18th/19th Century

Aboriginal war
Friends or foes?

Convict life
Regrets and floggings

Convict crimes
Very odd laws

Convict voice
The dehumanised speaks

Escapes
Thinking different

Larrikin Legacy
Modern culture in penal times

Negroes
A shade of colour

Convict women
Moral diversity

Eureka Massacre
Dying for liberty

Mary McKillop
A rebel and a saint

Outlaws

Pelmuwuy
Rasputin meets Ned Kelly

Mathew Brady
Penal morality

Mary Anne Bugg
Female Bushranger

Ben Hall
The gentleman

Our Ned Kelly
A story heard and considered

Jimmy Governor
A cry of insanity?

E-mail

Australian Prime Ministers

"Let no-one say the past is dead, the past is all about us and within"(Oodgeroo)

Australia's prime ministers have been quite an eclectic bunch. They have suffered from an assortment of physical deformities, uttered some "colourful" phrases, and on the sly, shown that they have somewhat of liking for debauched behaviour. Perhaps such prime ministers have found success because they haved appealed to the Australian voter looking for some kind of human frailty to identify with. Alternatively, they may have found success because Australians prefer prime ministers with a dubious private life that makes it difficult for them to engage in moralistic grand standing.

• Grew up on a dairy farm in rural Queensland
• Father died when he was 11 and his family was evicted from the farm
• Joined the ALP when he was 15
• After high school, hitch-hiked down the east coast and eventually reached Canberra
• Always wore RM Williams Boots - even to parliament
• Majored in Chinese and became the first western leader to speak fluent putonghua
• Spent most of his early career working in Australian embrassies in foreign countries
• As shadow foreign minister, reformulated Labor's foreign policy in terms of the "Three Pillars": engagement with the UN, engagement with Asia, and the US alliance
• While opposition foreign affairs spokesman, went to New York, got drunk and visited a strip club
• Committed Christian that believes that, although religion should not govern policy, it is one of the various moral codes that should contribute to policy creation
• In his election victory speech, he gave respect to the values of his late parents, his family, his party and also the prime minister that he deposed
• Had convict ancestry on both sides of his family. Told a European audience that this made him an "An absolute pedigree."
• Said: "by way of personal instinct, I have an inherent distaste for grandiose rhetorical statements, which don't have any substantive dimension to them"
• Gave a $35 million grant to Toyoto to develop a hybrid car, even though Toyota said it didn't need the money as it was developing the vehicle anyway
• In the Heiner affair, he was accused of shredding documents relating to the rape and cover up of an Aboriginal child
• On behalf of the federal government, apologised for state governments removing mixed-race children from Aboriginal communities from 1901 to the 1970.
• Took a populist position on a carbon-trading scheme. Fuelled the populist position with tax-payer funded advertising intended to "raise awareness" of global warming. Aside from some token gestures, never addressed CO2 emissions
• After US president George Bush organised a G20 meeting, Rudd leaked to the media that Bush had been influenced by Rudd into expanding the G7 into the G20. At the subsequent meeting, Bush demonstrated quite clearly what he thought of Rudd
• Vowed to rid the world of nuclear weapons, build a new broadband network, integrate Asia into an European style union, stop global warming, regulate global currency trade, remove disadvantage in Aboriginal communities and stop whaling in Japan. Never said how the goals would be achieved, and never achieved any of them.

MAIN POLITICAL TRICK - In symbols we trust

With his public service and diplomatic background, Rudd is very much the symbols man. Writing policy documents destined to get put aware in a draw and praising someone who “campaigns for…” without achieving it, are noble behaviours in such fields.

MAIN POLITICAL TRICK -Dividing and conquering

MAIN POLITICAL TRICK - The Big Bluff - Arguing a weakness is a strength

Keating had a remarkable ability to bluff people. He managed to convice the true believers that all his failures were achievements. For example, after leading Australia to recession, unemployment, and 17 % interest rates, he fought an election on the slogan "jobs not GST." After alienating himself from Asia by saying they were the countries that you fly over on the way to Europe and calling the Malaysian PM a "recalcitrant", he argued that Asian leaders would never work with anyone except him. After appealing to voter self-interest in regards to fear of a new tax, he argued that he made Australians less selfish and more community minded. After trying to use Aborigines as a wedge to divide the coalition between the rural-backed Nationals and the city-backed Liberals, he said he was a uniter not a divider.

MAIN POLITICAL TRICK : Hawke was a positive prime minister who was more concerned with enjoying his sport than with finding faults with others. Unlike Keating, who relished adversial politics, Hawke was very much a consensus builder.

MAIN POLITICAL TRICK:

Like Whitlam, Fraser tried to portray himself as the father of multiculturalism. Unfortunately for him, his role in the dismissal of the Whitlam Government ensures he will always be hated by people who care about this issue. Nor will Fraser ever be celebrated by the economic rationalists for despite controlling both houses of parliament, he left the important economic reforms for the subsequent Labor Government of Bob Hawke. Due to his alienation from both sides of politics, losing his trousers in Memphis is the best Fraser can hope to be remembered for.

