Suchergebnisse

Queensland played a significant role in Gough Whitlam's political career as a federal politician. Whitlam's electioneering in the Sunshine State during the 1960s helped secure his reputation as a forward-thinking, progressive leader with both a national and regionally focused agenda. As a leading figure within the federal Labor Opposition, he skilfully employed a specific notion of 'Queensland difference' based on local resentment of perceived 'southern' neglect to enhance his appeal to Queensland voters. However, as prime minister (1972–75), his failure to maintain a strong connection with the Queensland electorate undid much of the political capital Whitlam had accumulated in the state during the previous decade. This was compounded by his increasingly toxic relationship with a state rights–oriented Queensland premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, who, energised by his own version of 'Queensland difference', obstructed key aspects of Whitlam's national political agenda. Whitlam and Bjelke-Petersen's individual approaches to the political issue of 'Queensland difference' are compared and contrasted in this essay, and it is argued that, ultimately, both were reliant on the same emotional message to Queensland electors: the idea that Queenslanders wished to be noticed, respected outside the state and to be perceived as good as, and to have the same material advantages as, other Australians. The paper concludes with a brief reflection on the continuities and discontinuities of federalism in Australia since the period under review.

Northern Australia is rediscovered by each new generation of Australian politicians. Dams, mines, large transport projects, a food bowl for Asia and many other projects are promised and sometimes delivered, but then the political momentum fades away and the focus of attention turns to other issues. What is often missing in discussion is the region's long history of nation-building initiatives and proposals, stretching back to 1901. Without this knowledge we are likely to repeat the mistakes of the past. Northern Dreams brings to life the passionate arguments about Northern Australia's national significance and analyses the political debates that have periodically drawn the public's attention northwards. It also highlights the role that Australian politicians such as Gough Whitlam, Ben Chifley, Robert Menzies and Bob Hawke played in shaping northern development policies to suit their times. Northern Dreams is the definitive history of the politics of northern development in Australia.

The Boy Who Would Be Premier: A Political Biography of Jack Duggan. Volume 1. By Maurice French (Tabletop Publishing, Toowoomba, 2016).

This article looks at the Queensland Government's attitudes towards the Pacific Island labour trade between 1880 and the time of Federation. Especially after the failure of the Griffith Government to abolish the Pacific Island labour trade during the 1880s, the dominant Queensland politicians of the late nineteenth century tended to pursue a paradoxical vision of a "White Queensland" in which the settlement and commercial aims of European Queenslanders were partially fulfilled by a barely acknowledged labour force of Pacific Islanders. It will be demonstrated that "White Queensland" was a powerful racial ideal similar yet subtly different to the White Australia policy pursued by the Commonwealth after 1901.