184: THE POLITICS OF THE AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGE
ISBN 0 9775171 1 X
SPRING 2006
published 29 September 2006

“Like it or not, a nations political culture is a reflection of its national culture. As such, no two political cultures – particularly democratic ones – are the same, because each democracy cannot help but reflect its past and present social and economic circumstances. Which begs the question: What kind of democracy has Australia’s social and economic circumstances, past and present, begotten?”

Joel Deane, award-winning poet, novelist and the senior speech writer for Premier of Victoria Steve Bracks, asks how Australia’s political leaders can re-engage the wider community in the national political conversation.

Elsewhere in this issue, in the spirit of George Orwell, Tim Moore examines the rhetorical art of the Prime Minister.

Michael Ackland and Raymond Evans look at recent attempts by right-wing journalists and commentators to re-write Australian history.

Monique Rooney profiles Barbara Ehrenreich and Elizabeth Wynhausen, writers who went undercover to expose the parlous conditions of the working poor in America and Australia.

Ken Gelder and Lucy Sussex consider the current state of Australian literature.

Ned Curthoys reviews Antony Loewenstein’s important questioning of Israel.

And Paul Gillen talks with Jack Beeching, a contemporary of Jack Lindsay (and George Orwell) about this own search for literary pleasure and social justice.