MAIN POLITICAL TRICK

Symbolism is to government what diet coke is to a fat man that loves eating Big Macs but wants to lose weight. This was particularly the case with Whitlam. As far as he was concerned, it didn’t really matter that he failed to achieve anything. All that mattered was that he evoked good symbolism.

Verdict: More concerned with the prestige of being PM than actually doing anything as PM. A useless PM.

Verdict: Never seriously gave a damn about what other people thought of him, and never really wanted the top job. Very much a man's man. Due to his work with the film industry and the Arts, Gorton was one of the very few Liberal PMs to leave a legacy of cultural enrichment.

Verdict: Helped the Australian economy integrate into Asia, while still protecting some Australian interests. An important cog in post World War II evolution.

Verdict: Not attending his own mother's funeral, and having a father that married one of his former girlfriends, suggests that his family life had been somewhat unusual. Did some good things to help Australia gain an identity unique from Britain. Although the removal of the word British was a step in the right direction, it was his famous swim that truly gave Australia an international reputation. World observers can't imagine anything more Australian than a PM going for a swim and never being seen again, or anything more strange than then building a swimming pool to remember him by.

Verdict: As a nation builder, Menzies forced young Australians to fight in foreign wars, but refused to be in the trenches beside them. Despite some mistakes using 21st century morality, his ability to win 12 federal elections says something about whether he served the people well.

Verdict: Chifley's 'light on the hill' is one of the few quotes by Australia 's PMs to have achieved immortality across the generations. As well being one of the few PMs able to inspire Australians with words, Chiefly was one of the few PMs able to unite Australians to get something done.

Chiefly's Snowy Mountains Scheme gave employment for immigrants, improved the productivity of the Australian land, showcased Australia's engineering talent to the world, continues to generate electricity, and has become a source of pride for many Australians.

Of course, the ability to inspire Australians with words, or convince them to accept plans for infrastructure, were insignificant achievements compared to having affairs with three women simultaneously – two of whom were sisters. Even Casanova would have struggled to pull off such a feat.

Verdict: Perhaps being a politician was not Forde's true calling in life.

Verdict: A wartime leader who managed to keep his country unified as he took the important symbolic steps towards Australia developing an identity distinct from Britain . It is largely due to Curtin that Australia's defence alliances now lie with America rather than with England .

Verdict: Managed to keep his private views to himself, and did a good job in presenting a positive face to the people.

Verdict: A man of convictions, and one who would never surrender to them. Although such inflexibility ultimately damaged his career, it did make him a worthy of respect.

Verdict: A likeable PM who benefited from the post-depression economic recovery. Overall, did a good job.

Verdict: Led Australia in a very difficult time and implemented some policies that helped Australia cope with the depression. Also undertook the important symbolic steps towards Australia finding an identity distinct from Britain .

Verdict: A leader who put plans into action, and with the establishment of the CSIRO, ensured new plans would be created for many generations to come. Took on the unions, and lost.

Verdict: An uncanny habit of establishing parties only to be expelled from them. A man of imagination and charisma, but one not always capable of using such talents to solidify support behind him. Presided over the resignations of hundreds of secretaries, and his own sacking from every party he entered.

Verdict: Opposing gambling, alcohol and other frivolous pastimes was most un-Australian. Understandable that he didn't write any memoirs. The man never lived. An unfortunate blight on Australia 's history.

Verdict: Although Fisher's anti-conscriptionist stand wrecked his party, it ultimately defended the freedoms of the people he served.

Verdict: Usually fat people are trusted by others (for that reason, they make great salesmen.)The fact that he was fat, but not trusted by his own party seems to indicate he really was quite a dodgy character.

Verdict: A good bloke who worked with other parties to achieve the important aims of the labour movement. Watson's support of conscription is his one major blemish.

Verdict: Deakin was pro-British in his words, yet in his behaviour he seemed determined to free himself and Australia from British customs. Largely responsible for the White Australia Policy. Whether the policy aimed to preserve racial purity or to prevent the formation of an underclass via an influx of cheap labour, is a question for historians to debate.

Verdict: Australia 's first leader but one who did little to inspire sentiment that there was anything worthy about the Australian character. Perhaps this explains why most Australians can't remember his name.

20th Century

20th century timeline
Prosperity and conflict

White Australia Policy
From Convicts to Chinese

Douglas Mawson
Science and survival

Gallipoli
Remembering loss

John Monash
The father of the blitzkrieg

John Simpson
He died so others may live

Anzac Day
Lest we forget

Tobruk
Desert Rats defy Hitler

Nancy Wake
The White Mouse

Kokoda
Never giving up

Long Tan
What happened?

Referendums
A history of "no"

Prime Ministers
Skeletons in the closet

21st Century

Timeline
Century of Asian engagement