Schultz, Julianne, Anne Tiernan, et al. ‘Fixing the system‘, Griffith Review, 51, January 2016, available online to subscribers Collection of nearly thirty essays on how to foster ‘a society that really works’. Authors include the editors, Carmen Lawrence, Chris Wallace,…
High Commissioner Fisher talks up the war, January 1916: highlights reel
‘High Commissioner Fisher talks up the war, January 1916: Honest History highlights reel’, Honest History, 2 February 2016 Andrew Fisher left the Australian prime ministership on 30 October 1915 and, with his family, travelled to London to take up the…
Headon, David & John Uhr, ed.: Eureka: Australia’s greatest story
David Headon & John Uhr, ed. Eureka: Australia’s Greatest Story, Federation Press, Sydney, 2015; electronic version available Papers from a conference held in Canberra, December 2014, plus some additional papers. The editors of this book boldly proclaim that Eureka is…
Melleuish, Gregory: Australian head of state but de facto monarchy
Melleuish, Gregory ‘An Australian head of state won’t save us from being a de facto monarchy‘, The Conversation, 27 January 2016 Prime ministers have become quasi-monarchs (despite their elected status) which is a particular worry given the poor quality of…
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Organ, Michael K.: Governor Macquarie’s Aboriginal War of 1816
Organ, Michael K. ‘Secret service: Governor Macquarie’s Aboriginal War of 1816: Proceedings of the National Conference of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Mittagong, 25-26 October 2014‘, University of Wollongong Research Online Detailed analysis of Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s punitive actions against…
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Patience, Allan: Can we afford Australia’s federal system?
Patience, Allan ‘Can we continue to afford Australia’s federal system?‘ Pearls and Irritations, 18 January 2016 The article looks at the issues facing Australia and anticipates the forthcoming White Paper on the reform of federalism. It is now more obvious…
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Browne, Peter: Postwar boomer (RG Menzies 50 years on)
Browne, Peter ‘Postwar boomer‘, Inside Story, 18 January 2016 Long essay looking back from Sir Robert Menzies’ retirement 50 years ago to the events of his 16-year reign (and even glances at his earlier time in office in 1939-41). Menzies…
Latimore, Jack et al: New News 2015: From the ground up: New Media and Indigenous reporting
Latimore, Jack, Allan Clarke, Paul Daley, Amy McQuire, and Steve Hodder Watt ‘New News 2015: From the ground up: New Media and Indigenous reporting’, Wheeler Centre, 10 October 2015 One hour video of panel discussion, chaired by Latimore, who is…
Honest History Christmas miscellany 2015: lots to read and ponder
‘Honest History Christmas miscellany 2015: lots to read and ponder’, Honest History, 20 December 2015 Christmas often brings a reckoning and it is the same in our compact little enterprise. We would have loved to have afforded some of the…
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World War I internment case rings ‘national security’ bells today
What happens in Marrickville today would have been of interest to the enforcers of the War Precautions Act 1914 had it happened a century ago. Sunday, 22 November 2015, saw the Gallipoli Centenary Peace Campaign (GCPC) and St Brigid’s Parish…
Eltham, Ben: for a new thing, innovation has been around for a while
Eltham, Ben ‘Malcolm “Boom Boom” Turnbull is an old ideas man‘, New Matilda, 10 December 2015 Anyone older than 40 should be able to remember at least three ‘innovation statements’ by Australian governments. They may also have a shelf of…
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Appleby, Gabrielle: what say do our elected representatives have in going to war?
Appleby, Gabrielle ‘What say do our elected representatives have in going to war?‘ The Conversation, 10 December 2015 updated The authorisation of military force is one of the most serious and consequential powers that governments possess. This power should be…
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Three essays on the Cronulla riots 10 years on
Update 14 December 2015: the World Socialist Web Site weighs in with some detailed analysis of the court decision on the proposed Cronulla commemorative barbecue by the Party for Freedom. WSWS has also sent us a link to its 2006…
Powell, Graeme with Stuart Macintyre: Land of opportunity (Post-War Reconstruction archives)
Powell, Graeme with Stuart Macintyre Land of Opportunity: Australia’s Post-War Reconstruction, National Archives of Australia, Canberra, 2015 This is 336 pages (30 chapters) of guidance to the files of the National Archives of Australia on a crucial decade of Australia’s…
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Whiteford, Peter: is welfare sustainable?
Whiteford, Peter ‘Is welfare sustainable?‘ Inside Story, 22 November 2015 Looks at recent government statements about social services expenditure then moves on to detailed historical consideration of the issue. Most of the graphs go back to 1995 and cover, for…
Eureka 161 years on: Honest History miscellany
‘Eureka 161 years on: Honest History miscellany’, Honest History, 1 December 2015 Thursday this week, 3 December, is the 161st anniversary of Eureka. Honest History has collected resources on Eureka over the last couple of years and here are links…
Stephens, David: will the new Anzac centenary minister be too busy to bother?
Stephens, David ‘Will the new Anzac centenary minister be too busy to bother?‘ Honest History, 1 December 2015 Update 4 December 2015: the Minister has responded on Twitter. The article looks at the ministerial workload implications of the machinery of…
Bongiorno, Frank: The Eighties: Decade that Transformed Australia
Bongiorno, Frank The Eighties: The Decade that Transformed Australia, Black Inc, Collingwood, Vic, 2015; hardback and electronic It was the era of Hawke and Keating, Kylie and INXS, the America’s Cup and the Bicentenary. It was perhaps the most controversial…
Will the new Anzac centenary minister be too busy to bother?
David Stephens ‘Will the new Anzac centenary minister be too busy to bother?’ Honest History, 1 December 2015 updated [Note: earlier, edited versions of this article appear in the Public Servant Informant supplement of the Canberra Times for 1 December 2015,…
The eighties in nine chapters (review of Bongiorno)
‘The eighties in nine chapters’ (review of Bongiorno), Honest History, 1 December 2015 Janet Wilson* reviews The Eighties: The Decade that Transformed Australia by Frank Bongiorno __________________________ Among the words and phrases that entered the lexicon in the 1980s are…
Wilkie, Douglas: the convict ship Hashemy and historical error
Wilkie, Douglas ‘The convict ship “Hashemy” at Port Phillip: a case study in historical error‘, Victorian Historical Journal, 85, 1, June 2014, pp. 31-53 Received history is that the convict ship Hashemy was turned away from Melbourne in 1849 and…
Online gem No. 5: Medico-Legal Society of Victoria: experience of war
Online gem No. 5: Medico-Legal Society of Victoria: the experience of war (26 November 2015) Here are some more items from the extensive holdings of the Medico-Legal Society of Victoria (MLSV). Online gem No. 4 also included papers from the…
Woolombi Waters, Marcus: Australia is a nation of white privilege
Woolombi Waters, Marcus ‘Whether you’re listening or not, Australia is a nation of white privilege‘, The Conversation, 17 November 2015 The author is a Kamilaroi man who has recently returned from travelling overseas for work. This article received more than…
Cochrane, Peter: Keith Murdoch and the birth of a dynasty
Cochrane, Peter ‘Book review: Before Rupert: Keith Murdoch and the birth of a dynasty‘, The Conversation, 13 November 2015 Cochrane reviews this new book by Tom DC Roberts. The book starts with Murdoch’s ‘Gallipoli letter’ but goes much further. It is…
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Smith, Evan: Australia and the fascist idea of Greater Britain
Smith, Evan ‘Australia and the fascist idea of Greater Britain‘, Imperial & Global Forum, 9 November 2015 Guest blog by an Australian scholar. Shows how important to Oswald Mosley’s 1930s British Union of Fascists (BUF) was to the maintenance of…
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Jakubowicz, Andrew: we need a Multiculturalism Act
Jakubowicz, Andrew ‘How national multicultural legislation would strengthen Australian society‘, The Conversation, 5 November 2015 The author looks at 40 years of history of how governments, state and federal, have dealt with multiculturalism. He finds they have lacked ‘the courage…
Menadue, John: how Kerr saved Fraser in 1975
Menadue, John ‘The Dismissal: how John Kerr saved Malcolm Fraser forty years ago‘, Pearls and Irritations, 5 November 2015 John Menadue, close to the events of the Dismissal, recalls some key events and attitudes. Malcolm Fraser’s political life was saved…
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Abjorensen, Norman: The manner of their going
Abjorensen, Norman The Manner of Their Going: Prime Ministerial Exits from Lyne to Abbott, Australian Scholarly Publishing, North Melbourne, 2015 A study of the departures of all our prime ministers, from the one who was commissioned but never served (Lyne)…
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Parting not such sweet sorrow (review of Abjorensen)
‘Parting not such sweet sorrow’, Honest History, 4 November 2015 Michael Piggott reviews Norman Abjorensen’s The Manner of Their Going: Prime Ministerial Exits from Lyne to Abbott I was in a bus on a group tour in Turkey when the news…
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Daley, Paul: Dismissal bastardry 40 years on
Daley, Paul ‘Gough Whitlam: 40 years on, the Dismissal’s bastardry still intrigues‘, Guardian Australia, 31 October 2015 Grows out of the author’s involvement in the ‘Live Tweeting the Dismissal‘ exercise run by the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament…
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Kevin, Tony: Legislating for War Powers Reform
Kevin, Tony ‘Legislating for War Powers Reform: a report‘, Australians for War Powers Reform, 23 October 2015 and updated This is a report of a seminar held at the Australian National University on 23 October. It is reprinted here in…
Menadue, John: The Dismissal 40 years on
Menadue, John ‘The Dismissal – forty years on: a smoking gun‘, Pearls and Irritations, 29 October 2015 Menadue was the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet at the time of The Dismissal. Here he comments on the…
Online gem No. 4: Medico-Legal Society of Victoria
Online gem No. 4: Medico-Legal Society of Victoria (26 October 2015) The Medico-Legal Society of Victoria, founded in Melbourne in 1931, was intended as a common meeting ground for the legal and medical professions and to promote discussion and understanding…
Lever, Susan: Lawrence’s Australian experiment
