Download or read book Quarterly Essay 21 What s Left written by Clive Hamilton and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2006-03-01 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first Quarterly Essay of 2006, Clive Hamilton throws out a challenge to Australia’s party of social democracy – to both its true believers and right-wing machine men. Will it be business-as-usual and creeping atrophy, or will the Labor Party find a new way of talking to individualistic, affluent Australia? According to Hamilton, Labor and the Left must acknowledge that the social democracy of old – with its strong unions, public ownership of assets and distinct social classes – is dead. Prosperity, more than poverty, is the dominant characteristic of Australia today. Given this, should governments confine themselves to stoking the fires of the economy and protecting the interests of wealth creators? Or is there room for a political program that embodies new ideals but can also withstand economic scare tactics? This is an original and provocative account of our present political juncture by a man of the Left who accuses the Left of irrelevance. Any new progressive politics, Hamilton argues, will need to tap into the anxieties and aspirations of the nation, find new ways to talk about morality, and thereby address deeper human needs. “The Australian Labor Party has served its historical purpose and will wither and die as the progressive force of Australian politics.” —Clive Hamilton, What's Left?
Download or read book Quarterly Essay written by Waleed Aly and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-07 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where did the Right go wrong? With the departure of George W. Bush and John Howard, conservative parties in the US and Australia entered a period of turmoil. Foreign affairs, economics, the environment all were issues to be avoided. Most profoundly, conservatives no longer seemed to have a compelling vision of the future and arguably still dont....
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 30 Last Drinks written by Paul Toohey and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2008-06-02 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Mal Brough and John Howard announced the Northern Territory intervention in mid-2007, they proclaimed a child abuse emergency. In this riveting piece of reportage and analysis, Paul Toohey unpicks the rhetoric of emergency and tracks progress. One year on, have children been saved? Will Labor continue with the intervention? What are the reasons for the social crisis - the neglect and the violence - and how might things be different? Toohey argues that the real issue is not sexual abuse, but rather a more general neglect of children. He criticises the way both white courts and black law have viewed violent crime by Aboriginal men. He examines the permit system and the quarantining of welfare money and argues that due to Labor's changes to these, the intervention is now effectively over - though the crisis persists. In Last Drinks, Paul Toohey offers the definitive account of how the Territory intervention came about and what it has achieved. ‘What if the greatest threat to a home came not from outside its walls but from within? Such was the charge levelled against Aborigines on 21 June 2007, the day the intervention was announced.’ —Paul Toohey, Last Drinks Paul Toohey is chief northern correspondent for the Australian. He won a Walkley Award for his first Quarterly Essay, Last Drinks: The Impact of the Northern Territory Intervention. He was previously a senior writer at the Bulletin and is the author of three books: God’s Little Acre, Rocky Goes West and The Killer Within. He has won the Graham Perkin journalist of the year award and a Walkley award for magazine feature writing. He lives in Darwin.
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 28 Exit Right written by Judith Brett and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2007-12-14 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Exit Right, Judith Brett explains why the tide turned on John Howard. This is an essay about leadership, in particular Howard’s style of strong leadership which led him to dominate his party with such ultimately catastrophic results. In this definitive account, Brett discusses how age became Howard’s Achilles heel, how he lost the youth vote, how he lost Bennelong, and how he waited too long to call the election. She looks at the government’s core failings – the policy vacuum, the blindness to climate change, the disastrous misjudgment of WorkChoices – and shows how Howard and his team came more and more to insulate themselves from reality. With drama and insight, Judith Brett traces the key moments when John Howard stared defeat in the face, and explains why, after the Keating–Howard years, the ascendancy of Kevin Rudd marks a new phase in the nation’s political life. “It is when a leader’s grip on political power starts to slip, when his threats and bribes miss their mark, when he starts to make uncharacteristic mistakes and when what had once been strengths reveal their limitations, that we can see most clearly the inner workings of that leadership. This essay is about John Howard’s leadership, seen through the prism of its failings.” —Judith Brett, Exit Right
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 29 Love and Money written by Anne Manne and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2008-03-01 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Love and Money, Anne Manne looks at the religion of work – its high priests and sacrificial lambs. As family life and motherhood feel the pressure of the market, she asks whether the chief beneficiaries are self-interested employers and child-care corporations. This is an essay that ranges widely and entertainingly across contemporary culture: it casts an inquisitive eye over the modern marriage of Kevin Rudd and Therese Rein, and considers the time-bind and the shadow economy of care. Most fundamentally, it is an essay about pressure: the pressure to balance care for others and the world of work. Manne argues that devaluing motherhood - still central to so many women's lives - has done feminism few favours. For women on the frontline of the work-centred society, it has made for hard choices. Eloquently and persuasively, Manne tells what happened when feminism adapted itself to the free market and argues that any true definition of equality has to take into account dependency and care for others. ‘It is falling fertility ... above all else, which gives women a political bargaining chip of a new and powerful kind. Policy makers, formerly deaf to mothers' needs, will have no choice but to listen.’ —Anne Manne, Love and Money ‘Anne Manne shows a depth and range of analysis that is rare in social-science writing today. Her arguments go behind the child-care debate, behind the work and family tension that is now in the foreground of most Australians' daily lives, to ask the really big questions.’ —Steve Biddulph ‘In Love and Money Anne Manne calls on us to imagine a radically different model of social and political life, one that centres around care rather than on gendered notions of the autonomous, unencumbered individual.’ —Julie Stephens Anne Manne is an Australian journalist and social philosopher who was has written widely on feminism, motherhood, childcare, family policy, fertility and related issues. She is a regular contributor to the Age and the Monthly. Her books include Quarterly Essay 29 Love and Money: The Family and the Free Market, The Life of I: the New Culture of Narcissism, and, Motherhood: How Should We Care for Our Children? – which was shortlisted for the 2006 Walkley non-fiction prize.
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 65 The White Queen written by David Marr and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2017-03-27 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most Australians despise what Pauline Hanson stands for, yet politics in this country is now orbiting around One Nation. In this timely Quarterly Essay, David Marr looks at Australia’s politics of fear, resentment and race. Who votes One Nation, and why? How much of this is due to inequality? How much to racism? How should the major parties respond to anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim voices? What damage do Australia’s new entrepreneurs of hate inflict on the nation? Written with drama and wit, this is a ground-breaking look at politics and prejudice by one of Australia’s best writers. “This woman went to prison, danced the cha-cha on national television for a couple of years, and failed so often at the ballot box she became a running joke. But the truth is she never left us. She was always knocking on the door. Most of those defeats at the polls were close-run things. For twenty years political leaders appeased Hanson’s followers while working to keep her out of office. The first strategy tainted Australian politics. The second eventually failed. So she’s with us again – the Kabuki make-up, that mop of red hair and the voice telling us what we already know: ‘I’m fed up.’” —David Marr, The White Queen
Download or read book The Authoritarian Interlude written by Peter Marden and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-09 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What do we value as a political virtue? What are the core values of democracy in the modern era? What is a democratic culture and can it coexist with a predatory capitalist corporatism? Is democracy just about human rights? What is the nature of public dissent? These are some of the questions posed in this book as Peter Marden extends debates on democracy by critically examining the key role of values often associated with neo-liberalism and the traditions of thought concerning public conceptions of democratic life. Within the volume various normative arguments from prominent political theorists are addressed, particularly those associated with deliberative approaches to the study of contemporary democracy. Marden is motivated by an interest in the language and spirit of democracy as a values-based culture not solely driven by technocratic devices but a genuine reframing of the values necessary to underpin any peculiar democratic practice. Throughout the book examples are taken from the Australian, United Kingdom, and United States democratic experience post-9/11 to explore the dimensions of democratic culture, the nuanced tensions between the individual as an autonomous reflective subject and conceptions of the common good.
Download or read book Australia as US Client State written by E. Paul and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-08-19 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores Australia's role as a US client state and the subsequent consequences for Australian democracy. Examining whether neoliberal and neoconservative interests have hijacked democracy in Australia, Paul questions whether further de-democratisation will advance US economic and military interests.
Download or read book Radical Challenges to the Family written by Ashley Lavelle and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-03 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Defending the nuclear family and extolling ’family values’ have long been central features of politics in capitalist societies, in spite of radical left challenges from social, counter-cultural and gay rights movements. This book examines these challenges as they emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, re-appraising their relevance in the light of recent developments, including the spread of more diverse family forms and the rise of the same-sex marriage movement. Drawing on archival research in the US, UK and Australia, the author asks what the emergence of same-sex marriage movements and legislation mean for challenges to the nuclear family in the light of an original general hostility to marriage and family structures in the gay liberation movement, whilst considering the extent to which the nuclear family might be included in the list of social and economic institutions subject to criticism on the part of more recent anti-capitalist movements, such as Occupy. A detailed study of the extent to which the nuclear family remains susceptible to the radical critiques of the last century, Radical Challenges to the Family examines whether the original challenges shed light on ensuring social problems, including domestic violence, child abuse, homophobia, and growing marital dissatisfaction. As such, it will appeal to scholars of sociology and politics with interests in gender and sexuality, the sociology of the family and feminist thought.
