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Quarterly Essay 60 Political Amnesia
Whatever happened to good government? What are the signs of bad government? And can Malcolm Turnbull apply the lessons of the past in a very different world? In this crisp, profound and witty essay, Laura Tingle seeks answers to these questions. She ranges from ancient Rome to the demoralised state of the once-great Australian public service, from the jingoism of the past to the tabloid scandals of the internet age. Drawing on new interviews with key figures, she shows the long-term harm that has come from undermining the public sector as a repository of ideas and experience. She tracks the damage done when responsibility is 'contracted out,' and when politicians shut out or abuse their trad...
Quarterly Essay
In the June 2010 Quarterly Essay, Australia's leading journalist delves deep into the life, character and style of Kevin Rudd. This irreverent, controversial account is sure to be one of the most talked-about publications of election year 2010 - a ground-breaking, in-depth profile that traces Rudd's years in Queensland, in China, in opposition a...
The White Queen
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Quarterly Essay
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....
Quarterly Essay 30 Last Drinks
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 wel...
Stop at Nothing
What does Malcolm Turnbull stand for? In Stop at Nothing Annabel Crabb tells the story of the man who would be prime minister. Based on extensive interviews with Turnbull as well as those who have worked with him, this is an essay full of revelations. Crabb delves into young Malcolm's university exploits - which included co-authoring a musical with Bob Ellis - and his remarkable relationship with Kerry Packer, the man for whom he was at first a prized attack dog, and then a mortal enemy. She asks whether Turnbull - colourful, aggressive, humorous and ruthless - has what it takes to re-invigorate the Australian Liberal Party in the wake of John Howard. She discusses his vexed relationship wit...
Quarterly Essay 41 The Happy Life
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
Quarterly Essay 45 Us and Them
For the first time in history, humans sit unchallenged at the top of the food chain. As we encroach on the wild and a vast wave of extinctions gathers force, how has our relationship with animals changed? In this dazzling essay, Anna Krien investigates the world we have made and the complexity of the choices we face. From pets to the live cattle trade, from apex predators to scientific experiments, Krien shows how we should – and do – treat our fellow creatures. As she delves deeper, she finds that animals can trigger primal emotions in us, which we are often unwilling to acknowledge. This is a clear-eyed meditation on humanity and animality, us and them, that brings out the importance of animals in an unforgettable way. “I am not weighing up whether our treatment of animals is just, because it isn’t. That age-old debate is a farce – deep down we all know it. The real question is, just how much of this injustice are we prepared to live with?” —Anna Krien, Us and Them
Quarterly Essay 29 Love and Money
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...
Exit Strategy
Between the fires and the plague, Scott Morrison had no choice but to adapt his style of leadership. But does he have an exit strategy for Australia from the pandemic? In this original essay, George Megalogenis explores the new politics of care and fear. He shows how our economic officials learnt the lessons of past recessions and applied them to new circumstances. But where to from here? Megalogenis analyses the shifting dynamics of the federation and the appeal of closed borders. He discusses the fate of higher education – what happened to the clever country? And he asks: what should government be responsible for in the twenty-first century, and does the Morrison government have the imagination for the job? “Morrison has no political interest in talking about the future. But passivity does not reduce the threat of another outbreak. In any case, the future is making demands on Australia in other ways.” —George Megalogenis, Exit Strategy
