of ‘conservative’ economists and journalists. The book is…
While we are on the subject: four articles on aspects of democracy – and its possible future currency
Last Sunday we put up a post riffing off four articles which said something about the nature of politics. Without exactly saying so, we were talking about democratic politics and about how it can be a long, hard slog. We…
Hocking, Jenny: The palace letters case: ‘a matter of our national history’
Jenny Hocking ‘The palace letters case: “a matter of our national history”‘, Pearls and Irritations, 29 November 2016 Update 16 October 2017 referring to further discoveries in UK archives. Revised edition of Professor Hocking’s book. Whitlam biographer and constitutional activist…
Eureka 162 years on: resources on the Honest History site
Tomorrow, 3 December, is the 162nd anniversary of the attack on the Eureka Stockade at Ballarat. Honest History has a number of resources on the site, links to lectures by Andrew Leigh MP and historian Humphrey McQueen, a post about…
Abjorensen, Norman: Politicians behaving badly
Norman Abjorensen ‘Politicians behaving badly‘, Inside Story, 28 November 2016 If the Trump victory in the United States represented a backlash against a perceived self-interested “political class,” just as the Brexit vote did in Britain, Australia is by no means…
Blaxland, John & Rhys Crawley: The Secret Cold War: The Official History of ASIO, 1975-1989
John Blaxland & Rhys Crawley The Secret Cold War: The Official History of ASIO, 1975-1989, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2016 The blurb reveals that the book deals with espionage by foreign agents, terrorist attacks, the underground Cold War of tensions…
Pearls and Irritations experts ask where are we going with ANZUS now that Trump towers: more than you get on MSM
Pearls and Irritations is a blog wrangled by former senior public servant John Menadue, with the help of some knowledgeable guest writers. It has a new series entitled ‘Quo vadis and ANZUS’. ‘Quo vadis?’, for those who have no Latin…
Stephens, David: These four articles on politics reinforce each other in unexpected ways
David Stephens ‘These four articles on politics reinforce each other in unexpected ways’, Honest History, 27 November 2016 Fifty years on In 1966, 50 years ago, Lyndon Baines Johnson was in the White House, Australia’s new prime minister, Harold Holt,…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (18): The Prime Minister is determined to carry on
The Divided Sunburnt Country series ‘Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (18): The Prime Minister is determined to carry on’, Honest History, 26 November 2016 The referendum (plebiscite) had been held on 28 October. Prime Minister Hughes was the guest of…
Markus, Andrew: Australians more alarmed about state of politics than impact of migration and minorities, survey finds
Markus, Andrew ‘Australians more alarmed about state of politics than impact of migration and minorities, survey finds‘, The Conversation, 22 November 2016 Links to detailed report of the latest survey. In 2016 just 34% of respondents considered that the immigration…
Productivity Commission: Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2016
Productivity Commission Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators 2016 This comprehensive report card measures where things have improved (or not) against 52 indicators across a range of areas including governance, leadership and culture, early childhood, education, health, home and safe and…
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Hamilton, Clive: What do we want? Charting the rise and fall of protest in Australia
Hamilton, Clive ‘What do we want? Charting the rise and fall of protest in Australia‘, The Conversation, 17 November 2016 updated Discusses the author’s new book, What Do We Want? The Story of Protest in Australia, just published. Traces the…
Pearls and Irritations blog provides non-MSM views of Trump
John Menadue’s blog, Pearls and Irritations, has the following: Allan Patience on the failure of neo-liberalism; Wayne Swan MP on the need to spread prosperity more widely; Andrew Farran on foreign policy implications; John Menadue and Mungo McCallum on general…
The Conscription Conflict and the Great War (review of Archer, Damousi, et al)
‘The Conscription Conflict and the Great War’ (review of Archer, Damousi, et al), Honest History, 16 November 2016 Derek Abbott* reviews The Conscription Conflict and the Great War, edited by Robin Archer, Joy Damousi, Murray Goot and Sean Scalmer. See…
Archer, Robin, Joy Damousi, Murray Goot & Sean Scalmer, ed.: The Conscription Conflict and the Great War
Archer, Robin, Joy Damousi, Murray Goot & Sean Scalmer, ed. The Conscription Conflict and the Great War, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, 2016 Collection with articles by the editors, Douglas Newton, Frank Bongiorno, John Connor and Ross McKibbin. While the Great…
Haigh, Gideon: Basic income for all: a 500-year-old idea whose time has come?
