Australia’s national day marks the beginning of its colonisation. There are better, more meaningful dates that reflect Australian nationhood and democratic choice. (more…)
Category: History
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Best of 2025 – Ambush and deceit
The first in a series of first-hand accounts of the Dismissal, from the man who was there: John Menadue. (more…)
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Best of 2025 – Rupert Murdoch’s greatest scoop
On Wednesday 25 February 1976, The Australian published a sensational front page story headlined “Iraq promises $US500,000 to pay Labor’s debts/Whitlam in secret Arab election deal”. (more…)
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One UK journalist’s close access to Hitler carries a warning about Trump’s media restrictions
A notorious episode from the 1930s shows how access, proximity to power and the lure of influence can quietly corrode journalistic judgement – a warning that resonates uncomfortably today. (more…)
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The origin of Labor versus Green tensions
Claims that the environment movement almost cost Labor the 1990 election ignore the decisive role played by Democrat votes and preferences. A closer look shows the campaign helped deliver victory – and marked a turning point in Labor’s relationship with environmental politics.
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Working with PM Fraser – parting words – Part 5 – Malcolm Fraser
John Menadue stayed on as the most senior public servant in the land, after the trauma of the Dismissal. In this five-part series he details what life was like working with PM Fraser. Given his closeness to Whitlam, some of his conclusions are surprising. (more…) -
A calculated plot, an ambush, a coup
Five decades on from the dismissal of the Whitlam government, Australia is seeing a notable shift in the narrative that now recognises it as a calculated coup, and an assault on the conventions of government.
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Working with PM Fraser – burying White Australia – Part 4
John Menadue stayed on as the most senior public servant in the land, after the trauma of the Dismissal. In this 5-part series he details what life was like working with PM Fraser. Given his closeness to Whitlam, some of his conclusions are surprising. -
Working with PM Fraser – a country divided – Part 3
John Menadue stayed on as the most senior public servant in the land, after the trauma of the Dismissal. In this 5-part series he details what life was like working with PM Fraser. Given his closeness to Whitlam, some of his conclusions are surprising. -
Working with PM Fraser – the business view – Part 2
John Menadue stayed on as the most senior public servant in the land, after the trauma of the Dismissal. In this 5-part series he details what life was like working with PM Fraser. Given his closeness to Whitlam, some of his conclusions are surprising. -
‘Mr Whitlam’s style’ – Part I
“I had no contemporary political heroes. I preferred Labor values to Liberal ones. I believed in a mixed economy. I disliked the people who’d got us into the Vietnam war. I was grateful to those who’d got us out. I admired Gough Whitlam, but not as much as he did.” (more…)
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The press and the Dismissal – Part III
Television had come to the fore in elections during the Whitlam campaign of 1972 when increased funds were spent on advertising with slogans (“It’s time” was backed by a catchy jingle) and mainly short television grabs for the news. (more…)
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The press and the Dismissal – Part II
Following the Dismissal on 11 November 1975, the editors of the major newspapers understood the national mood was volatile. (more…)
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Venezuela and Trump’s war to save the old order
“The past is not dead; it is not even past.” William Faulkner was right: past events continue to inform and shape our world. (more…)
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The press and the Dismissal – Part I
On the morning of 15 October 1975, most major newspapers advocated in their editorials that the Labor Government should go. (more…)
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108 years since the Balfour Declaration – a promise written in ink, fulfilled in blood
On 2 November 1917, Britain wrote with the ink of politics what it had no right to write with the ink of history. (more…)
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Ambush and deceit
The first in a series of first-hand accounts of the Dismissal, from the man who was there: John Menadue. (more…)
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The pearling past and the multicultural present: A story of connection and contribution
In the late 1990s, during a field study in Wyndham, a remote town in Western Australia, I met a small tourism operator whose story has stayed with me ever since. (more…)
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To avert war, the West must shatter the mirror by which it views China
The concept of the Thucydides Trap, predicting conflict between China and the US, projects the West’s conquest-driven history onto Chinese civilisation. (more…)
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The armistice of 1918 and the ‘ceasefire’ of 2025
Remembrance Day is coming. More accurately it is Armistice Day. The armistice between Germany and the Western Powers was signed at Compiègne in France on the morning of 11 November 1918, after four years of war. Sadly, there are heart-chilling parallels to today. (more…)
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As Gaza starts to rebuild, what lessons can be learned from Nagasaki in 1945?
At first, there might not seem to be any immediate similarities between a devastated Nagasaki after the US atomic bombing in 1945 and Gaza today, aside from massive destruction. (more…)
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One more betrayal of the Palestinians
The history of the Palestinians is a history of betrayal. In the wake of World War I, Britain and France redrew the map of the Middle East to suit their own ends. (more…)
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A century of deceit: Towards a new understanding of the colonisation of Palestine
Political and media commentary on the Hamas killings of October 2023 have been preoccupied with claims that these were not only the worst terrorists but that their actions were without precedent. (more…)
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Is history repeating itself?
As the fallout from the Charlie Kirk assassination metabolised into a mass movement, a few voices raised a very unfortunate parallel – the assassination of Horst Wessel. (more…)
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Death of the Holocaust Industry
The genocide in Gaza has exposed the weaponisation of the Holocaust as a vehicle not to prevent genocide, but to perpetuate it, not to examine the past, but to manipulate the present. (more…)
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Rupert Murdoch’s greatest scoop
On Wednesday 25 February 1976, The Australian published a sensational front page story headlined “Iraq promises $US500,000 to pay Labor’s debts/Whitlam in secret Arab election deal”. (more…)
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The ABC is inventing China’s war history
When interviewing a guest, journalists are free to ask whatever questions they want. But they can’t have their own facts. (more…)
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Don’t mention the war’s end
Only the very alert readers of Australian media have discovered this is the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, and more importantly, the defeat of fascism. There is the odd whisper, a low key event in Townsville, a fleeting acknowledgement and little else. (more…)
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Yet another example of cultural vandalism by Thai military forces
As part of a Cambodian parliamentary observation team, I visited the border village of Anseh in Choam Ksan district in Preah Vihear province on July 30. (more…)
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1975: The Whitlam dismissal’s smoking gun
The dismissal of the Whitlam Government by Governor-General John Kerr on 11/11/1975 still rankles at the heart of Australian democracy. (more…)