Lever, Susan ‘Lawrence’s Australian experiment‘, Inside Story, 22 October 2015 Almost a century on, there is still a nagging feeling that DH Lawrence, in some ways the archetypal ‘Pom passing through’ (he was here for just three months), still ‘got’…
Evershed, Nick & Michael Safi: timeline of national security changes since 2001
Evershed, Nick & Michael Safi ‘All of Australia’s national security changes since 9/11 in a timeline‘, Guardian Australia, 19 October 2015 (updated) In case you haven’t been keeping up surveillance on recent history, here is a useful guide to 2002-15,…
Menadue, John: Radicalism and terrorism
Menadue, John ‘Radicalism and terrorism‘, Pearls and Irritations, 15 October 2015 The author makes an important distinction, noting that radicalism and terrorism are not the same thing. Radical politics and radical religion are surely acceptable and widespread. But what is…
Wesley, Michael: Restless Continent
Wesley, Michael Restless Continent: Wealth, Rivalry, and Asia’s New Geopolitics, BlackInc, Melbourne, 2015; available electronically The world has never seen economic development as rapid or significant as Asia’s during recent decades. Home to three-fifths of humanity, this restless continent will…
Watching the neighbours (review of Wesley)
‘Watching the neighbours’ (review of Wesley), Honest History, 13 October 2015 Derek Abbott* reviews Michael Wesley’s Restless Continent: Wealth, Rivalry and Asia’s New Geopolitics Robert Burns enjoined us to see ourselves as others see us; Michael Wesley would also have…
Online gem No.3: Canberra’s 1940 air crash
Online gem No. 3: Canberra’s 1940 air crash (13 October 2015 updated) On the morning of 13 August 1940 a Hudson A16-97 aircraft flying from Melbourne to Canberra crashed on the eastern approaches to Canberra’s airport. All ten people on…
Hudson, Marc: 25 years of emissions cuts history
Hudson, Marc ‘25 years ago the Australian government promised deep emissions cuts, and yet here we still are‘, The Conversation, 9 October 2015 Looks at ‘the largely forgotten history’ of the 25 years since the then minister brought Australia’s first…
Bueskens, Petra: Malcolm Turnbull and small and big L liberals
Bueskens, Petra ‘Malcolm Turnbull, Immanuel Kant and the Conundrum of small and big L Liberals‘, New Matilda, 6 October 2015 updated The article is interesting because it juggles shades of meaning in Kant, strains of opinion in the Liberal Party…
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Burnside, Julian: what sort of country are we?
Burnside, Julian ‘What sort of country are we?‘ The Conversation, 29 September 2015 Article based on the Hamer Oration, delivered 28 September. Examines incidents in Australia’s treatment of refugees over the last decade and a half, considering Tampa, the Pacific…
Triggs, Gillian, et al: Anzac spirit and human rights
Triggs, Gillian, et al War and Peace: the ANZAC Spirit and Human Rights, Australian Human Rights Commission, Sydney 2015 Papers from a conference held by the Commission in May 2014. There is an introduction from Professor Triggs and papers from…
Grudnoff, Matt & Dan Gilchrist: decline of Australian foreign aid
Grudnoff, Matt & Dan Gilchrist Charity Ends at Home: the Decline of Foreign Aid in Australia – Policy Brief, September 2015, Australia Institute & Jubilee Australia Research Centre, Canberra, 2015 A brief historical view of Australia’s foreign aid performance over…
Leslie, Tim, et al: Prime Ministers’ careers graphically presented
Leslie, Tim, Louis Stowasser, Ben Spraggon & Matthew Liddy ‘From Menzies to Malcolm: the careers of Australia’s prime ministers visualised‘, ABC News, 25 September 2015 Handy graphic version on one screen of the careers of 18 prime ministers, showing periods…
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Nolan, Melanie: Coral Magnolia Lansbury 1929-1991
Nolan, Melanie ‘Coral Magnolia Lansbury, 1929-1991‘, Australian Dictionary of Biography, online edition, 2015 Coral Lansbury was a distinguished Australian radio scriptwriter, academic and novelist. Her son, Malcolm Bligh Turnbull, is Australia’s 29th prime minister. Nolan also presented a seminar on…
Arrow, Michelle: Damned Whores and God’s Police 40 years on
Arrow, Michelle ‘Damned Whores and God’s Police is still relevant to Australia 40 years on – more’s the pity‘, The Conversation, 21 September 2015 The article marks four decades since Anne Summers’ book. A conference is under way. Anne Summers’…
Jericho, Greg: poorest will go under as living standards ebb
Jericho, Greg ‘As the “rising tide” of living standards starts to ebb, the poorest will go under‘, Guardian Australia, 19 September 2015 Close summary analysis of the NATSEM report recently released. See also our collection of material on inequality, with…
Beams, Nick: PM Turnbull and China
Beams, Nick ‘Foreign policy dilemmas confront new Australian PM over China‘, World Socialist Web Site, 18 September 2015 Long article dissecting the new prime minister’s attitudes to China taking note of some key speeches. A useful addition to whatever analysis…
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Phillips, Ben: living standard trends in Australia
Phillips, Ben Living Standard Trends in Australia: Report for Anglicare Australia, NATSEM, University of Canberra, September 1915 The report compares the living standards of different household types across the country: how they have changed since 2004 and how they are…
Brangwin, Nicole, et al: history of Australia’s defence white papers
Brangwin, Nicole, Nathan Church, Steve Dyer & David Watt Defending Australia: a History of Australia’s Defence White Papers: Parliamentary Library Research Paper 2015-16, 20 August 2015 This is a timely publication, given the recent extended commitment to Iraq-Syria, defence spending…
Abjorensen, Norman: uneasy lies the head
Abjorensen, Norman ‘Uneasy lies the head‘, Inside Story, 15 September 2015 Australia’s leading scholar of prime ministerial departures examines the latest one in its historical context, noting the difficulty that recent prime ministers (Hawke, Rudd, Gillard) have had in surviving…
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Liddy, Matthew, et al: Australia’s political rollercoaster
Liddy, Matthew, Ben Spraggon, Lucy Fahey, Simon Elvery & Colin Gourlay ‘Australia’s political rollercoaster: 13 years, 66 changes‘, ABC News, 14 September 2015 Useful backgrounder on changes of leadership in all Australian jurisdictions over recent years. One more to add.…
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Gorman, Sean, et al.: Griffith Review: Indigenous writing
Gorman, Sean, et al ‘Indigenous writing’, Griffith Review We apologise for not discovering this portal earlier. It links (at the time of posting, September 2015) to 54 articles from Griffith Review on Indigenous affairs and another 33 articles from the…
Inequality – six of the best from Andrew Leigh MP: highlights reel
‘Inequality – six of the best from Andrew Leigh, MP: highlights reel’, Honest History, 1 September 2015 updated Inequality has been a special interest of Honest History, as we have noted the procession of reporting organisations confirming Australia’s growing reputation…
Diamond, Marion: street names and naming conventions
Diamond, Marion ‘Street names and naming conventions‘, Historians are Past Caring, 20 August 2015 Whimsical but well-informed piece about how our capital city streets came to get the names they bear today. Street names say a lot about who and…
Review note: Stuart Macintyre’s Australia’s Boldest Experiment
‘Review note: Stuart Macintyre’s Australia’s Boldest Experiment‘, Honest History, 19 August 2015 updated World War I is far enough back for spruikers of a particular view of it to extract bits selectively from, say, the ambivalent Charles Bean and impress…
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Pegram, Aaron: Australian politicians in WWI
Pegram, Aaron ‘Politicians at war: the experiences of Australian parliamentarians in the First World War‘, Parliament of Australia, 10 April 2015 A lunchtime lecture. The author summarises: 119 Australian MPs saw active service in the First World War: 72 were members…
Reid, Elizabeth: Maintaining the rage (Whitlam and women)
Reid, Elizabeth ‘Maintaining the rage: address to Vintage Reds, Canberra, 16 June 2015‘, Vintage Reds Elizabeth Reid was the first women’s adviser to an Australian prime minister, appointed by Gough Whitlam in 1973. There is more about her here and…
Rollison, Kay: Hugh Stretton remembered
Rollison, Kay ‘Book review: Ideas for Australian Cities, by Hugh Stretton‘, Australian Independent Media Network, 11 August 2015 Marks the death last month at 91 of Australian public intellectual, Hugh Stretton, author of the pioneering The Political Sciences (1969), Ideas…
Two Australians of the Year: highlights reel
‘Two Australians of the Year: highlights reel’, Honest History, 1 August 2015 Adam Goodes, AFL footballer and Indigenous activist, was Australian of the Year 2013. Rosie Batty, mother and domestic violence activist, was Australian of the Year 2014. Both have…
Ørsted-Jensen, Robert: Website of resources related to his book Frontier History Revisited
Robert Ørsted-Jensen Webpage of resources related to his book Frontier History Revisited Brings together a collection of resources related to the author’s 2011 book, Frontier History Revisited: Colonial Queensland and the History War. There are extracts from the book, as well…
Sparrow, Jeff: fascism not always an Australian freakshow
Sparrow, Jeff ‘If you oppose Reclaim Australia, remember fascism wasn’t always a freak show‘, Guardian Australia, 22 July 2015 Riffs off a minor ‘scandal’ over film of Queen Elizabeth as a seven-year-old essaying a Nazi salute (links to other articles…
Edgar, Bill: Western Australian convicts
Edgar, Bill ‘The Western Australian convicts: a crucial phase in the British convict transportation phenomenon‘, Honest History, 19 July 2015 Much has been handed down about the severity and iniquities of the Australian convict system, but much has been falsely…
Daley, Paul: aboriginal activist AM Fernando in London
Daley, Paul ‘Anthony Martin Fernando: the Aboriginal activist who took his people’s fight to London‘, Guardian Australia, 3 July 2015 [Fernando] is probably the first Indigenous Australian to dedicate his life to activism in Europe … His attempt to petition…
Taking liberties? five whizzbangs about testing the limits of power
Sometimes the connections within our monthly collections of Whizzbangs only become clear after they are posted and we look at them again on their way to our Choice Whizzbangs section. Some, indeed, have quite long fuses. Some are timeless; some…
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“Whose side are you on?” (II): Honest History Factsheet
‘”Whose side are you on?” (II): Honest History Factsheet’, Honest History, 27 June 2015 Some recent askers of the question ‘Whose side are they on?’ may not have been aware of the distinguished pedigree of these words or words very…
Newton, Douglas: “Whose side are you on?”