Haigh, Gideon ‘Basic income for all: a 500-year-old idea whose time has come?‘ Guardian Australia, 11 November 2016 Long article under the heading ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, with links to other relevant material. Haigh looks at ‘the potential of ideas such…
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‘The Call to the People of Australia’, Remembrance Day, 1951: highlights reel
‘” The Call to the People of Australia”, Remembrance Day, 1951: highlights reel’, Honest History, 11 November 2016 This Remembrance Day is the 65th anniversary of one of the stranger documents of early post-war Australia. Titled ‘The Call to the…
Donalds are Trumps: going deeper after the breast-beating
There is so much being said on the US election result that we are not going to add to it (yet). Except to say three things: roughly half of eligible Americans did not vote; roughly a quarter of eligible Americans…
Divided sunburnt country: Australia 1916-18 (17): Three post-mortems on the first conscription referendum
The Divided Sunburnt Country series Note: No. 16 in the series was updated on 7 November to include a short speech by Michael McKernan on the impact of conscription in Jugiong, NSW, and a paper by Frank Bongiorno on why…
Thakur, Ramesh: The nuclear refuseniks: how the recent nuclear vote put Australia on the wrong side of history
Thakur, Ramesh ‘The nuclear refuseniks: how the recent nuclear vote put Australia, Japan, and South Korea on the wrong side of history, geography, and humanity‘, Policy Forum, 4 November 2016 updated Update 16 November 2016: more on this subject in…
Bond, Catherine: Is it time to repeal Australia’s century-old laws on the use of the word “Anzac”??
Bond, Catherine ‘Is it time to repeal Australia’s century-old laws on the use of the word “Anzac”?‘ The Conversation, 1 November 2016 Article marks the centenary of Australian restrictions on the use of the word ‘Anzac’. (The author has a…
Piggott, Michael: Peace, love and world war: the Denmans, Empire and Australia, 1910–1917: a review of a Canberra exhibition
Michael Piggott* ‘”Peace, love and world war: the Denmans, Empire and Australia, 1910–1917″: a review of a Canberra exhibition’, Honest History, 1 November 2016 Note: The exhibition concludes on 13 November 2016 First, an admission. Actually, two. As a rule,…
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Manne, Robert: How we came to be so cruel to asylum seekers
Manne, Robert ‘How we came to be so cruel to asylum seekers‘, The Conversation, 26 October 2016 updated ‘If you had been told 30 years ago that Australia would create the least asylum seeker friendly institutional arrangements in the world,…
Aileen Palmer and Maralinga: Honest History highlights reel
‘Aileen Palmer and Maralinga: Honest History highlights reel’, Honest History, 18 October 2016 updated This material has been made available by Sylvia Martin, author of Ink in Her Veins: The Troubled Life of Aileen Palmer, published earlier this year by…
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Gillard, Julia: Julia Gillard speaks in London in memory of Jo Cox MP
Gillard, Julia ‘Julia Gillard speaks in London in memory of Jo Cox MP‘, Julia Gillard, 11 October 2016 (updated) As well as being a tribute to the assassinated British Labour MP this is a wide-ranging speech on women in politics.…
Broinowski, Alison: Review note: Homeground in Sydney
Alison Broinowski ‘Review note: Homeground in Sydney’, Honest History, 11 October 2016 Marking the 60th anniversary of the Maralinga nuclear tests, Sydney displayed several First Nations events over the weekend of 8-9 October. In the forecourt of the Opera House…
Tynan, Elizabeth: Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story
Elizabeth Tynan Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story, NewSouth, Sydney, 2016 How could a democracy such as Australia host another country’s nuclear program in the midst of the Cold War? In this meticulously researched and shocking work, journalist and academic Elizabeth…
Atomic Thunder: 60 years on from Maralinga (review of Tynan)
‘Atomic Thunder: 60 years on from Maralinga’, Honest History, 11 October 2016 Richard Broinowski* reviews Elizabeth Tynan’s Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story. David Pope’s cartoon of the 60th anniversary of Maralinga (Fairfax, 3 October 2016) shows Prime Minister Robert Menzies…
Burgess, Rob: The banks didn’t save Australia – they ate it
Burgess, Rob ‘The banks didn’t save Australia – they ate it‘, New Daily, 6 October 2016 Analysis in the context of the appearance of banking CEOs before a parliamentary committee, which was followed by a proposal for a banking tribunal…
Lyons, Tim: The Labour Movement: my part in its downfall
Lyons, Tim ‘The Labour Movement: my part in its downfall‘, Meanjin, Spring 2016 (vol. 75, no. 3, pp. 85-92 in hard copy) Works backwards from the demise of the resources super profits tax in 2010 to make some important points…
Aspects of foreign and defence policy: eight blogged Pearls that are likely to Irritate
Pearls and Irritations, the blog run by John Menadue, one of Honest History’s distinguished supporters and former senior public servant and businessman, regularly serves up pithy and thought-provoking pieces from experts with strong backgrounds in their fields. The blog’s masthead…
Essential poll on banning Muslim immigration and listening to Pauline Hanson
The Essential Report poll on attitudes to Muslim migration is here, along with responses to questions about Pauline Hanson. One thousand people were polled. The poll was run in August and re-run in case it was a ‘rogue’. Key responses…