Download or read book The search for democratic renewal written by Rob Manwaring and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2014-12-01 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why is the search for democratic renewal so elusive? This book examines both the political and policy implications of efforts by the centre-left to transform democracy. This is a story not only about democratic change, but also the identity crisis of centre-left political parties. The book offers a fresh critique of the Big Society agenda, and analyses why both left and right are searching for democratic renewal. Drawing on high-profile interviews and examining an in-depth series of comparative cases, the book argues that the centre-left’s search for democratic renewal contains a range of policy and political aims, contradictions and tensions. It will be of interest to students, academics, researchers, interest groups and policy analysts interested in consultation, democratic renewal, labour politics, and Australian and British politics.
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 79 The End of Certainty written by Katharine Murphy and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2020-09-07 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What has the coronavirus pandemic revealed about Scott Morrison, and where is he taking Australia? Epidemics are mirrors. What has COVID-19 revealed about Australia, and about Scott Morrison and his government? In this gripping essay, Katharine Murphy goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the response to the crisis. Drawing on interviews with Morrison, Brendan Murphy, Josh Frydenberg, Sally McManus and other players, she traces how the key health and economic decisions were taken. Her account is twinned with a portrait of the prime minister. She explores his blend of pragmatism and faith, and shows how a leader characterised by secrecy and fierce certainty learnt to compromise and reach out – with notable exceptions. Now, as the nation turns inwards and unemployment rises, our faith in government is about to be tested anew. What does “We’re all in this together” truly mean? Will Morrison snap back to Liberal hardman, or will he redefine centre-right politics in this country? “Morrison’s a partisan, blue team to the core, but his political philosophy is hard to pin down, because it is predominantly trouble-shooting. By instinct, Morrison is a power player and a populist, not a philosopher; a repairer of walls, not a writer of manifestos ... [his] conservatism is extreme pragmatism in defence of what he regards as the core of the nation.” —Katharine Murphy, The End of Certainty
Download or read book What s Left written by Clive Hamilton and published by Quarterly Essay. This book was released on 2006 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to Clive Hamilton the author of two recent Australian bestsellers, Growth Fetishand Affluenza- Australia needs a completely new politics built on the world as we find it. In his provocative new essay, he throws out a challenge to the party of social democracy, the Labor Party - to both its true believers on the left and its right-wing machine men. What s Left?shows how the world today has little in common with the world that spawned social democracy. We no longer have social classes in the same way, we are ever more individualistic, and the locus of power and of cultural change has shifted to the consumption sphere.Yet social democracy and the Labor Party in particular, operates in large part in a mental space that has failed to acknowledge these changes. Modern left and right are so alike because they both accept that the principal objective of politics is to stoke the economy and look after the interests of the wealth creators.
