What a labor government is

Carol Johnson The Labor Legacy: Curtin. Chifley. Whitlam. IJawke, Sydney. Allen and Unwin, 1989, pp. 143. $14.95 (paper)

Graham Maddox The Hawke Government and Labor Tradition, Ringwood, Penguin, 1989, pp.232. $14.99 (paper)     

British government policy in sub-Saharan Africa under New Labour

British government policy in Africa under Labour has been motivated by a combination of humanitarianism and self-interest. The policy has been shaped principally by the Department for International Development (DFID), but also by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and by Prime Minister Tony Blair himself, as he has become more interested in Africa issues. The main focus of the policy has been on poverty reduction and development. The approach has been multi-dimensional, aiming to tackle the principal obstacles to development such as conflict, HIV, debt, governance and trade barriers. The UK has sought to increase its leverage in Africa by working multilaterally with its allies and through the UN, the World Bank and the EU. But the policy has been hampered by the inherent difficulty of promoting sound development policies in weak states, by a lack of UK leverage to affect change, and by a UK preference for statist solutions. Strategic and commercial objectives pursued by the FCO and the prime minister have sometimes appeared as being at odds with the developmental objectives of DFID. Post-9/11 concerns have reinforced the UK's motivation for dealing with Africa's problems, particularly the problems of weak and failed states. But western policies related to the war on terror may give rise to new contradictions and complicate the UK's developmental efforts in Africa.     

Electioneering 1974 and labor in government

Laurie Oakes and David Solomon, Grab for Power: Election ‘74, Cheshire, Melbourne, 1974, pp. 557, paperbound, $7.95.

Peter Blazey and Andrew Campbell, The Political Dice Men, Outback Press, Melbourne, 1974, pp. 254, paperbound, $3.50.

C. J. Lloyd and G. S. Reid, Out of the Wilderness: The Return of Labor, Cassell Australia, Melbourne, 1974, pp. 447, paperbound, $6.95.     

Dispossession 1990s style: Aborigines,islanders and the policy making process of the Goss labor government

Aboriginal and Islander people in Queensland remain unempowered in the policy making process of government. This is achieved by downgrading and under‐resourcing the relevant portfolio, by co‐locating it with welfare, by giving other departments statutory rights in decision making on indigenous issues which are not reciprocal, by relocating key indigenous policy areas into otherwise antagonistic departments, by ghettoising the issues in Cabinet and by failing to elucidate clear policy guidelines on indigenous issues. The Goss government has also ensured that indigenous people remain unempowered outside of government by failing to legislate for regional land councils, Aboriginal majority on national parks boards of management and an Aboriginal‐controlled statutory acquisitions fund and by retaining excessive discretionary power in the administration of the 1991 Land Acts.     

Some recent writing on Japanese Foreign policy

JAPAN IN THE POSTWAR EAST ASIAN INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM. Donald C. Hellmann. McLean, Virginia, Research Analysis Corporation, Strategic Studies Department Report RAC‐R‐46–2, February 1969. Pp. vi + 46. No price stated.

JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES IN ASIA. Robert H. Osgood, George R. Packard III and John H. Badgley. The Washington Center of Foreign Policy Research, School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, Studies in International Affairs Number 8. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1968. Pp. vii + 65. US$1.95.

THE JAPANESE CIVILIAN NUCLEAR PROGRAM. Victor Gilinsky and Paul F. Langer. Santa Monica, California, The Rand Corporation Memorandum RM‐5366‐PR, August 1967. Pp. xi + 48. No price stated.

THE JAPANESE SPACE PROGRAM: POLITICAL AND SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS. Paul F. Langer. Santa Monica, California, The Rand Corporation, August 1968. Pp. 30. No price stated.     

The Turnbull government’s ‘Post-multiculturalism’ multicultural policy

ABSTRACT

The Turnbull government presented Australia’s fifth national multicultural policy statement in March 2017. This article analyses the policy statement and argues that it represents the most significant change to Australian multicultural policy in four decades. Among other things, it abandons the language of government responsiveness to cultural diversity that previously defined Australian multiculturalism. The 2017 policy amounts to a new form of post-multiculturalism—different from earlier conservative, neoliberal and centre-left versions—in that it seeks to ‘mainstream’ multicultural policy on the grounds that Australian multiculturalism has succeeded in its intended task. While a mainstreaming strategy of this sort is, I argue, theoretically consistent with Australia’s liberal nationalist approach to cultural diversity, the institutional and attitudinal conditions that it presupposes are yet to be fully realised in Australia. More multicultural work needs to be done before this kind of post-multiculturalist approach is practicable.     

The Abbott government and the Islamic State: a securitised and elitist foreign policy discourse

This article analyses the foreign policy discourse that surrounded the Abbott government’s 2014 decision to fight the Islamic State (IS). An analysis of parliamentary Hansard reveals that the debate featured three prominent axes: the legacy of the 2003 Iraq War; the strategies and objectives of the 2014 mission; and Australia’s domestic terror threat level. Throughout, the Abbott government not only marginalised dissenting views, but also justified its renewed engagement in the Middle East via a highly securitised and elitist foreign policy discourse. This finding has consequences beyond the battle against the IS. It reveals a deep-seated tension between the ideals of democratic pluralism and the reality that securitised and elitist foreign policy discourses protect governments from serious scrutiny.