Habibis, Daphne, Maggie Walter & Penny Taylor: To move forward on reconciliation, Australia must recognise it has a race relations problem
Daphne Habibis, Maggie Walter & Penny Taylor ‘To move forward on reconciliation, Australia must recognise it has a race relations problem‘, The Conversation, 20 September 2016 updated Our research in Darwin [survey of 474] shows most Indigenous people feel judged,…
Stephens, David: Review note: Howard on Menzies rolls out on the ABC
David Stephens ‘Review note: Howard on Menzies rolls out on the ABC’, Honest History, 18 September 2016 updated So much is available about this two-part ABC doco that we won’t attempt more than some random thoughts which we’ll update after…
Now this is a Maiden Speech: Senator Malarndirri McCarthy (ALP, Northern Territory)
Senator McCarthy’s speech brings together the stories of Indigenous Australia – the Senator is Yanyuwa, Garrwa, Mara and Kudanji – and settler Australia – her McCarthy ancestors came from Ireland in 1842. A great read and a great listen (30…
Concerning the proposed foreign policy White Paper: Alison Broinowski, Richard Woolcott, John Menadue, James Cogan
Australia has not had many foreign policy White Papers, though we have had a lot of Defence White Papers. There may be some significance in this. The recent announcement from the Foreign Minister provoked some responses to add to the…
McQueen, Humphrey: Time and Bob Menzies’ essence: lifting the cover on Australia 1960
McQueen, Humphrey ‘Time and Bob Menzies’ essence: lifting the cover on Australia 1960′, Honest History, 30 August 2016 When Humphrey McQueen first wrote this article in 2000 he had this to say: ‘Forty years ago this week, Time presented a…
Time and Bob Menzies’ essence: lifting the cover on Australia 1960
Humphrey McQueen ‘Time and Bob Menzies’ essence: lifting the cover on Australia 1960’, Honest History, 30 August 2016 Note: this article includes a photograph of an Indigenous Australian who has died Time magazine ‘Indignation’ and ‘hilarity’ jostled each other through…
Many facets of inequality revealed in online sources: Honest History miscellany
A current article in Guardian Weekly wonders if the abundance of online sources is killing memory. We don’t need to remember anything because we can look it up. Maybe. The upside is the ease of finding information online – information…
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Smith, Evan: ‘Between the bomb and the ballot box’: the history of the far-right in Australia
Smith, Evan ‘“Between the bomb and the ballot box”: the history of the far-right in Australia‘, Guardian Australia, 16 August 2016 updated The return of One Nation (on steroids) provokes this useful run-down of Australian fringe groups over the last…
Farrell, Paul, Nick Evershed & Helen Davidson: The Nauru files: 2,000 leaked reports reveal scale of abuse of children in Australian offshore detention
Farrell, Paul, Nick Evershed & Helen Davidson ‘The Nauru files: 2,000 leaked reports reveal scale of abuse of children in Australian offshore detention‘, Guardian Australia, 10 August 2016 updated Leaked files reveal assaults, sexual assault and self-harm. The devastating trauma…
Sheil, Christopher & Frank Stilwell: Land of the ‘fair go’ no more: wealth in Australia is becoming more unequal
Sheil, Christopher & Frank Stilwell ‘Land of the “fair go” no more: wealth in Australia is becoming more unequal‘, The Conversation, 9 August 2016 Yet another piece to add to our collection under the thumbnail, ‘Inequality’. Reports and analyses continue…
Williams, George: Australia needs a treaty and constitutional recognition for Indigenous people
Williams, George ‘Australia needs a treaty and constitutional recognition for Indigenous people’, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 August 2016 Indigenous journalist, Stan Grant, claims in the video with this piece that Australia is the only Commonwealth country that lacks a treaty…
McKinley, Michael: The ANZUS Alliance-as-disastrous diffusion
McKinley, Michael The ANZUS Alliance-as-disastrous diffusion: The political virology of a wartime liaison: Presented to the Panel WA 71 Diffusion-as-Empire: Theory and Comparative Studies in Disastrous Circulations of Power, 54th Annual Convention, The International Studies Association, San Francisco, California, USA,…
McQuire, Amy: 200 years of trauma through a CCTV lens (Don Dale and after)
McQuire, Amy ‘200 years of trauma through a CCTV lens‘, New Matilda, 3 August 2016 The best piece that we have seen on this issue. Darumbul journalist, Amy McQuire, looks behind the Royal Commission kneejerk reaction. Aboriginal affairs moves at…
AHRC Working Group: Leading for Change: A Blueprint for Cultural Diversity and Inclusive Leadership
Australian Human Rights Commission Working Group Leading for Change: A Blueprint for Cultural Diversity and Inclusive Leadership, The Commission, Sydney, 2016 The Working Group was chaired by Tim Soutphommasane, Race Discrimination Commissioner, and included Greg Whitwell, Rae Cooper, Ainslie Van…
Ashenden, Dean: The educational consequences of the peace (education policy over a century)
Ashenden, Dean ‘The educational consequences of the peace‘, Inside Story, 28 July 2016 Long article on the history of education policy from the nineteenth century, through the Labor Split of 1955, the Goulburn schools boycott in 1962 to the Karmel…
Broinowski, Anna (dir).: Pauline Hanson: Please explain!
