Nick Dyrenfurth

John Howard's Hegemony of Values: The Politics of ‘Mateship’ in the Howard Decade

Prime Minister John Howards rhetorical appropriation of egalitarian ideals, such as ‘mateship’, ‘battler’ and the ‘fair go’, are pertinent examples of the intersection of cultural and electoral politics. Howard has successfully recast shibboleths of the Australian Left, presenting them as currently (and historically) individualist and, ultimately, politically conservative. As Judith Brett suggests, Howards opponents have been ‘misled’ by his self-description as a social conservative. Yet, Bretts account neglects to critique or identify the very real ideological purpose and practical effect of Howards language. Not only has Howards rhetorical hegemony upon ‘Australian values’ contributed to his decade-long electoral success, but such discourses also have had important effects upon the collective desire to address inequality. Many on the Left have been content to leave masculinist icons such as mateship and the broad notion of ‘Australian Values’ to Howard, but doing so is, arguably, a symbolic and practical political mistake.

Battlers, refugees and the republic: John Howard's language of citizenship

John Howards language of battlers, elites and refugees draws on the historic imagining of citizenship by emphasising values. In responding to the issue of refugees, he contradictorily and pragmatically used his version of the language of Australian citizenship as the target of threat and a source of stability which involved displaying empathy and discernment for the imagined collection of middle Australia, but it lacked compassion for the groups falling outside the domain of that imagining.

The language of Australian citizenship

The study of Australian citizenship could no longer be referred to as neglected. Empirical and theoretical studies have shown the development of both the idea and practice to be incremental and ad hoc: a source of inclusion and exclusion. Historians and political scientists have shown how citizenship was developed through studying legislative documents, constitutional devices, common law interpretation, and administrative practice. Whilst many have alluded to the speeches and texts of leaders, in my mind insufficient attention has been placed on the role of political language. My argument aims not only to show how Australian citizenship has been developed but also argues that public political language (with a firm connection to social reality) has, in the absence of legal and official definition and explication, vastly shaped our past and present imaginings of the citizen.

Review of Judith Brett’s Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class: From Alfred Deakin to John Howard

Nick Dyrenfurth of Monash University reviews Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Class: From Alfred Deakin to John Howard , by Judith Brett. Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press; 2003, pp. 272. AUD

Populist portrait of a polarising politician

39.95.

A Little History of the Australian Labor Party

Review(s) of: Whitlam: The power and the Passion, by Paul Clarke, Writer and Director, Two-part documentary series by Bombera Film and Music Co., produced in association with the ABC, 2013. 2 x 58 minute discs, DVD

Fat Man v. 'the People': Labour Intellectuals and the Making of Oppositional Identities, 1890-1901

19.99.