Newton, Douglas ‘“Whose side are you on?”‘ Honest History, 27 June 2015 To cast doubt on the patriotism of those who do not participate in a hate-the-enemy auction has a long and ignoble history. Those who defend civil liberties, those…
“Whose side are you on?”
Douglas Newton ‘”Whose side are you on?”‘ Honest History, 27 June 2015 Saluting the flag, New York 1942 (Wikimedia Commons/Marie Winn) ‘Again, I say, the issue for the ABC, our national broadcaster, is “whose side are you on?” Because all too…
Bosler, Danae: Australian novels by radical women
Bosler, Danae ‘Labour in vain: the forgotten novels of Australia’s radical women‘, Overland, 16 June 2015 Brief survey of novels by Betty Collins, Jean Devanny, Dorothy Hewett, Amanda Lohrey and others. These novels are seminal Australian texts because of their…
Evans, Mark: Evidence-based policy making
Evans, Mark ‘Evidence-based policy making: what Westminster policy officers say they do and why‘, The Policy Space, 16 June 2015 This article appears in a blog from the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis at the University of Canberra. It…
Oliver, Alex: Lowy Institute Poll 2015
Oliver, Alex ‘Lowy Institute Poll 2015‘, Lowy Institute, 16 June 2015 KEY FINDINGS:This year’s Poll has recorded the lowest feeling of safety among Australians, and the sharpest decline in optimism about the nation’s economic performance in the world, in our…
Curran, James: Whitlam and Nixon at war
Curran, James Unholy Fury: Whitlam and Nixon at War, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 2015 (e-book available) In the early 1970s, two titans of Australian and American politics, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and President Richard Nixon, clashed over the end…
No-go zones: review of James Curran’s Unholy Fury
‘No-go zones: review of James Curran’s Unholy Fury’, Honest History, 15 June 2015 Alison Broinowski reviews James Curran, Unholy Fury: Whitlam and Nixon at War Has anyone else noticed that the world has a growing number of places that are…
Magna Carta miscellany
‘Magna Carta miscellany’, Honest History, 9 June 2015 Update 8 July 2015: Malcolm Turnbull on Magna Carta and related issues. Update 15 June 2015: leader from the Guardian with the interesting title of ‘the magic of myth’. _________________________ Next Monday,…
Atkinson, Alan: Europeans in Australia Vol. 3: Nation
Atkinson, Alan The Europeans in Australia, Volume 3: Nation, NewSouth, Sydney, 2014 Follows Volume 1: The Beginning (1997) and Volume 2: Democracy (2004). This is the third and final volume of the landmark, award-winning series The Europeans in Australia that gives an…
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Pembroke, Michael: Arthur Phillip
Pembroke, Michael Arthur Phillip: Sailor, Mercenary, Governor, Spy, Hardie Grant, Melbourne & London, 2013 This is not just a book about wooden ships and big guns, although they certainly feature. It is a story of privation and ambition, of wealthy…
Ackland, Richard: Mass surveillance and servants of the state
Ackland, Richard ‘Mass surveillance makes us servants of the state: that’s chilling‘, Guardian Australia, 26 May 2015 Text of the PEN Free Voices lecture at the Sydney Writers Festival, 24 May 2015. There were more than 50 comments. Censorship, control…
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OECD: In it together: why less inequality benefits all … in Australia
OECD In It Together: Why Less Inequality Benefits All … in Australia, OECD, 21 May 2015 This is the Australia-oriented summary takeout from a broader OECD project. The material at the link includes graphs on income inequality trends and a…
Stephens, David: ‘The Next War’: two speeches on Australia 2015
Stephens, David ‘”The Next War”: two speeches on Australia 2015’, Honest History, 23 May 2015 The first speech, ‘Anzac and the militarisation of Australian society‘, was given at Politics in the Pub, Glebe, on 9 April 2015. It discussed Anzac…
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Militarism, fascism, Anzacism: Australian progress report 2015
David Stephens ‘Militarism, fascism, Anzacism: an Australian progress report 2015: speech to Solidarity Forum, University of Technology, Sydney, 9 May 2015’, Honest History, 23 May 2015 (For an associated speech.) I acknowledge the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation, the…
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Anzac and the militarisation of Australian society
David Stephens ‘Anzac and the militarisation of Australian society: Politics in the Pub, Glebe, 9 April 2015’, Honest History, 23 May 2015 (A video of the speech is on the Politics in the Pub website. Q&A. An associated speech.) I…
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Sparrow, Jeff: not entirely innocent (anti-terror laws resources)
Sparrow, Jeff ‘Not entirely innocent‘, Sydney Review of Books, 17 April 2015 updated This is a lengthy review article of Inside Australia’s Anti-Terrorism Laws and Trials by Andrew Lynch, Nicola McGarrity and George Williams, recently published by NewSouth. The blurb for…
Batt, Peter J. et al: pillars of the economy
Batt, Peter J. et al ‘Five pillar economy,’ The Conversation, 27 April-11 May 2015 The articles take up a 2013 theme of prime minister Abbott (‘the five pillar economy’) and look at agriculture (Batt), education (Michael Coelli), mining (Anne Garnett),…
CEDA: entrenched economic disadvantage in Australia
Committee for Economic Development of Australia Addressing Economic Disadvantage in Australia, CEDA, Melbourne, 2015 This report was released on 21 April 2015. It was described as ‘a policy perspective examining issues associated with the economics of disadvantage’. In other words,…
Keating, Michael & John Menadue, ed.: Fairness, opportunity and security
Keating, Michael & John Menadue, ed. ‘Fairness, opportunity and security: a policy series‘, Pearls and Irritations, 11 May 2015 (updated) Update 27 May 2015: There have been 20 or so papers already on democratic renewal, the role of government, foreign…
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Tuck, John & Anthony Forsyth: social media misuse in workplace
Tuck, John & Anthony Forsyth ‘”Maybe I shouldn’t have tweeted that!” social media misuse in the workplace‘, Corrs Thinking Insights, 1 May 2015 Employers should take away three lessons from this [Scott McIntyre] incident. First, you must have a clear…
McAuley, Ian: Australia’s ‘big government’ myth
McAuley, Ian ‘Busting the myth that Australia has “big government”‘, The Conversation, 8 May 2015 The reality is that Australia’s public expenditure, as a percentage of GDP, has shown no discernible upward trend for the last 35 years, and that…
Bacon, Wendy: getting Scott McIntyre
Bacon, Wendy ‘Getting Scott McIntyre: lest we forget the role of pundits, politicians and a social media mob‘, New Matilda, 6 May 2015 (updated) The author exhaustively analyses Twitter streams leading up to the sacking of SBS journalist, Scott McIntyre,…
Freedom of speech in Burwood: Honest History Factsheet
Update 7 May 2015: further light shed Open letter by Socialist Equality Party to University of Sydney. Update 28 April 2015: meetings held The Socialist Equality Party meetings were held, with audiences of workers and youth. Update 2.30 pm 18…
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Horner, David: The Spy Catchers: ASIO
Horner, David The Spy Catchers: the Official History of ASIO, 1949-1963, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 2014; available electronically David Horner’s book is the first of three volumes on ASIO. (The next two volumes are by John Blaxland.) ‘For…
Is David Horner’s official history of ASIO ‘honest history’?