Broinowski, Anna (dir.) ‘Pauline Hanson: Please explain!‘ SBS, 1 August 2016 Full video and supporting material of the documentary shown on SBS on 31 July. Another link. The documentary moves back and forth between 1996 and more recently, interviewing many…
Lydon, Jane: Worth a thousand words – how photos shape attitudes to refugees
Lydon, Jane ‘Friday essay: worth a thousand words – how photos shape attitudes to refugees‘, The Conversation, 29 July 2016 Looks at the politicisation of migration over the last two decades and how ‘[p]hotography has mapped a distinctively Australian version…
Graham, Chris: NT juvenile prison abuse: the most shocking part is that anyone is actually shocked
Graham, Chris Update 4 August 2016: Calla Wahlquist in Guardian Australia on Indigenous incarceration rates. Thalia Anthony in The Conversation on the same subject. Update 1-3 August 2016: Take 2: Commissioner No. 1 steps down and Commissioners Nos 2 and…
Know any bushrangers whose stories should be told but haven’t been?
Meg Foster is currently a PhD Candidate in history at the University of New South Wales. She is working on a project called ‘The “other” bushrangers’, investigating the impact of bushrangers (those of them who were not white men) on…
Kelly, Sean: Trump and circumstance
Kelly, Sean ‘Trump and circumstance‘, The Monthly Today, 22 July 2016 updated The teaser to this piece runs, ‘How Donald Trump is exploiting the rules of politics and media, and what it means for Australia’. The article is about much…
Stephens, David: Is Julia Gillard’s speech to the US Congress the most sycophantic speech by an Australian PM?
Stephens, David ‘Is this the most sycophantic speech by an Australian prime minister? Julia Gillard’s address to the United States Congress, March 2011’, Honest History, 19 July 2016 This article analyses a recent claim by former Australian diplomat, Richard Butler,…
Landers, Rachel: Who bombed the Hilton?
Landers, Rachel Who Bombed the Hilton? NewSouth, Sydney, 2016 On 13 February 1978 a bomb exploded outside the Hilton Hotel in George Street, Sydney. Two garbage collectors and a police officer were killed. Often called the first act of terrorist…
Is Julia Gillard’s speech to the US Congress the most sycophantic speech by an Australian PM?
David Stephens ‘Is this the most sycophantic speech by an Australian prime minister? Julia Gillard’s address to the United States Congress, March 2011’, Honest History, 19 July 2016 Former Prime Minister Rudd gets Anzac biscuit, 2012 (Courier-Mail/Brad Cooper) Anzackery precedents:…
Australia’s no-go zones: Rachel Landers’ Who Bombed the Hilton?
