Francis Bongiorno

Howard's End: The 2007 Australian Election

Abstract The Australian federal election of 24 November 2007 saw the defeat of the Howard Liberal-National Party coalition government after almost 12 years in office and brought to power a Labor government, the first since 1996, under the leadership of Kevin Rudd. John Howard, Australias second longest-serving prime minister, became only the second prime minister to lose his own seat at an election. This article summarizes the election result and places it in the context of post-Second World War Australian political and electoral history. The highly unusual character of the large swing to the Labor Party is underlined, as is the rarity of a change of government in Australia since the Second World War. The article also examines the influence of the political leadership of the two major parties in contributing to the changing climate of opinion during 2007 and surveys the campaign itself, underlining the many problems experienced by the Howard government in the final weeks of its life. Finally, the article emphasizes the critical roles that interest rates, climate change and industrial relations all played in fatally undermining the Howard ascendancy. The government, faced with a politically credible and electorally attractive opponent, emerging economic difficulties and a shifting policy agenda, was unable to present itself as equipped to deal with new local and global challenges after a long period in power.

‘Such a Great Space of Water between Us’: Anzac Day in Britain, 1916–39

The historiography of early Anzac Day in Britain has focused on the spectacular marches of troops through London streets while neglecting the more personal forms of Anzac observance. This article explores the early history of Anzac Day graveside pilgrimage in Britain as an example of how the Empires bereaved sought to cope with their grief in the immediate postwar years. The later decline of the pilgrimage movement was the result of the growing role of the state in caring for war graves and the shifting character of Anzac Day in Britain, which increasingly centred on London.

Asa Briggs and the Remaking of Australian Historiography

In November 1950 a young Oxford undergraduate, and Australian and a Worcester man — a student of Asa Briggs, in fact — wrote a letter to the federal leader of the Australian Labor Party, Ben Chifley. After serving as prime minister for four critical years following the war, Chifley had been defeated a year before by the leader of a conservative coalition, Robert Menzies, in a general election. The young scholar took time out from his ‘groping in the depths of Keynes’ to offer Chifley some polite advice. In dismissing revaluation as not being the answer to the present inflation in Australia you don’t give any alternative policy …. Greatly increased taxation, admittedly unpopular, with a large budgetary surplus is surely not the whole answer. But excuse all this please! — it seems terribly insolent of a young undergraduate bothering you with such trite stuff!

'The Men Who Made Australia Federated Long Ago': Australian Frontiers and Borderlands

Alfred Deakin, a leading federalist and later Australian prime minister three times, ended an 1898 speech delivered in the Victorian town of Bendigo advocating federation of the Australian colonies, by quoting a local poet, William Gay.

Book Review: Politics at the centre: the selection and removal of party leaders in the Anglo parliamentary democracies

under-investigated in the field, but it neglects the ruling party and the entire party system. Opposition parties do not operate in a vacuum, and their interaction with other parties needs to be taken into account as well in order to understand their strength. Finally, the structure of the book is a bit confusing, as there are separate chapters for Zimbabwe on the one hand, and Zambia and Kenya on the other hand. This is confusing as the eventual comparison is mainly between Zimbabwe and Zambia on the one hand, versus Kenya on the other hand. Moreover, as a consequence of this structure, there is no balance in the quantity of the empirical material of the three cases, with Zimbabwe clearly getting most attention in the book. Additional evidence from other countries is certainly needed to determine whether LeBas’ findings can be generalised or not. Still, this book fills a gap. African political parties and party systems have not yet attracted significant attention, and there are still too many assumptions about the strengths and development of party organisations in the African context. Moreover, this study is a serious attempt to compare countries in a systematic way, justifying its case selection and applying the comparative methodology in a rigorous way, which is rare in studies on African politics. Finally, the book is full of rich in-depth empirical material, particularly on Zimbabwe. The book is clearly written and accessible, tries to answer an important and neglected question in an innovative way, and includes original empirical material, which is certainly worth reading. I certainly would recommend this book to students, scholars and policy makers who are interested in the impact of historical legacy and trade unions on opposition parties in hybrid regimes in Africa.

Herbert Vere Evatt and British Justice: The Communist Party Referendum of 1951

Abstract Through his role in the early United Nations, Herbert Vere Evatt is often credited with having advanced the cause of international human rights. But in 1951, Evatt articulated an alternative understanding of the roots of liberty, one centred on the role of British justice in checking ‘tyranny’ and ‘totalitarianism’. This neo-Roman conception of freedom had long competed in Evatts thought with a belief in the need for an unfettered executive to achieve desirable social and economic goals. Although inconsistent in defence of liberty across his career, Evatt succeeded in this campaign because his case harmonised with contemporary understandings of freedom and its enemies in a post-war British-Australian community.

Christopher Waters, Australia and Appeasement: Imperial Foreign Policy and the Origins of World War II

party’s Assistant National Secretary Elias Hallaj, presents a spirited defence of Labor’s performance and counters criticisms that the ALP is ‘broken’. Andrew Bartlett’s chapter discusses what he calls the ‘watershed’ election for the Australian Greens. Bartlett, a former Australian Democrats’ senator and current member of the Greens, pays particular attention to locating the Greens as the ‘third party’ in federal politics. These chapters give valuable insight into how the parties operated at the coalface of the campaign. Having a chapter from the Nationals in this section, however, would have provided the views of the partner party in the federal Coalition. Discussion of the election in each state and region is found in section four. These chapters, written by experts on each jurisdiction, analyse the political context and key themes of the election. Each chapter also includes a concise summary of the electoral results for the relevant state or region. These chapters will be a valuable resource to researchers, but they are quite short. Lengthier discussions on issues at the centre of the election are included in part five of the book. Issues ranging from gender, the environment and immigration and the role they played in the broader election campaign are analysed in detail in the chapters by Sawer, Jupp, Wanna, and Graetz and Manning. A highlight in this section is the chapter by Warhurst which analyses the impact of religion on the electoral contest, paying particular attention to how lobby groups sought to influence the political debate. Readers are treated to a fulsome analysis of the election results in the final part of the book. The chapter by Mackerras locates the 2010 election among Australia’s 43 general elections, while the chapter by Bean and McAllister provides crucial information on voter behaviour. The final chapter by Costar examines thoroughly the 17 days it took for Labor to form government after the election and provides a satisfying end to the book. The book is well presented and clearly structured. The use of colour printing, especially for the cartoons and numerous graphs, enhances its clarity. It is an excellent resource for students, academics and practitioners of politics as well as the wider public that seeks a comprehensive account of the election. Indeed, Julia 2010 provides a sound analysis of one of the closest elections in Australian political history.