‘Is David Horner’s official history of ASIO “honest history”? Was Colonel Spry a traitor?’, Honest History, 14 April 2015 Ernst Willheim discusses The Spy Catchers: the Official History of ASIO, 1949-1963, by David Horner . The article was originally an…
Fear, politics and what wins elections
‘There are three things that will guarantee votes in an election: favors, hope, and personal attachment. You must work to give these incentives to the right people.’ Cicero, How to Win an Election: an Ancient Guide for Modern Politicians (64 BC) translated Philip…
What is the state for?
‘A good society is one characterised by a collective concern with social justice and a capacity to act in pursuit of that objective. That this case even has to be made is symptomatic of the pervasive influence of neoliberalism during the…
Honest History list: resources on Malcolm Fraser
Australia’s 22nd prime minister, John Malcolm Fraser, has died at the age of 84. Robert Manne interviewed Fraser last year. Honest History committee member, Alison Broinowski, reviewed his book Dangerous Allies (other resources at this link also). Another review by…
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Abjorensen, Norman: William Lyne, PM who never was
Abjorensen, Norman ‘The Prime Minister Who Never Was: Sir William Lyne and the politics of Federation‘ (Draft chapter of The Manner of Their Going: Prime Ministerial Exits in Australia, to be published later in 2015; draft provided by courtesy of…
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Burgmann, Meredith, ed.: Dirty Secrets: our ASIO files
Burgmann, Meredith, ed. Dirty Secrets: our ASIO Files, NewSouth, Sydney, 2014; e-book available Well-known Australians – mavericks, activists, movers and shakers – reflect on their own ASIO files. In this moving, funny and sometimes chilling book, leading Australians open their…
Denniss, Richard: Economists and Manning Clark
Denniss, Richard ‘What economists can learn from Manning Clark: 2015 Manning Clark lecture, Australian National University, Canberra, 3 March 2015‘, Manning Clark House This is an audio of the lecture plus a separate audio of questions and answers. It may…
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Gregory, Mark: Australian working songs and poems
Gregory, Mark Australian Working Songs and Poems: a Rebel Heritage, Ph. D. thesis, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong, 2014 The thesis analyses 150 poems and songs about work and working conditions, with an emphasis on rights,…
Hazlehurst, Cameron: ten journeys to Cameron’s Farm
Hazlehurst, Cameron Ten Journeys to Cameron’s Farm: an Australian Tragedy, ANU E-press, Canberra, 2013 A book on the 1940 Canberra air disaster and the lives leading up to it of its victims, including three Cabinet Ministers and the Chief of…
Gaita, Raimond: balancing security and liberty
Gaita, Raimond ‘Can Australia ever strike the “proper balance” between security and liberty?‘ Guardian Australia, 28 February 2015 Honest History had collected links to many articles written over the last few months about national security issues, triggered by fears of…
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Robertson, Emily: Propaganda at home (Australia)
Robertson, Emily ‘Propaganda at home (Australia)‘, Ute Daniel et al., ed., 1914-1918 Online: International Encyclopedia of the First World War, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, 2015 Australian government propaganda was subordinate to state and federal recruiting bodies and thus was mainly tasked with maintaining…
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Diamond, Marion: Hangman’s rope
Diamond, Marion ‘The hangman’s rope‘, Historians are Past Caring, 22 February 2015 Inspired by imminent executions in Indonesia, the article recalls the hanging of Ronald Ryan in Melbourne in 1967 and goes much further back to the history of hanging…
Harman, Kristyn & Elizabeth Grant: Restraining Aboriginal people
Harman, Kristyn & Elizabeth Grant ‘“Impossible to detain … without chains”? The use of restraints on Aboriginal people in policing and prisons‘, History Australia, 11, 3, 2014, pp. 157-176 The use of restraints on Australian Aboriginal people had its inception…
Plus ca change
‘We have budgeted for a surplus; nothing is more inflationary than for governments to live beyond their incomes and draw upon Central Bank Credit for the deficit. We have reviewed the Commonwealth Departments, and have effected a net reduction in…
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Broinowski, Alison: Citizenfour reviewed
Broinowski, Alison ‘Surveillance is control: Citizenfour reviewed’, Honest History, 15 February 2015 Australia has form in surveillance. The Keepsakes exhibition at the National Library of Australia has the caption ‘A wartime police state’ on exhibits depicting the Hughes Government’s actions…
Wright, Clare: birth of Australian nation
Wright, Clare ‘”A splendid object lesson”: a transnational perspective on the birth of the Australian nation‘, Journal of Women’s History, 26, 4, Winter 2014, pp. 12-36 Author-supplied pdf (use Adobe Tools button >> to rotate pages!) Historians have attributed the…
Tiffen, Rodney: Strategic omissions: Howard on Menzies
Tiffen, Rodney ‘Strategic omissions‘, Inside Story, 29 January 2015 A review of John Howard’s The Menzies Era: the Years that Shaped Modern Australia. The greatest appeal of the book is that it is written from the perspective of an experienced…
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Howard, John: Menzies era
Howard, John The Menzies Era: the Years that Shaped Modern Australia, Harper Collins, Sydney, 2014, e-book available Our longest-serving prime minister considered by our second longest-serving. There is a sample at the link above and here and reviews may be…
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Direct Action, then and now
Direct Action a century ago was a newspaper published in Sydney by the International Workers of the World. Its first edition, dated November 1914, included a cartoon, ‘The advancing proletariat’, the words of ‘The Internationale’ and articles critical of the…
Court short?
[T]he effect of the [High Court’s] decisions on the life of the country and its relative freedom from direct control are too great for it to be insulated from vigorous discussion and criticism. But, although humility is not the appropriate…
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Promises, promises
If you break a promise, the outcome is uncertain and the number of people affected is small. But if you refuse to make a promise, the result is certain and produces immediate anger in a larger number of voters. (Cicero,…
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Lord, John: Politics and Christian faith
Lord, John ‘Politics and the future of the Christian faith in Australia‘, Australian Independent Media Network, 8 December 2014 Tracks trends in religious faith and church attendance, using census and polling data. He quotes Tom Frame in his book, Losing…
Abjorensen, Norman: Tiger by the tail
Abjorensen, Norman ‘Tiger by the tail‘, Inside Story, 18 November 2014 Examines the changing social base of the modern Liberal Party, focusing particularly on the increasing influence of the Radical Right. It was the mid 1990s. Howard and his colleagues…
McQueen, Humphrey: From Eureka stockades
McQueen, Humphrey ‘From Eureka stockades: Eureka Dinner, Adelaide, 15 November 2014‘, Chris White Online, 20 November 2014 Notes the development of conservative Legislative Councils after Eureka and parallels with modern politics. Also recalls that the miners’ objections in 1854 to…
Summers, Anne: Politics of gender
Summers, Anne ‘More in anger: the politics of gender in Australia in 2013 (Second Emily’s List Oration, Canberra, 19 June 2013)‘ Looks at the representation of women in federal politics, says more should be done and proposes reserving 50 per…
Moorhouse, Frank: Australia under surveillance
Moorhouse, Frank Australia under Surveillance, Random House, North Sydney, 2014; available as e-book This year ASIO has extended its surveillance powers, made the issuing of warrants easier and limited the freedom of journalists. At a time when the government has…
The new normal: Frank Moorhouse reviewed
‘The new normal’, Honest History, 2 December 2014 Alison Broinowski reviews Frank Moorhouse’s Australia under Surveillance I wish I still had that very old Disney comic that showed ducks in raincoats on a beach, hiding one behind the other under…
Knaap, Aden: internationalism in early 20th century Australia
Knaap, Aden ‘Family matters: internationalism in early 20th century Australia‘, Honest History, 2 December 2014 Examines the development and role of League of Nations Unions in Australia during the 1920s and 1930s and notes some parallel developments in Britain. Argues…
Internationalism in early 20th century Australia
Aden Knaap ‘Family matters: internationalism in early 20th century Australia’, Honest History, 2 December 2014 In mid-November this year Tony Abbott convened a Joint Sitting of Federal Parliament to welcome British Prime Minister David Cameron to Australia. The Australian Prime…
Stephens, David: Does the banker still hold all the cards?
Stephens, David ‘Does the banker still hold all the cards?‘ Honest History, 24 November 2014 and updated A historical view of some aspects of banking policy, inspired by a recent piece from The Australia Institute targeting the concentration of banking…
Does the banker still hold all the cards?