‘Australia’s no-go zones: Rachel Landers’ Who Bombed the Hilton?’ Honest History, 19 July 2016 Alison Broinowski reviews Rachel Landers’ book Who Bombed the Hilton? We are not suddenly making the world uninhabitable all at once. Instead, the world is creating…
From the Honest History archives: Alison Broinowski from October 2013 on Iraq 2003 and war powers reform
In the wake of the Chilcot report and recognising its relevance for Australia, we are re-running a perspicacious October 2013 piece from Alison Broinowski (vice president of both Honest History and Australians for War Powers Reform). Called ‘The streaker’s defence:…
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Fielding, Victoria: The big election story the media missed
Fielding, Victoria ‘The big election story the media missed‘, New Matilda, 7 July 2016 PhD student writes on the lack of attention during the election campaign to growing inequality. (The Honest History website has collected extensive resources on inequality.) She…
Sarra, Chris: We Indigenous people are stronger than we believe, and smarter than we know
Sarra, Chris ‘We Indigenous people are stronger than we believe, and smarter than we know‘, Guardian Australia, 10 July 2016 Address after Dr Sarra received NAIDOC 2016 Person of the Year award. In the course of it, he supports negotiation…
From the Honest History archives: Gough Whitlam centenary, 11 July 2016
Monday, 11 July 2016, is 100 years since the birth of Edward Gough Whitlam, prime minister of Australia 1972-75. Gough Whitlam died in October 2014 and at that time, Honest History collected a lot of resources, obituaries, reminiscences, commentaries, extracts,…
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Five uneasy pieces on the mainstream media and the election
Update 3 August 2016: Richard Denniss in The Monthly on Brexit, election, perceptions, the media and the whole damn thing. Update 22 July 2016: Sean Kelly in The Monthly Today on some of the issues below. ____________ The founder of…
From the Honest History archives: An old Queen and a new nation (Constitution Day, 9 July)
‘From the Honest History archives: An old Queen and a new nation (Constitution Day, 9 July)’, Honest History, 6 July 2016 Victoria by Charles Léandre, Le Rire, 12 June 1897 (Wikimedia Commons) Update: National Archives of Australia events on Constitution…
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McQuire, Amy: More Aboriginal MPs shouldn’t let the major parties off the hook
McQuire, Amy ‘More Aboriginal MPs shouldn’t let the major parties off the hook‘, New Matilda, 5 July 2016 Darumbul journalist, Amy McQuire, notes the election of Wiradjuri woman, Linda Burney, ALP, as the first Indigenous woman in the House of…
Marks, Russell: An impoverished estate (media and politics)
Marks, Russell ‘An impoverished estate‘, The Monthly, 5 July 2016 The sub-heading reads ‘The Australian media prioritised personality over policy during this election campaign’. Honest History has avoided running ‘horse-race’ stories about this election campaign, punting (sorry) instead for the…
McAuley, Ian: Hung Parliament Explained: Too Much Party Testosterone Drives The Opposition
McAuley, Ian ‘Hung parliament explained: too much party testosterone drives the Opposition‘, New Matilda, 3 July 2016 Historical analysis of primary votes of major parties and other parties/independents since 1946, showing the decline for the major parties and the rise…
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Coombs, Anne: It seems like a good time to ask: what are governments for?
Coombs, Anne ‘It seems like a good time to ask: what are governments for?‘ Guardian, 24 June 2016 This piece was re-run in the latest Guardian Weekly (1-7 July) where it earned the additional headline: ‘We give them power to…
Davey, Melissa: Australia’s gun laws stopped mass shootings and reduced homicides
Davey, Melissa ‘Australia’s gun laws stopped mass shootings and reduced homicides, study finds‘, Guardian Australia, 23 June 2016 Over 500 comments on this piece which reports a longitudinal (20 year) study by Sydney and Macquarie University researchers. The original article…
Bongiorno, Frank: Politicians’ inability to speak freely on issues that matter leaves democracy all the poorer
Bongiorno, Frank ‘Politicians’ inability to speak freely on issues that matter leaves democracy all the poorer‘, The Conversation, 21 June 2016 The author notes the poor quality of political debate in Australia, particularly during the current election campaign, but also…
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Megarrity, Lyndon: Northern Dreams, National Realities: The Life and Times of Dr Rex Patterson
Megarrity, Lyndon Research Report 46: Northern Dreams, National Realities: The Life and Times of Dr Rex Patterson, TJ Ryan Foundation, Brisbane, May 2016 Rex Patterson (1927-2016) was Australia’s first minister for portfolios specialising in Northern Australia. After a career in…
Review note: The Soldier’s Curse by Meg and Tom Keneally
‘Review note: The Soldier’s Curse: Book One, The Monsarrat Series, by Meg and Tom Keneally’, Honest History, 13 June 2016 Gentle Reader reviews a Keneally family enterprise published by Vintage Random House. Tom Keneally is not only prolific but also…
Venturini, VG (George): The facets of Australian fascism: the Abbott Government experiment (Parts 1-5)
Venturini, VG (George) ‘The facets of Australian fascism: the Abbott Government experiment (Parts 1-5)‘, Australian Independent Media Network, 2-6 June 2016 First of a planned multi-part series by this veteran commentator. The other parts will link from Part 1. With…