The Australian Moment

'Likely to become the essential short work on modern Australia' Don Watson 'Megalogenis is Australia's best explainer ... A brilliant read' Annabel Crabb Winner of the 2013 Prime Minister's Literary Award, 2012 Walkley Book Award, and Australia's bestselling political book of 2012 There's no better place to be during economic turbulence than Australia. Brilliant in a bust, we've learnt to use our brains in a boom. Despite a lingering inability to acknowledge our achievements at home, the rest of the world asks: how did we get it right? George Megalogenis, one of our most respected political and economic writers, reviews the key events since the 1970s that have forged institutional and political leadership and a canny populace. He examines how we developed from a closed economy racked by the oil shocks, toughed it out during the sometimes devastating growing pains of deregulation, and survived the Asian financial crisis, the dotcom tech wreck and the GFC to become the last developed nation standing in the 2000s. As a result, whatever happens next, we're as well positioned as any to survive the ongoing rumblings of the Great Recession. Drawing on newly declassified documents, fresh interviews with our former prime ministers and a unique ability to bring the numbers to life, Megalogenis describes how, at just the right time, the Australian people became more farsighted than our politicians. We stopped spending before the rest of the world, and at the top of a boom voted out a government that was throwing around the biggest bribes ever offered. The Australian Moment is packed with original insight, challenging our often partisan selective memories and revealing how our leadership and community have underestimated each other's contribution to the nation's resilience. 'This man is perhaps the sanest journalist in Australia. He believes in facts and figures. He has a unique grasp of politics in all its messy detail. The result is this splendid account of the great reforms of the last 40 years that have made Australia, he says, 'the last rich nation standing in the 21st century'.' David Marr 'Megalogenis has the rare gift of being both comprehensive and detailed. He identifies big-picture global trends and demonstrates them forensically. The Australian Moment is him at his insightful, meticulous best. Anyone interested in Australia's political history and future, anyone who wants to understand our economic and cultural development, has no reasonable choice but to imbibe this. It is indispensably important.' Waleed Aly 'Arguably the most important work on Australian economics and modern political history of our generation' Australian Book Review 'Probably the best exposition of Australia's political history over the period of market liberal reform, and from the viewpoint of the reformers, that we have seen, or are likely to' John Quiggin, Canberra Times 'Stimulating ... It is a tribute to the intellectual power of the book that it provokes the reader to consider seriously the compelling counter-argument that, instead of continuing to progress, we have in some crucial ways squandered our inheritance' Sydney Morning Herald 'The Australian Moment reminds us that politics really does matter because the power of government matters ... George Megalogenis is no ordinary journalist' Canberra Times 'Lucid and flowing ... One of the best communicators in Australia today' Courier-Mail 'Wise, considered and incisive ... [a] lucid and penetrating portrait of Australia during the past 40 years' Herald Sun 'Highly recommended' Good Reading

'Likely to become the essential short work on modern Australia' Don Watson'Megalogenis is Australia's best explainer ...... A brilliant read' Annabel CrabbWinner of the2013 Prime Minister's Literary Award, 2012 Walkley Book Award, and Australia's bestselling political book of 2012There's no better place to be during economic turbulence than Australia. Brilliant in a bust, we've learnt to use our brains in a boom. Despite a lingering inability to acknowledge our achievements at home, the rest of the world asks- how did we get it right?George Megalogenis, one of our most respected political and economic writers, reviews the key events since the 1970s that have forged institutional and political leadership and a canny populace. He examines how we developed from a closed economy racked by the oil shocks, toughed it out during the sometimes devastating growing pains of deregulation, and survived the Asian financial crisis, the dotcom tech wreck and the GFC to become the last developed nation standing in the 2000s. As a result, whatever happens next, we're as well positioned as any to survive the ongoing rumblings of the Great Recession. Drawing on newly declassified documents, fresh interviews with our former prime ministers and a unique ability to bring the numbers to life, Megalogenis describes how, at just the right time, the Australian people became more farsighted than our politicians. We stopped spending before the rest of the world, and at the top of a boom voted out a government that was throwing around the biggest bribes ever offered. The Australian Momentis packed with original insight, challenging our often partisan selective memories and revealing how our leadership and community have underestimated each other's contribution to the nation's resilience.'This man is perhaps the sanest journalist in Australia. He believes in facts and figures. He has a unique grasp of politics in all its messy detail. The result is this splendid account of the great reforms of the last 40 years that have made Australia, he says, 'the last rich nation standing in the 21st century'.' David Marr 'Megalogenis has the rare gift of being both comprehensive and detailed. He identifies big-picture global trends and demonstrates them forensically. The Australian Moment is him at his insightful, meticulous best. Anyone interested in Australia's political history and future, anyone who wants to understand our economic and cultural development, has no reasonable choice but to imbibe this. It is indispensably important.' Waleed Aly'Arguably the most important work on Australian economics and modern political history of our generation' Australian Book Review'Probably the best exposition of Australia's political history over the period of market liberal reform, and from the viewpoint of the reformers, that we have seen, or are likely to' John Quiggin, Canberra Times'Stimulating ... It is a tribute to the intellectual power of the book that it provokes the reader to consider seriously the compelling counter-argument that, instead of continuing to progress, we have in some crucial ways squandered our inheritance' Sydney Morning Herald'The Australian Momentreminds us that politics really does matter because the power of government matters ... George Megalogenis is no ordinary journalist' Canberra Times'Lucid and flowing ... One of the best communicators in Australia today' Courier-Mail'Wise, considered and incisive ... a lucid and penetrating portrait of Australia during the past 40 years' Herald Sun'Highly recommended' Good Reading