David Stephens ‘Does the banker still hold all the cards?’ Honest History, 24 November 2014 In the 1950s the then Bank of New South Wales, now Westpac, produced pamphlets on historical subjects for primary school children. On the back of…
Unhappy High Commissioner
If I stayed in Scotland … I should have been able to heckle my member on questions of Imperial policy and vote for or against him on that ground. I went to Australia. I have been Prime Minister. But all the time I have had…
American cousin
As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the…
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Cahill, Rowan: Future of history
Cahill, Rowan ‘The future of history‘, Overland, 29 October 2014 Considers former prime minister John Howard’s book on former prime minister Robert Menzies (The Menzies Era) and moves on to remarks about current politics. Cahill says the book is ‘an…
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Code, Bill: PMs’ childhood homes
Code, Bill ‘The childhood homes of Australia’s prime ministers – in pictures‘, Guardian Australia, 28 October 2014 The imminent (but then delayed) demolition of the home in Kew, Victoria, where Gough Whitlam was born (reputedly on the kitchen table) provoked…
Highlights reel: ACOSS Poverty Report 2014
‘Highlights reel: ACOSS Poverty Report 2014’, Honest History, 30 October 2014 We are told that one of the most notable aspects of recent Australian history has been unbroken economic prosperity. We are told about more than two decades of growth,…
Honest History list: about 98 resources on Gough Whitlam
Australia’s 21st prime minister, Edward Gough Whitlam, has died at the age of 98. This is a roundup of commentary. It may show something of how myths are created and nourished. Mark Latham wrote this in June 2014. There is…
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Melleuish, Gregory: Restoring federalism
Melleuish, Gregory ‘To restore federalism, strengthen the states and make Australia more republican‘, The Conversation, 18 September 2014 Only by providing states with the capacity to raise the taxes they need to finance their operations can we restore them to…
Trade-offs
(I) For some time to come, the delicate balance between freedom and security may have to shift … so that there can be more protection. (Prime Minister Abbott, 22 September 2014) (II) Those who would give up essential Liberty, to…
The Playbook
The formula for saving any dictatorship is universal: create an enemy, start a war. The state of war is the regime’s elixir of life. A nation in patriotic ecstasy becomes one with its “national leader”, while dissenters can be declared…
Jokes at the Front
One can joke with a badly-wounded man and congratulate him on being out of it. One can disregard a dead man. But even a miner can’t make a joke that sounds like a joke over a man who takes three…
Henry, Ken: Public policy and economic reform
Henry, Ken ‘Public policy resilience and the reform narrative‘, ANU News, 18 September 2014 A lecture delivered at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU, 16 September 2014. The lecture focuses on two questions: how should one assess the wealth…
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Australian Quarterly: 85 years in 85 days
Australian Quarterly 85 Years in 85 Days – AQ Celebrates Australian Quarterly, which claims to be Australia’s oldest current affairs magazine, temporarily lowered its paywall early in 2014 to give free access to articles published from 1929 to 1989 (which…
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Holt, Stephen: An unlikely leftist
Holt, Stephen ‘An unlikely leftist: Douglas Berneville-Claye‘, Honest History, 7 October 2014 A case study in dishonest history at the personal level, which speaks to both the irresistible attraction of wartime fame and the inevitability of exposure by the forces…
Douglas Berneville-Claye: unlikely leftist
Holt, Stephen ‘An unlikely leftist: Douglas Berneville-Claye’, Honest History, 7 October 2014 Domestic opposition to Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War in the 1960s and early 1970s was a potent force. The opposition was a mass movement which attracted idiosyncratic…
ABC RN Saturday Extra: Arthur Phillip and the Eora
ABC Radio National ‘Arthur Phillip and the Eora‘, Saturday Extra, 13 September 2014 Geraldine Doogue interviews Grace Karskens (audio only, no transcript) on relations between Captain Arthur Phillip and Bennelong of the Eora Nation. Notes that the precise nature of…
Harris, Eleri: Utopian Canberra that wasn’t
Harris, Eleri ‘The utopian city that wasn’t: how two American architects won a competition to design Australia’s capital in 1912‘, Reform, 25 September 2014 Comicbook version of the story of Canberra from 1912 to now. Notes the impact of World…
Saunders, Cheryl: Making federalism work
Saunders, Cheryl ‘Federalism is a natural fit for Australia, but we need to make it work‘, The Conversation, 24 September 2014 The author concludes that ‘abandonment of federalism is not desirable … It is impossible to imagine democracy without federalism…
Muscular patriotism
Hitler, because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings don’t only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice,…
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Fear sells
Politicians and media populists are expert at the manipulation of fears to exercise control and ratchet up their approval ratings. And we are conditioned to respond. Fear sells – and it gets governments elected. (Carmen Lawrence, 2006)
ABC RN Bush Telegraph: Stitching the Eureka flag
ABC Radio National ‘The brave women who stitched Australia’s flag of unity and rebellion‘, Bush Telegraph, 10 September 2014 Podcast (23 minutes) discussion between Clare Wright, Val D’Angri, descendant, and Jane Smith, curator, about the history of the Eureka flag,…
Dowse, Sara: What are feminists to do?
Dowse, Sara ‘So what are feminists to do?‘ Inside Story, 14 August 2014 Text of 2014 Emily’s List Oration. The author was head of the federal government’s Office for the Status of Women in the 1970s. The 1970s could be…
Tilley, Cristen: Violence against women surveyed
Tilley, Cristen ‘10 charts that reveal Australian attitudes to violence against women‘, ABC News, 18 September 2014 Charts changes since 1995 in VicHealth’s poll of 17 500 people on the community’s knowledge, attitudes and responses to physical and other forms of violence,…
Cahill, Damien & Frank Stilwell. ed.: Australian economic boom
Cahill, Damien & Frank Stilwell, ed. ‘Special issue on the Australian economic boom: 1992-?‘ Journal of Political Economy, 61, June 2008 Sixteen articles on this period of the Australian economy. Multiple authors address Australian economic booms in historical perspective, Australian…
Paul, Erik: Violence in Australia
Paul, Erik ‘The political economy of violence in Australia‘, Journal of Political Economy, 63, Winter 2009, pp. 82-101 Considers the economic, cultural and political aspects of violence, in particular, its connections with the nature of capitalism. Specific issues addressed include…
Humphrys, Elizabeth: Birth of Australia
Humphrys, Elizabeth ‘The birth of Australia: non-capitalist social relations in a capitalist mode of production?‘ Journal of Political Economy, 70, Summer 2012-13, pp. 110-17 This article argues that, despite the early Australian colonies encompassing the extensive use of unfree convict…
Bridge, Carl et al, ed.: Australian High Commissioners, London
Bridge, Carl, Frank Bongiorno & David Lee, ed. The High Commissioners: Australia’s Representatives in the United Kingdom, 1910-2010, Australia. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Canberra, 2010 Full text (340 pages) of collection of articles on the London connection, brought…
With respect to John Burton
Edwards, Clive T. ‘With respect to John Burton’, Honest History, 10 September 2014 Rob Foot’s article (‘The curious case of Dr John Burton’, Quadrant, November 2013) denigrates the character and contribution of John Burton by reference to incidents that were…
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Edwards, Clive T.: With respect to John Burton
Edwards, Clive T. ‘With respect to John Burton‘, Honest History, 10 September 2014 At a time (2014) when governments are increasingly relying on advice from security services to help them formulate policy, the history of events which have attracted the…
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Daley, Paul: Renouncing Australia
Daley, Paul ‘The man who renounced Australia,’ Guardian Australia, 26 August 2014 The story of Murrumu Walubara Yidindji, formerly Jeremy Geia, who has ‘left’ Australia, while remaining within it, and who believes Yidindji laws, as the laws of the original…
Stevenson, Chrys: Politics of Australian religion
Stevenson, Chrys ‘The politics of Australian religion‘, The King’s Tribune, 25 August 2014 Examines the reasons for the bipartisan support gathered by the school chaplaincy program, despite the constitutional difficulties it has faced and doubts about its efficacy and ethics.…
Cotton, James & David Lee, ed.: Australia and the UN
Cotton, James & David Lee Australia and the United Nations, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Canberra, 2012 Comprehensive and well-illustrated publication (available in hard copy as well as online) with chapters by the editors, academics Neville Meaney, Peter Carroll,…
Burton, Pamela: John Burton, undermined by dishonest history
Burton, Pamela ‘John Burton: undermined by dishonest history’, Honest History, 1 September 2014 The illustrated text of an Honest History lecture at Manning Clark House, Canberra, 18 August 2014. The author is a Canberra lawyer and writer and the daughter…
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Noye, Larry: O’Malley MHR
Noye, Larry O’Malley MHR, Sid Harta Publishers, Glen Waverley, Vic., 2009; first published 1985 Detailed biography of O’Malley, with a foreword by Barry Jones. Focuses mainly on O’Malley’s years in federal politics, effectively ending with his defeat in 1917 –…
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Honest History list: inequality by the dozen
You can now find our inequality resources linked from here. 14 November 2015
Smith, Evan: Fascist view of Australia 1937
Smith, Evan ‘A fascist view of Australia (1937)‘, Hatful of History, 11 August 2014 Quotes at length from an article in Action by the British Fascist, A. Raven Thomson, who was the chief theoretician of the British Union of Fascists…
Support ineffective dissent
‘The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum …’ (Noam Chomsky, The Common Good, 2002). ‘We will tolerate dissent as long as…
Responsible Government NSW 1856
The mainstream media always gets excited by significant changes in government. This was particularly so at the beginning. This from the Sydney Morning Herald, 22 May 1856: The youth of the colony will cherish the memory of this day. They,…
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December in Kabul, 1841
In December 1841, the British Envoy in Kabul, Sir William McNaghten, wrote to his superior, Lord Auckland, in these terms, as the British occupying force prepared to leave Afghanistan. ‘We shall part with the Afghans as friends, and I feel…
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Anzac and the Australian republic
Does harping on Australia’s role in an imperial war 100 years ago slow our path to a republic? Here is the view of Sarah Brasch, national convenor of Women for an Australian Republic: The Anzac Centenary is due to take…
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Paul Keating on Jack Lang on World War 1
Marilyn Lake’s essay ‘Fractured nation‘ brings to mind a remark made by the former Premier of New South Wales, JT Lang, to a young Paul Keating, later Prime Minister. Lang was around during the buoyant days of Australian nationalism, the…
Backpackers and Eureka
Eureka was a youth movement. The inhabitants of Ballarat, like the youth of a century later, believed that the times they were a’changing. And like today’s backpackers, the gold rush generation was transient, expansive, adventurous: in search of experience, questing…
Class War 1930
I … a member of the working class do hereby solemnly swear to protect the working class against armed and other aggression of our capitalist class enemy… should I betray the trust imposed upon me I will receive the scorn…
Political pledges
We are not free to break our word, abandon our principles, desert our party, betray our constituents. But the pledge cannot prevent us doing any one or all of those things if our inclination lies in that direction. (William Morris…
Primordial state
The early circumstances of New South Wales were against its rapid growth. Founded as a receptacle for convicts, a system akin to slavery soon took root. Such of the early settlers as were neither gentlemen nor convicts belonged to the…
If equality returns
Liberal democracy has allowed more and more of both the best and the worst to exploit the new superiority of minority attack against majority defence. Participation makes conflicts fairer, but it doesn’t resolve many of them: and an equal society…
Vicious voters, 1891
One-man-one-vote would mean the enfranchisement of whole armies of idle or vicious nomads … the lazy sundowner, the spieler, would all be enfranchised … it would place another weapon in the hands of the plutocracy. Western nomads, like all such…
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Fear beats reason, since 1756
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear. Edmund Burke, On the Sublime and the Beautiful (1756).
