Cotton Dreaming

Cotton Dreaming

By Margaret Cook Why do we grow cotton in Australia? The country’s vast cotton holdings are the subject of public ire for their profligate water usage, embroiled in national arguments over the devastation of the Murray Darling Basin, water theft and public service/government corruption. But when cotton was first mooted as suitable for Australia’s climate, […]
Australia’s asylum seeker policy history: a story of blunders and shame

Australia’s asylum seeker policy history: a story of blunders and shame

by Carolyn Holbrook, Deakin University Carolyn presented on this research at the History and the Hill Australian Policy History Conference, 12-14 June at Deakin University. This article was developed from a series of interviews with politicians, officials and other key players, including former Immigration minister Chris Evans and former Victorian premier Steve Bracks. Others preferred […]
Mothers explain how they navigated work and childcare, from the 1970s to today

Mothers explain how they navigated work and childcare, from the 1970s to today

We are republishing a piece written by Dr Carla Pascoe Leahy, from the University of Melbourne. Carla will be presenting a longer version of this piece at the History and the Hill Conference on Thursday 13 June. You can find out more information and register for the conference here.  Australian government support for working mothers […]
Vale Endeavour, Long Live the New Endeavour: The End of Australia’s World Leading Commitment to Internationalism and the Opportunity to Reassert Ourselves

Vale Endeavour, Long Live the New Endeavour: The End of Australia’s World Leading Commitment to Internationalism and the Opportunity to Reassert Ourselves

By Kent Anderson and Joanne Barker   I.  Introduction Vale Endeavour.  With the Government’s April 2019 budget, the long-standing Endeavour Leadership Program for supporting Australian students to study overseas and to bring the best and brightest here was axed.  The timing was interesting because, with an election imminent, many expected that this would be the […]
Are we there yet? Boring Elections and Campaign Tedium

Are we there yet? Boring Elections and Campaign Tedium

by Chris Monnox Is the election boring? This seems to be a common judgement about 2019’s contest. It’s not the first such verdict, either. The 2010 election was widely panned as boring until the results started coming in. Then the hype about a hung parliament started, and refused to abate for the next three years. […]
War, Art and the Politics of Commemoration in Australia

War, Art and the Politics of Commemoration in Australia

By Margaret Hutchison Art occupies an important place in Australia’s commemoration of war. It plays a significant role in the way the nation’s participation in conflict is represented and how it is remembered. While war has traditionally been seen as a death knell for the arts, in Australia it has had the opposite effect. The […]
Seymour Hersh, Reporter

Seymour Hersh, Reporter

Famously, journalism has been called the first draft of history. Equally famously, it has been said that today’s newspaper is tomorrow’s fish ‘n chips wrapping. What about journalism that is less perishable? That is, journalism that tells us what is actually going on in the world, despite the evasions – or worse – of those […]
Northern Australia and Foreign Investment: Challenges and Opportunities

Northern Australia and Foreign Investment: Challenges and Opportunities

By Dr Lyndon Megarrity* On 30 August 2018, the latest in a long line of ‘big picture’ articles about turning Northern Australia into a ‘food bowl to feed Asia’ [1] was run in the Australian. Enthusiastic about the possibility of a series of nation-building dams across the north, the Australian’s editorialist advised that ‘Getting infrastructure […]
The 1936 Trade Diversion Policy – China, the United States and Australia: A Balancing Act in Retrospect

The 1936 Trade Diversion Policy – China, the United States and Australia: A Balancing Act in Retrospect

By Honae Cuffe* Executive Summary For much of the twenty-first century so far, Australian foreign policy has been centred on a hedging of bets, orchestrating a careful balancing act between the US and China and the security and economic interests each embodies. The unfolding US-China economic conflict is the latest development bringing into sharp relief […]
Australia’s NBN: Political ‘Shock and Awe’ or Policy Correction?

Australia’s NBN: Political ‘Shock and Awe’ or Policy Correction?

Dr John Doyle shows how NBN is haunted by the ghost of telecommunications policies past.
Marriage Regulation in Historical Perspective

Marriage Regulation in Historical Perspective

Marriage Regulation in Historical Perspective by Dr Katie Barclay
(Un)covered History: Policy Tensions of Archaeology at Holocaust Sites

(Un)covered History: Policy Tensions of Archaeology at Holocaust Sites

by Celeste Thorn