A Broken Model? Medicare in the summer of 2023

A Broken Model? Medicare in the summer of 2023

Richard Trembath   When I suggested this article to the editors of Australian Policy and History  (which is now some time ago) there was considerable discussion in the media about the strain on Australia’s health services, partly as the result of the pandemic, and partly as the result of long-term structural issues.  For example, Chip […]
How the push to end tobacco advertising in the 1970s could be used to curb gambling ads  today

How the push to end tobacco advertising in the 1970s could be used to curb gambling ads  today

Julian Smith/AAP Carolyn Holbrook, Deakin University and Thomas Kehoe If you think you are seeing a lot more gambling ads on television and online platforms, you are not imagining it. They are so common that high-profile AFL players have refused to participate in sponsored gambling. Online gambling companies are ploughing huge amounts of money into […]
From Militant to Middle-of-the-Road – Why Do So Few Remember International Women’s Day’s Radical Past?

From Militant to Middle-of-the-Road – Why Do So Few Remember International Women’s Day’s Radical Past?

James Keating & Michelle Staff   This year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) has two themes. The first—‘Cracking the code: Innovation for a gender equal future’—was devised by the United Nations (UN), which officially recognised 8 March as IWD in 1977. The second—#EmbraceEquity—is promulgated by the British consultancy Aurora Ventures, whose pithier mottoes are increasingly popular […]
Book Review – The Australian History Industry

Book Review – The Australian History Industry

Deborah Lee-Talbot reviews Paul Ashton and Paula Hamilton, The Australian History Industry, (North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2022).   The Australian History Industry is an ambitious book that covers the intersecting and often competing sectors that produce the various elements of this nation’s history. This book builds on earlier volumes that touch on this topic, […]
Q&A with Marion Stell, author of The Bodyline Fix

Q&A with Marion Stell, author of The Bodyline Fix

Jacquelyn Baker interviews Marion Stell about her recent book, The Bodyline Fix: How Women Saved Cricket (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 2022). The book details the first international women’s Test cricket series between Australia and England in 1934-35, which followed the controversial Bodyline men’s series in 1932-33.   Congratulations on the publication of this […]
Policy Brief – Artificial Intelligence and Education

Policy Brief – Artificial Intelligence and Education

Lyndon Megarrity gives himself the task of recommending to the federal Labor government a national response to the potential use and/or misuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the state and territory education systems and within the higher education sector.   ATTENTION: Minister for Education, Hon Jason Clare MP The Prime Minister, the Hon Anthony Albanese […]
Walker and Li bridging a divide that still needs to be spanned

Walker and Li bridging a divide that still needs to be spanned

James Cotton reviews David Walker and Li Yao with Karen Walker, Happy Together. Bridging the Australia-China Divide (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2022).   This account of the lives of historian David Walker and his translator Li Yao is a story that operates at a number of levels. As biography, we have accounts of the educations […]
Book Review – Suva Stories: A history of the capital of Fiji

Book Review – Suva Stories: A history of the capital of Fiji

Anna Kent reviews Nicholas Halter (Ed), Suva Stories: A history of the capital of Fiji, ANU Press 2022.   Suva Stories is an appropriate name for this title, bringing as it does an eclectic mix of stories together to tell many histories of Suva, the capital of Fiji, from a variety of different social, economic, […]
Absolute Danism?

Absolute Danism?

James C. Murphy reviews Sumeyya Ilanbey, Daniel Andrews: The Revealing Biography of Australia’s Most Powerful Premier (Allen & Unwin, 2022), 312pp.   After his father’s business literally exploded, Daniel Andrews’ family was left with next to nothing. Bob Andrews had invested everything in his Glenroy milk bar. It was left in ruins after the supermarket […]
A ‘fruitful period of opposition’: Whitlam and telecommunications reform

A ‘fruitful period of opposition’: Whitlam and telecommunications reform

By John Doyle   Historian Frank Bongiorno recently suggested that Gough Whitlam’s achievements as opposition leader in the lead-up to Labor’s election victory in 1972 ‘should grab our attention’ because he succeeded ‘both in keeping governments accountable and in preparing for office’. The origins of his government’s positive legacy, says Bongiorno, lay in ‘a fruitful […]
Q&A with Lyndon Megarrity, author of Robert Philp and the Politics of Development

Q&A with Lyndon Megarrity, author of Robert Philp and the Politics of Development

Stephen Wilks interviews Lyndon Megarrity, author of Robert Philp and the Politics of Development (North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Press, 2022)   Congratulations, Lyndon, on your new book. Let’s start with the essential facts – who exactly was Robert Philp and what is he known for? The Scottish-born Robert Philp is known primarily as the co-founder […]