History v. Economics
To put it bluntly, the discipline of economics has yet to get over its childish passion for mathematics and for purely theoretical and often highly ideological speculation, at the expense of historical research and collaboration with the other social sciences.…
Media profits
[P]eople value honest, fearless, and above all independent news coverage that challenges the consensus. There is an inescapable conclusion that we must reach if we are to have a better society. The only reliable, durable, and perpetual guarantor of independence…
Britain’s biggest error?
‘Britain entering first world war was “biggest error in modern history”” (English historian Niall Ferguson; attracting 800 comments) ‘If war breaks out, it will be the greatest catastrophe the world has ever seen’. (British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, 1914,…
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Government and media – who should support whom?
The perennial question was raised again with the Prime Minister’s remarks about the ABC’s duty to support ‘Australian interests’. Previous protagonists include Abraham Lincoln, Josef Goebbels and John Curtin.
Consistency
In New South Wales the historical pattern of settlement and the development of the state’s economy have encouraged this concern with pork-barrel politics. Distance, isolation and a rural-metropolitan division have bred parochialism at the same time as encouraging dependency on…
Political heroism
‘Politics is a strong and slow boring of hard boards. It takes both passion and perspective. Certainly all historical experience confirms the truth that man would not have attained the possible unless time and again he had reached out for…
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Bastian, Peter: Andrew Fisher
Bastian, Peter Andrew Fisher: an Underestimated Man, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2009 Hoping to set the record straight, this biography asks why one of Australia’s greatest reformers has sunk into obscurity. Calling for a reevaluation of Andew Fisher’s career,…
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Green, Jonathan: Tabloid politics
Green, Jonathan ‘The slick world of tabloid politics‘, ABC The Drum, 31 July 2014 While not explicitly making historical comparisons, the article facilitates them by presenting a contestable version of today’s politics which might be set against other analyses of…
Labour and the Great War reviewed
‘Labour and the Great War from a dozen perspectives’, Honest History, 4 August 2014 Ernst Willheim* reviews Frank Bongiorno, Raelene Frances and Bruce Scates, ed., Labour and the Great War: The Australian Working Class and the Making of Anzac, Australian…
Bongiorno, Frank, et al, ed.: Labour and the Great War
Bongiorno, Frank, Rae Frances & Bruce Scates, ed., Labour and the Great War: The Australian Working Class and the Making of Anzac, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Special edition, Labour History, 106, May 2014 Examines the awkward…
Nethercote, JR: 1914 double dissolution
Nethercote, JR ‘Forgotten centenary: the 1914 double dissolution of parliament‘, Canberra Times, 9 July 2014 Succinct and clear explanation of Australia’s first double dissolution, although the rules and roles then were rather different from what would apply if a double…
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Brent, Peter: Constitutional referenda
Brent, Peter ‘And the rest say “no”‘, Inside Story, 17 July 2014 The author examines the history of referenda in the run-up to a possible referendum on constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australian occupation of the country prior to European settlement.…
Harley, Hugh: Magna Carta turns 800
Harley, Hugh ‘Magna Carta turns 800: eight centuries of freedom is a big deal‘, The Spectator, 12 July 2014 A timely reminder that 1215 is also the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta. We all know that…
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Taylor, Tony: Tony Abbott’s history
Taylor, Tony ‘Tony Abbott’s history‘, The Conversation, 15 July 2014 Relates recent comments by the prime minister to his formative years and a particular understanding of history. The author argues that ‘the ideological basis of Abbott’s grasp of history will…
Richardson, David & Denniss, Richard: Income and wealth inequality
Richardson, David & Denniss, Richard Income and Wealth Inequality in Australia: Policy Brief No. 64, July 2014, The Australia Institute, Canberra Inequality between those with the most and those with the least is rising in Australia. Australia is one of…
Grosjean, Pauline & Rose Khattar: It’s raining men
Grosjean, Pauline & Rose Khattar It’s Raining Men! Hallelujah? (June 3, 2014). UNSW Australian School of Business Research Paper No. 2014-29 The paper links history, specifically male-female balance resulting from early convict days, with modern day attitudes in one field…
Bongiorno, Frank: Labour and Anzac
Bongiorno, Frank ‘Labour and Anzac: historical reflections: Honest History lecture, Manning Clark House, Canberra, 15 June 2014’, Honest History, 8 July 2014 Associate Professor Bongiorno spoke to help launch his co-edited book (Labour and the Great War) on the same…
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Jauncey’s mate King O’Malley writes about Canberra 1937 (3 July 2014)
Leslie Jauncey became very close to King O’Malley, following their initial meeting in Melbourne in mid 1932 during Jauncey’s first visit to his homeland since 1920. Frequent correspondence between the two continued until O’Malley’s death in 1953. O’Malley, American expatriate,…
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McQueen, Humphrey: Anzac: a class struggle
McQueen, Humphrey ‘Anzac: a class struggle’, Honest History, 3 July 2014 ‘History wars’ are about how to control the future. They are not disputes over the past. Stories about the past are pressed into service to buttress the needs of…
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Highlights reel: HB Higgins on political differences
‘Highlights reel: HB Higgins on political differences’, Honest History, 25 June 2014 The past is not always a strange country but looking backwards requires balance. It is easy to find superficially similar situations and opinions from decades ago and transplant…
Douglas, Bob et al: Inequality in Australia
Douglas, Bob, Sharon Friel, Richard Denniss & David Morawetz Advance Australia Fair? What to do about Growing Inequality in Australia: Report following a Roundtable held at Parliament House Canberra in January 2014, Australia21 in collaboration with The Australia Institute, Canberra,…
Brumby, John: Federation for the future
Brumby, John ‘An Australian federation for the future‘, The Conversation, 19 May 2014 Former Victorian Premier and chair of the COAG Reform Council writes about how to achieve a better balance between the Commonwealth and States and Territories. He refers…
Waterford, Jack: Australia’s McCarthy era
Waterford, Jack ‘Unravelling Australia’s own McCarthy era‘, Inside Story, 30 May 2014 While the article rejects the allegation that the Petrov espionage affair was deliberately engineered to electorally damage the Australian Labor Party and its Leader, Dr HV Evatt, it…
Frenette, Yves: Conscripting Canada’s past
Frenette, Yves ‘Conscripting Canada’s past: the Harper Government and the politics of memory’, Canadian Journal of History, 49, Spring-Summer, 2014, pp. 49-65 The author argues that the conservative Canadian government is reconstructing Canada’s past to serve a broader project of…
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Rundle, Guy: Culturestate
Rundle, Guy ‘The Culturestate’, Meanjin, 69, 2, Winter 2010, pp. 56-63 The author examines the increasing and increasingly complex relationship between the state in Australia and cultural and artistic production. By examining the history of both Australian literary production and…
Cahill, Rowan: Enemy within
Cahill, Rowan ‘The enemy within‘, Overland, 24 April 2014 Short article on how Australia’s defence forces have been deployed domestically throughout our history, in the Frontier Wars, the Rum Corps era in early New South Wales, during strikes from the…
Clarke, Patricia: Australian propaganda in the 1950s
Clarke, Patricia ‘Bias for good or ill? Australian Government overseas propaganda in the 1950s‘, ISAA Articles The author was a journalist in the Australian News and Information Bureau (ANIB) in the 1950s, particularly writing news and features for publication in Asia.…
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Broinowski, Alison: Fascism and Fraser
Broinowski, Alison ‘Silent conspirators: Fascism and Fraser’, Honest History, 22 May 2014 and updated All fascist regimes and organisations have used the power of nationalism and national security as a motivator, as Australia has increasingly done. But no other country…
O’Lincoln, Tom: Neighbour from Hell: Two Centuries of Australian Imperialism