The bestselling author of The Australian Moment asks the most important question confronting the country right now – how do we maintain our winning streak? Most nations don't get a first chance to prosper. Australia is on its second. For the best part of the nineteenth century, Australia was the world's richest country, a pioneer for democracy and a magnet for migrants. Yet our last big boom was followed by a fifty-year bust as we lost our luck, our riches and our nerve, and shut our doors on the world. Now we're back on top, in the position where history tells us we made our biggest mistakes. Can we learn from our past and cement our place as one of the world's great nations? Showing that our future is in our foundation, Australia's Second Chance goes back to 1788, the first contact between locals and migrants, to bring us a unique and fascinating view of the key events of our past right through to the present day. With newly available economic data and fresh interviews with former leaders (including the last major interview with Malcolm Fraser), George Megalogenis crunches the numbers and weaves our history into a riveting argument, brilliantly chronicling our dialogue with the world and bringing welcome insight into the urgent question of who we are, and what we can become. 'Megalogenis has emerged as something of a polymath. He slaps history and politics and culture like mortar in and around his knowledge of economics and numbers to build compelling, even thrilling, theses about the country of his birth and where it stands in the world.' Tony Wright, Saturday Age

Between the fires and the plague, Scott Morrison had no choice but to adapt his style of leadership. But does he have an exit strategy for Australia from the pandemic? In this original essay, George Megalogenis explores the new politics of care and fear. He shows how our economic officials learnt the lessons of past recessions and applied them to new circumstances. But where to from here? Megalogenis analyses the shifting dynamics of the federation and the appeal of closed borders. He discusses the fate of higher education – what happened to the clever country? And he asks: what should government be responsible for in the twenty-first century, and does the Morrison government have the imagination for the job? “Morrison has no political interest in talking about the future. But passivity does not reduce the threat of another outbreak. In any case, the future is making demands on Australia in other ways.” —George Megalogenis, Exit Strategy

A forensic look at the Lucky Country, from the inside and outside. Never before has Australia enjoyed such economic, commercial, diplomatic and cultural clout. Its recession - proof economy is the envy of the world. It's the planet's great lifestyle superpower. Its artistic exports win unprecedented acclaim. But never before has its politics been so brutal, narrow and facile, as well as being such a global laughing stock. A positive national story is at odds with a deeply unattractive Canberra story. The country should be enjoying The Australian Moment, so vividly described by the best - selling author George Megalogenis. But that description may turn out to be inadvertently precise. It could end up being just that: a fleeting moment. At present the country seems to be in speedy regression, with the nation's leaders, on both sides, mired in relatively small problems, such as the arrival of boat people, rather than mapping out a larger and more inspiring national future. In The Rise and Fall of Australia, BBC correspondent and author Nick Bryant offers an outsider's take on the great paradox of modern - day Australian life: of how the country has got richer at a time when its politics have become more impoverished. In this thoroughly entertaining and thought - provoking book, dealing with politics, racism, sexism, the country's place in the region and the world, culture and sport, the author argues that Australia needs to discard the out - dated language used to describe itself, to push back against Lucky Country thinking, to celebrate how the cultural creep has replaced the cultural cringe and to stop negatively typecasting itself. Rejecting most of the national stereotypes, Nick Bryant sets out to describe the new Australia rather than the mythic country so often misunderstood not just by foreigners but Australians themselves.

The Oxford Handbook of Australian Politics is a comprehensive collection that considers Australia's distinctive politics— both ancient and modern— at all levels and across many themes. It examines the factors that make Australian politics unique and interesting, while firmly placing these in the context of the nation's Indigenous and imported heritage and global engagement. The book presents an account of Australian politics that recognizes and celebrates its inherent diversity by taking a thematic approach in six parts. The first theme addresses Australia's unique inheritances, examining the development of its political culture in relation to the arrival of British colonists and their conflicts with First Nations peoples, as well as the resulting geopolitics. The second theme, improvization, focuses on Australia's political institutions and how they have evolved. Place-making is then considered to assess how geography, distance, Indigenous presence, and migration shape Australian politics. Recurrent dilemmas centres on a range of complex, political problems and their influence on contemporary political practice. Politics, policy, and public administration covers how Australia has been a world leader in some respects, and a laggard in others, when dealing with important policy challenges. The final theme, studying Australian politics, introduces some key areas in the study of Australian politics and identifies the strengths and shortcomings of the discipline. The Oxford Handbook of Australian Politics is an opportunity for others to consider the nation's unique politics from the perspective of leading and emerging scholars, and to gain a strong sense of its imperfections, its enduring challenges, and its strengths.

Australia is on the brink of momentous change, but only if its citizens and politicians can come to new terms with the past. In this inspiring essay, Mark McKenna considers the role of history in making and unmaking the nation. From Captain Cook to the frontier wars, from Australia Day to the Uluru Statement, we are seeing fresh debates and recognitions. McKenna argues that it is time to move beyond the history wars, and that truth-telling about the past will be liberating and healing. This is an urgent essay about a nation’s moment of truth. ‘The time for pitting white against black, shame against pride, and one people’s history against another’s, has had its day. After nearly fifty years of deeply divisive debates over the country’s foundation and its legacy for Indigenous Australians, Australia stands at a crossroads – we either make the commonwealth stronger and more complete through an honest reckoning with the past, or we unmake the nation by clinging to triumphant narratives in which the violence inherent in the nation’s foundation is trivialised.’ —Mark McKenna, Moment of Truth

When the daughter of a comic book artist claims she has been raped at a party and her friends turn against her, she runs away to Alaska and her father must face his own violent past as he tries to find her.