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 49 Not Dead Yet written by Mark Latham and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2013-03-08 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With an election looming and criticism of the ALP now a national pastime, Mark Latham considers the future for Labor. The nation has changed, but can the party? With wit and insight, Latham reveals an organisation top-heavy with factional bosses protecting their turf. At the same time Labor’s traditional working-class base has long been eroding. People who grew up in fibro shacks now live in double-storey affluence. Families once resigned to a lifetime of blue-collar work now expect their children to be well-educated professionals and entrepreneurs. Latham explains how Labor has always succeeded as a grassroots party, and argues for reforms to clear out the apparatchiks and dead wood. Then there are the key policy challenges: what to do about the Keating economic legacy, education and poverty. Latham examines the rise of a destructive and reactionary far-right under the wing of Tony Abbott. He also makes the case that climate change is the ultimate challenge – and even opportunity – for a centre-left party. Not Dead Yet is an essential contribution to political debate, which addresses the question: how can Labor reinvent itself and speak to a changed Australia? “The grand old party of working-class participation has become a virtual party. In no other part of society ... could an organisation function this way and expect to survive. This is the core delusion of 21st-century democracy, that political parties can fragment and hollow out, yet still win the confidence of the people.” —Mark Latham, Not Dead Yet
Download or read book Unfinished Business written by Anna Goldsworthy and published by Quarterly Essay. This book was released on 2013-06-20 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the surface, it seems the best time ever to be a woman in Australia. The prime minister, governor-general and the richest person are all female; women are at the forefront of almost every area of public life. Yet when Julia Gillard's misogyny speech ricocheted around the world, it clearly touched a nerve. Why? In the fiftieth Quarterly Essay, Anna Goldsworthy examines life for women after the gains made by feminism. From Facebook to 50 Shades of Grey, from Girls to gonzo porn, what are young women being told about work and equality, about sex and their bodies? Why do many reject the feminist label? And why does pop culture wink at us with storylines featuring submissive women? Unfinished Business is an original look at role models and available options in the age of social media and sexual frankness. Goldsworthy finds that progress for women has provoked a backlash from some, who wield misogyny as a weapon, whether in parliament, on talkback radio or as internet trolls. With piercing insight and sharp humour, she lays bare the dilemmas of being female today and asks how women can truly become free subjects. 'There is a charmed zone for a girl, shortly before she is ambushed by puberty. At eleven or twelve, she is usually taller than her male peers; more articulate; and more confident than she will be for years. She probably spends a lot of time in front of a screen, words and images flickering in her eyes. Facebook, Slutwalks, Lady Gaga, Girls, Mad Men, gonzo porn, Twilight, Fifty Shades of Grey. What messages are being broadcast to her, and what messages is she hearing? Are they going to make her bigger, or smaller?' Anna Goldsworthy, Unfinished Business
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 41 The Happy Life written by David Malouf and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2011-03-01 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Happy Life, David Malouf returns to one of the most fundamental questions and gives it a modern twist: what makes for a happy life? With grace and profundity, Malouf discusses new and old ways to talk about contentment and the self. In considering the happy life – what it is, and what makes it possible – he returns to the “highest wisdom” of the classics, looks at how, thanks to Thomas Jefferson’s way with words, happiness became a “right”, and examines joy in the flesh as depicted by Rubens and Rembrandt. In a world become ever larger and impersonal, he fi nds happiness in an unlikely place. This is an essay to savour and reflect upon by one of Australia’s greatest novelists. “How is it, when the chief sources of human unhappiness, of misery and wretchedness, have largely been removed from our lives ... that happiness still eludes so many of us? ... What is it in us, or in the world we have created, that continues to hold us back?” —David Malouf, The Happy Life
Download or read book Not Dead Yet written by Mark Latham and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new edition of the acclaimed essay Not Dead Yet is significantly expanded by Mark Latham to take into account the election result. It also includes substantial contributions from several key progressive thinkers on Labor's future direction. Latham astutely reveals an organisation top-heavy with factional bosses protecting their turf. At the same time Labor's traditional working-class base has long been eroding. People who grew up in fibro shacks now live in double- storey affluence. Families once resigned to a lifetime of blue-collar work now expect their children to be well-educated professionals and entrepreneurs. Latham explains how Labor has always succeeded as a grassroots party, and argues for reforms to clear out the apparatchiks and dead wood. Then there are the key policy challenges: what to do about the Keating economic legacy, education, climate change and poverty.
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 66 The Long Goodbye written by Anna Krien and published by Quarterly Essay. This book was released on 2017-06-13 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Great Barrier Reef is dying. Extreme weather is becoming all too familiar. Yet when it comes to action on climate change, division and paralysis rule the land. In this vivid, urgent essay, Anna Krien explores the psychology and politics of a warming world. She visits the frontlines of Australia’s climate wars – the Reef, the Galilee and Bowen basins, South Australia. She investigates the Adani mine, with its toxic politics and controversial economics. Talking to power workers and scientists, lobbyists and activists, she considers where climate change is taking us, and where effective action is to be found. “This was Turnbull’s moment, and the Liberal Party’s too. Not just the Snowy 2.0, but the whole thing – an ailing and dysfunctional grid, a complex issue, something for the ‘adults’ to take responsibility for. But instead of leadership, Australians got politics as usual. Cheap shots, culture-war baiting, bad and good ideas lobbed like hot potatoes and lost in the trash talk of low-grade politics. After the ten-day policy spree, Turnbull resumed his poker face, continuing with his grim role of negotiating with the vipers in his nest.” Anna Krien, The Long Goodbye