O’Lincoln, Tom The Neighbour from Hell: Two Centuries of Australian Imperialism, Interventions, Melbourne, 2014 Tom O’Lincoln is a long-standing contributor to Australian political and historical discussion from the Marxist and Trotskyist perspective. Here he considers Australia’s history of participation in…
Australia as Imperialist ‘Neighbour from Hell’
Richard Thwaites reviews Tom O’Lincoln’s book The Neighbour from Hell: Two Centuries of Australian Imperialism (Interventions, Melbourne, 2014) Tom O’Lincoln is a long-standing contributor to Australian political and historical discussion from the Marxist and Trotskyist perspective. This book is published…
By appointment: a right royal Jauncey (22 May 2014)
The Jauncey pen this time passes to Sarah Brasch. That feisty Kiwi, Beatrice Jauncey, had plenty of opportunity to compare events in her native land with those in Australia. We don’t know what she thought about knights, dames and royal…
Cannon, Paul: Fascism characteristics and Australia
Cannon, Paul ‘The characteristics of Fascism and how we might note its presence today‘, Parallax (blog), 27 January 2014 Update 2015: there is a speech here, another 1937 snapshot here and a discussion here. Compares the defining characteristics of…
Gourley, Paddy: Two-percenters and defence spending
Gourley, Paddy ‘Two-per centers and defence spending’, Honest History, 30 April 2014 293 Two per cent spending Shibboleths, sacred cows and knee-jerk reactions abound in government and politics. Paddy Gourley nails one that afflicts the nation’s defence as well as…
Lake, Marilyn: Minimum wage
Lake, Marilyn ‘Minimum wage is more than a safety net, it’s a symbol of Australian values‘, Age, 9 April 2014 updated Attacks a call by the Institute of Public Affairs to abolish the minimum wage. Traces the early history of…
Heriot, Geoff: Public broadcasting
Heriot, Geoff ‘The public interest in public broadcasting‘, Inside Story, 6 March 2014 A former ABC executive discusses the relationship between public broadcasters, governments and the public, in the light of 2014’s iteration of this perennial and noting past episodes.…
Oswald, Bruce & Waddell, Jim, ed.: Military lawyers
Oswald, Bruce & Waddell, Jim, ed. Justice in Arms: Military Lawyers in the Australian Army’s First Hundred Years, Big Sky, Newport, NSW, 2014 Describes the work of Army legal officers in Australia and in expeditionary operations from the Boer War…
Leigh, Andrew: Battlers and billionaires
Leigh, Andrew Battlers and Billionaires: the Story of Inequality in Australia, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2013 From egalitarian beginnings, Australian inequality rose through the nineteenth century. Then we became more equal again, with inequality falling markedly from the 1920s to the…
ABC News: Flag debate
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Adam Gartrell ‘Rudd, Keating “at war” over Gallipoli‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 31 October 2008 The former Prime Minister, Paul Keating, had said it was ‘utter and complete nonsense’ that Australia was redeemed or born again at Gallipoli in 1915, that…
Ramsey, Alan: What you get for having a shot at Keating
Alan Ramsey ‘What you get for having a shot at Keating‘, Sydney Morning Herald, 1 November 2008 Text of the then former Prime Minister’s response to the remark of the then Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, that Keating was wrong to…
Londey, Peter: Managed memories
Peter Londey ‘Managed memories‘, H-net Book Review (27 May 2005); originally published H-war, January 2005 The book reviewed is Liz Reed, Bigger than Gallipoli: War, History and Memory in Australia, University of Western Australia Press, Perth, 2004. The reviewer worked…
Masters, Chris, et al: The great history war
Chris Masters ‘The great history war‘, ABC Four Corners, 10 November 2008 (transcript) Presenter Chris Masters talks to academics, war historians, military tourists and descendants of soldiers. The scenes are Gallipoli and the Western Front. Among the remarks: PROF. JOAN…
McKenna, Mark: Patriot act
Mark McKenna ‘Patriot act’, Australian, 6 June 2007 (also in the Australian Literary Review) Long (5000 words) article anticipating the author’s chapter in What’s Wrong with Anzac? Contains seminal critique of the Anzac myth as a political tool, wielded by…
Ross, Lloyd: Curtin
Lloyd Ross Curtin: A Biography, Macmillan, South Melbourne, Vic., 1977 Biography by a former Curtin associate. Took many years to write, drew upon dozens of interviews, but lacks spark. Still, a useful reference for labour history over forty years, as…
Honest History: When America looked to Australia
Honest History ‘When America looked to Australia’, Honest History e-Newsletter No. 3, August 2013 Australian history has not always been about our need to retain great and powerful friends. There have been times when the rest of the world looked…
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Honest History: What was the federation dream?
Honest History ‘What was the dream, federationally speaking?’ Honest History e-Newsletter No. 3, August 2013 Chris Masters, in his recent ABC program, The Years That Made Us, said that World War I destroyed ‘the Federation dream’, which he described as…
Honest History: Eureka: have we found it?
Honest History ‘Eureka: have we found it?’ Honest History e-Newsletter No. 3, August 2013 The forces of law and order killed more white civilians at Eureka than in any other incident in our history. Perhaps that explains why the attention…
Simms, Marian: A Liberal Nation
Marian Simms A Liberal Nation: The Liberal Party & Australian Politics, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1982 Traces the party’s development from its formation during World War II out of the wreckage of earlier parties of capital, its development as a…
Summers, Anne: The Misogyny Factor
Anne Summers The Misogyny Factor, New South, Sydney, 2013 Provoked by attitudes towards Australia’s first female Prime Minister, the book raises questions about Australian attitudes to women’s participation in economic and political life. ‘Having our first woman Prime Minister’, the…
Pember Reeves, William: State experiments in Australia and New Zealand
William Pember Reeves State Experiments in Australia & New Zealand, Two volumes, Macmillan, South Melbourne, Vic., 1969; first published 1902 Detailed study of initiatives before 1900 in the colonies regarding votes for women, federation, preferential voting, land reform, old age…
Robertson, John: J.H. Scullin
John Robertson J.H. Scullin: A Political Biography, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, WA, 1974 Life and times of Australia’s 1929-31 Prime Minister. Focuses mainly on manoeuvrings within government and party and on macro-economic issues. Social unrest is given much…
Pusey, Michael: Economic Rationalism in Canberra
Michael Pusey Economic Rationalism in Canberra: A Nation Building State Changes its Mind, Cambridge University Press, New York & Melbourne, 1991 Traces in the attitudes and policy preferences of Commonwealth bureaucrats ‘the end of the Australian Settlement’ detected by Paul…
Rawson, DW: Labor in vain
DW Rawson Labor in Vain? A Survey of the Australian Labor Party, Longmans, Melbourne, 1966 A snapshot of the ALP pre-Whitlam, arguing, among other things, for reduced links with trade unions.
Megalogenis, George: The Longest Decade
George Megalogenis The Longest Decade, Scribe, Melbourne, 2006; revised and updated edition 2008 Economics and politics under Keating and Howard from 1991 to the mid noughties. Megalogenis describes them as ‘the twin architects of the revolution that has taken Australia…
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Henderson, Gerard: Mr Santamaria and the Bishops
Gerard Henderson Mr Santamaria and the Bishops, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, second revised edition, 1983; first published Studies in the Christian Movement 1982 The Labor Split of the 1950s and the proper role of religion in politics. The author had…
McKinlay, Brian, ed.: Australian Labor History in Documents
Brian McKinlay, ed. Australian Labor History in Documents: Volume 1 The Trade Union Movement; Volume 2 The Labor Party; Volume 3 The Radical Left, Collins Dove, Melbourne, 1990; first published Drummond 1979 Includes a poem from The Australian Worker, 12…
McLaren, John, ed.: Towards a New Australia
John McLaren, ed. Towards a New Australia: Under a Labor Government, Cheshire for the Victorian Fabian Society, Melbourne, 1972 Beyond its policies and plans for an imminent Labor Government (set out in chapters by Gough Whitlam and future Ministers) the…
Latham, Mark: From the Suburbs
Mark Latham From the Suburbs: Building a Nation from our Neighbourhoods, Pluto Press, Annandale, NSW, 2003 Written before the author became the Leader, then the former Leader of the Labor Party. Beyond its political prescriptions, it is an expression of…
Brett, Judith: Forgotten people
Judith Brett Robert Menzies’ Forgotten People, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, new edition 2007; first published 1992 Explores the links between Menzies’ values and language and the people he represented and who voted for him in the years after the World…
Bongiorno, Frank & Grant Mansfield: Whose war was it anyway?
