Australian Public Intellectual [API] Network

Network Scholars

Pauline Hanson's One Nation

Frank Hough
The 1998 Federal Election saw high profile One Nation National President and party founder, Pauline Hanson, as the party's primary focal point in the election campaign. Hanson travelled all over Australia in support of the party's candidates in various states. However, the 2001 election required an alternate strategy given that the party's principal objective was to ensure her election as a Queensland Senator. Therefore, unlike the 1998 Federal Election, the party's 2001 campaign saw each state branch internally focus on their candidates while Pauline Hanson remained in Queensland and worked ...
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Network Review of Books

Calico Ceilings: The Women of Eureka (2004)

Reviewed by Paul A Pickering in the June 2005 issue.
By the end of 1854 there were more than 3,600 women on the Ballarat goldfields. For a number of reasons the stories of these women have not often been told in the overwhelmingly 'male' narrative of mining and rebellion in Victoria's golden triangle. In this interesting collection Susan Kruss has attempted to give the 'women of Eureka' a voice through the medium of historical poetry. The intersection between history and fiction has not always been an easy or satisfactory one. A lot of paper has been wasted on bad fiction and distorted history. These difficulties, however, are not apparent in ... read more.

Defying Gravity: A Political Life (2004)

Reviewed by Graham Willett in the August 2004 issue.
There are few Australian non-fiction writers whose works are kept in print. There are few whose later works are as good as their earlier. Dennis Altman is one of the very few who fit comfortably into both categories -- and this book helps us to understand why. Defying Gravity is a political memoir by someone who has been an observer of political and social life in Australia since the mid-1960s, maintaining an active role in the national conversation across a range of issues for well over thirty years. In that time he has offered judicious comment, calm analysis and a broad synthesising ... read more.

Kisch in Australia: the untold story (2004)

Reviewed by Rowan Cahill in the December 2004 issue.
In November 1934 the Czech journalist, author, communist and anti-fascist activist Egon Erwin Kisch, literally leapt into the pages of Australian history. Kisch had been invited to Australia to address meetings organised by the Melbourne branch of the Movement Against War and Fascism. The conservative Lyons government, keeping faith with its electoral pledge to destroy communism, contrived to prevent Kisch entering Australia and cynically resorted to the Immigration Act to implement a political ban. Newly appointed Attorney-General Robert Menzies handled the matter. Kisch was multilingual. ... read more.

The People Next Door: Understanding Indonesia (2004)

Reviewed by Richard Gehrmann in the September 2004 issue.
The Indonesian way is not ours. But it deserves respect, is worth the study, and calls for understanding.In the wake of the bomb attack on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, a varied collection of thoughts come to mind. A decade ago I reviewed Ratih Hardjono's White Tribe of Asia: An Indonesian View of Australia. This was at a time of Gareth Evans and Paul Keating inspired euphoria for Australia's (apparently) new found relationship with Asia. The Ingleson Review on Asia in Australian Education and the Garnaut Report on regional economies had informed Australians that Asia actually did ... read more.

Facing Asia: A History of the Columbo Plan (2004)

Reviewed by Matthew Ericson in the December 2004 issue.
Facing Asia: A History of the Colombo Plan by Daniel Oakman is a superb book: well researched with extensive use of primary resource material; well argued with clear and largely jargon-free language; and with a basic analytical framework that speaks volumes for the merits of clear and concise research methodology and language. Oakman traces the origins and objectives of the Colombo Plan, which began in the 1950s and ostensibly sought to bring students of South and East Asia to Australia's eight universities, where they would be educated before returning to their own countries to propagate ... read more.

Media Tarts: How the Australian Press Frames Female Politicians (2004)

Reviewed by Elizabeth van Acker in the December 2004 issue.
The role of the media and the way that women are portrayed raises questions about gender norms and politicians' styles. Media Tarts suggests that media treatment of women may perpetuate stereotypes, but can also provide opportunities for breaking them down. Assumptions from other political players, the media and the public that women are 'not of' politics has both advantages and disadvantages. The media creates elevated expectations around them when they enter the political arena. Initially, these 'golden girls' can do no wrong as the media raises them on a pedestal. When they cannot meet ... read more.

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