Frank Bongiorno & Grant Mansfield ‘Whose war was it anyway? Some Australian historians and the Great War’, History Compass, 6, 1, January 2008, pp. 62-90 Examining the debate over the Australian response to the outbreak of war in Europe in…
Keneally, Thomas: Australia Vol I
Thomas Keneally Australia: Origins to Eureka: Volume 1, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW, 2010; first published 2009 Novelist and historian Keneally ‘tells the stories of a number of Australians from the Pleistocene Age to 1860. The people whose tales…
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Lloyd, Clem & Richard Hall, ed.: Backroom Briefings: John Curtin’s war
Clem Lloyd & Richard Hall, ed. Backroom Briefings: John Curtin’s War, National Library of Australia, Canberra, 1997 Based on contemporaneous notes by journalist, Fred Smith, the book gives an insight into Curtin’s regular briefings to journalists and thus into the…
Weller, Patrick: Malcolm Fraser PM
Patrick Weller Malcolm Fraser PM: A Study in Prime Ministerial Power in Australia, Penguin, Ringwood, Vic., 1989 A political scientist’s perspective on Fraser’s period as PM (1975-83), trying to explain ‘the multiple roles that prime ministers must play’ and the…
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Murray, Robert: The Split
Robert Murray The Split: Australian Labor in the Fifties, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1970; later editions A relatively early account of these events. Very detailed but has been criticised for alleged bias towards the Democratic Labor Party. The author’s much later remarks…
Loveday, P. et al, ed.: The Emergence of the Australian Party System
P. Loveday, AW Martin & RS Parker, ed. The Emergence of the Australian Party System, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1977 Traces the emergence of political parties, in all States and federally, from before 1890 to 1910. Early party development followed…
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Lawrence, Carmen: Fear and politics
Carmen Lawrence Fear and Politics, Scribe, Carlton North, Vic., 2006 The author was Premier of Western Australia and a federal Minister. She is now a professor of psychology. She explores the human experience of fear, looks at how xenophobia shapes…
Kelly, Paul: The End of Certainty
Paul Kelly The End of Certainty: The Story of the 1980s, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 1992; second edition, subtitled Power, Politics and Business in Australia, 2008 Influential book describing a decade of politics and economics. Kelly’s broader theme…
Jordens, Ann-Mari: Alien to Citizen
Ann-Mari Jordens Alien to Citizen: Settling Migrants in Australia, 1945-75, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 1997 Administrative history describing the profound changes in Australia’s demography after World War II. Strong on the role of the Immigration Department and its…
Jauncey, LC: The Story of Conscription in Australia
LC Jauncey The Story of Conscription in Australia, Macmillan of Australia, South Melbourne, Vic., 1968; first published 1935 There has not been as detailed an account of the World War I conscription battles since this book was written. This edition…
Henderson, Heather, ed.: Letters to My Daughter: Menzies letters
Heather Henderson, ed. Letters to My Daughter: Robert Menzies, Letters, 1955-1975, Pier 9, Millers Point, NSW, 2011; e-book available Fairly intimate views of Sir Robert Menzies, the dominant politician of the early post World War II decades. Useful to read…
Freudenberg, Graham: A Certain Grandeur: Gough Whitlam in Politics
Graham Freudenberg A Certain Grandeur: Gough Whitlam in Politics, Macmillan, South Melbourne, Vic., 1977; updated Penguin paperback edition 2009 as A Certain Grandeur: Gough Whitlam’s Life in Politics Biography of Whitlam by his long-time speechwriter and adviser. Glosses over some…
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Day, David: John Curtin
David Day John Curtin: A Life, Harper Collins, Pymble, NSW, 1998; paperback edition 2006 Curtin played a part on the home front in World War I as an anti-conscription agitator, then led the nation as a war prime minister in…
Day, David: Ben Chifley
David Day Ben Chifley, Harper Collins, Pymble, NSW, 2001; paperback edition 2007 as Chifley: A Life Draws upon 40 years of research and writing since Crisp’s Ben Chifley but still produces a largely favourable portrait. Essential reading regarding the political…
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Day, David: Andrew Fisher
David Day Andrew Fisher: Prime Minister of Australia, Fourth Estate/Harper Collins, Pymble, NSW, 2008 Fisher seems to personify the fracture that the Great War wrought in the Labor Party and in Australia: from presiding over significant nation-building and social reforms…
Davison, Graeme, et al, ed.: Australians 1888
Graeme Davison, JW McCarty & Ailsa McLeary, ed. Australians 1888, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, NSW, 1987 One of the volumes in Australians: A Historical Library. The authors write about land and people, the regional mosaic, private lives and…
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Crisp, LF: Ben Chifley
LF Crisp Ben Chifley: A Biography, Longmans, Croydon, Vic, 1963; first published 1961 Classic Australian political biography, though criticised by some as hagiography. Particularly useful on the period after World War II, when Chifley as Prime Minister and Treasurer dealt…
Crisp, LF: Federal Labor Party
LF Crisp The Australian Federal Labour Party 1901-1951, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, 1978; first published 1955 Classic account of Labor’s first half century, written by a man who headed a Commonwealth public service department at the age of 32, was…
Coper, Michael: Encounters with the Australian Constitution
Michael Coper Encounters with the Australian Constitution, CCH Australia, North Ryde, NSW, 1988 Essays by a constitutional law academic on the role of the High Court, aspects of constitutional interpretation, whether there should be a Bill of Rights in the…
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Cathcart, Michael: Defending the National Tuckshop
Michael Cathcart Defending the National Tuckshop: Australia’s Secret Army Intrigue of 1931, McPhee Gribble/Penguin, Melbourne, 1988 Describes the anti-socialist vigilantism during the Great Depression, activities which were backed by secret armies with thousands of members. Ex-servicemen were deeply involved as…
Calwell, AA: Be just and fear not
AA Calwell Be Just and Fear Not, Lloyd O’Neil, Hawthorn, Vic, 1972 Autobiography of Australia’s first Minister for Immigration (1945-49), later Leader of the (Labor) Opposition (1960-67). Includes a personal view of the commencement of the post-World War II immigration…
Butlin, NG, et al: Government and Capitalism
NG Butlin, A Barnard & JJ Pincus Government and Capitalism: Public and Private Choice in Twentieth Century Australia, Allen & Unwin, North Sydney, 1982 Traces Australian economic and social history up to the 1970s in chapters addressing the ‘decline of…
Atkinson, Alan & Marian Aveling, ed.: Australians 1838
Alan Atkinson & Marian Aveling, ed. Australians 1838, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Broadway, NSW, 1987 Twenty-five contributing authors describe Australia around 1838, looking at Aborigines, families, work, markets, government, justice and other topics. The diversity of Australian history –…
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Argy, Fred: Australia at the Crossroads
Fred Argy Australia at the Crossroads: Radical Free Market or a Progressive Liberalism? Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 1998 An adviser to governments of both sides expressed concern about the effects of economic liberalism, freeing up trade and investment…
Lake, Marilyn, Henry Reynolds et al: What’s wrong with Anzac?
Marilyn Lake & Henry Reynolds with Mark McKenna and Joy Damousi What’s Wrong with Anzac? The Militarisation of Australian History, New South, Sydney, 2010 The book caused considerable controversy on its release and since, although many of the themes in…
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Gare, Deborah & David Ritter, ed.: Making Australian history
Deborah Gare & David Ritter, ed. Making Australian History: Perspectives on the Past since 1788, Thomson Learning, South Melbourne, 2008 Includes an introduction on ‘making history and the politics of the past’ and articles by Mark McKenna on ‘values and…
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Dickenson, Dyrenfurth & Scalmer, ed.: Rebirth of political history
Jacqueline Dickenson, Nick Dyrenfurth & Sean Scalmer, ed. ‘The rebirth of political history’, Australian Journal of Politics and History, 56, 1, March, 2010 (special edition) The essays consider how political history has been written and how it ought to be…
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Beaumont, Joan: Gallipoli and Australian national identity
Joan Beaumont ‘Gallipoli and Australian national identity’, Neil Garnham & Keith Jeffery, ed., Culture, Place and Identity, University College Dublin Press, Dublin, 2005, pp. 138-51 The article notes ‘the degree to which a conservative state continues to see Anzac as…
Brett, Judith: Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class
Judith Brett Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class: From Alfred Deakin to John Howard, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2003 From middle-class liberal independence under Deakin to conservative populism under Howard, with lots of nuances in between.
Brett, Judith & Anthony Moran: Ordinary People’s Politics
Judith Brett & Anthony Moran Ordinary People’s Politics: Australians Talk about Life, Politics and the Future of their Country, Pluto Press Australia, Melbourne, 2006 Ordinary Australians interviewed about politics and its place in their lives during the Depression, the post…
Piggott, Michael & David Stephens: Constitution Day: an old Queen and a new nation
Michael Piggott and David Stephens* ‘Constitution Day: an old Queen and a new nation’, Honest History Newsletter No. 4, August 2013 Of all the notable days in the Australian calendar Constitution Day, 9 July, is the least known but one…
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