About the ISR - Publications - Books

Edited by ISR staff members Peter Browne and Julian Thomas, the Briefings series features ISR authors and contributors from elsewhere. These short, topical books are published by UNSW Press.

No, Prime Minister: Reclaiming Politics From Leaders
James Walter and Paul Strangio

Leadership has become the principal lingua franca of politics. Prime ministers now occupy the centre of the nation’s political universe. But what are the causes and implications of the sharpening of prime ministerial power? Is untrammeled leadership consistent with democracy? And how is it related to the growing incumbency advantages enjoyed by governments? In this important appraisal of recent Australian political life, James Walter and Paul Strangio analyse the performances of five prime ministers (Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Keating and Howard) against the background of institutional changes to the political system that have been in train over the past three decades. They also look forward, to ask whether a new prime minister will reverse these trends.

Behind Closed Doors: Politics, Scandals and the Lobbying Industry
John Warhurst

In Behind Closed Doors John Warhurst, an observer of the lobbying industry for thirty years, describes its growing size and importance in Australia. He looks at the many ways in which lobbyists attempt to influence politicians and other decision makers, and assesses their positive and negative roles in the political system, and provides a detailed account of the Brian Burke scandal of 2007 and its aftermath.

A Charter of Rights for Australia
3rd Edition
George Williams

Australia is the only democratic country in the world that does not have a national charter or bill that protects basic human rights. In this fully updated edition of his influential book, The Case for an Australian Bill of Rights, lawyer and commentator George Williams argues that the Australian parliament should create a charter of rights drawing on the successful examples of New Zealand and the United Kingdom. He shows how the case for reform has grown stronger in recent years, and how the momentum for change has accelerated with the creation of charters of rights in the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria.

Against the Grain: The AWB Scandal and Why It Happened
Stephen Bartos

The significance of the AWB scandal extends well beyond its immediate political impact. Its lasting lessons go to the heart of how government and companies are run in Australia. In this book Stephen Bartos explores those lessons, and shows that reform will be needed to provide the assurance that this country is committed to transparency and accountability.

What Price Security? Taking Stock of Australia’s Anti-Terror Laws
Andrew Lynch and George Williams

In this timely and important book, Andrew Lynch and George Williams provide a clear and accessible guide to the major components of Australia’s anti-terrorism laws and their effects. They show readers: • what constitutes a crime of terrorism in Australia • what powers our main intelligence agency has to question and detain members of the community • what happens when the authorities seek a control order or an order of preventative detention over an individual • what speech risks making a person liable for the crime of sedition • how judicial processes have been modified for the trial of people charged with terrorism offences. Lynch and Williams have contributed vigorously to the public debate since September 11. In What Price Security? they argue that Australia has gone too far in limiting civil rights in the name of anti-terrorism. “In fighting the ‘war on terror’,” they write, “it is vital that we do not allow ourselves to become the victim of our own fears.”

Limiting Democracy: The Erosion of Electoral Rights in Australia
Colin A. Hughes and Brian Costar

Recently introduced legislation and other proposal from government ministers threaten Australians’ right to vote. Brian Costar and Colin A. Hughes argue that rather than watering down democratic rights we need to strengthen the key features of our electoral system.

Rescuing Afghanistan
William Maley

Moving far beyond clumsy stereotypes of Afghan affairs, William Maley shows that only a long-term commitment from the wider world – of a type that is rarely if ever found – offers a reasonable prospect of rescuing Afghanistan from the dangers it continues to face.

Church and State: Australia’s Imaginary Wall
Tom Frame

Few Australians realise that the Constitution does not formally separate Church and State. Tom Frame argues that some contact between organised religion and government is both inevitable and, in some circumstances, highly desirable. But there are continuing and unnecessary tensions, for which Christians are largely responsible. This book explores the nature of the tensions, and how to deal with them.

The Longest Journey: Resettling Refugees from Africa
Peter Browne   

Australia is one of only ten western countries which resettle refugees recommended by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The federal government has justifiably defended this long-term contribution to assisting the world’s refugees. But how fair is the resettlement process? Does it always – as Amanda Vanstone and her predecessor, Philip Ruddock, insist – help the neediest of all refugees? Drawing on interviews with refugees, policymakers, officials and aid workers in Nairobi, Kakuma, Geneva, Canberra and Melbourne, this book looks at the opportunities and obstacles that face refugees whose homelands are in turmoil.

Freeing Ali: The Human Face of the Pacific Solution
Michael Gordon   

In April this year, Michael Gordon was the first journalist to gain unrestricted access to the refugee detention centre on Nauru. There he interviewed more than half of the 54 asylum seekers then on the island. His articles, based on these interviews, for the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald drew an enormous response from readers. Freeing Ali expands beyond that article to tell the story of Ali Mullaie, an Afghan asylum seeker who spent three and a half years detained on Nauru. Gordon backgrounds his profile of Ali and his fellow detainees with a discussion of the impact of the detention centre and the ‘Pacific Solution’ on the people of Nauru and their country.

Dealing with America: The UN, the US and Australia
John Langmore   

The United Nations is under scrutiny like never before – under constant attack from neoconservatives in President George W. Bush’s administration, with some of its own officials are under investigation for fraud. In the midst of this controversy, a high-level panel, including former Australian Attorney-General Gareth Evans, has released a detailed set of proposals for reform, and that blueprint has been taken up by the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.

Selling the Australian Government: Politics and Propaganda from Whitlam to Howard
Greg Barns  

The fact that governments spend millions of taxpayers’ dollars monitoring the Opposition’s every word and pumping out propaganda to backbenchers to ensure its ‘spin’ reverberates across Australia has rarely been questioned by the media. Greg Barns, a former senior government adviser, provides a revealing insight into the way governments sell themselves, both publicly and behind the scenes, and how their expensive propaganda effort affects the political process.

Disarming Proposals: Controlling Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons
Andy Butfoy

According to international relations specialist Andy Butfoy, the constant talk of ‘weapons of mass destruction’ is both simplistic and misleading. In this timely book he looks at the reality of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, providing a readable overview of who has these weapons, what they are capable of, and where they are.

All the Way with the USA: Australia, the US and Free Trade
Ann Capling

Capling spells out the unanswered questions about the Australia–US FTA. What are the implications of the Howard government's linking of trade and security? How will the trade agreement affect relations with our other major trade partners, especially those in the East Asian region? Will the Australia–US trade agreement strengthen our ties with the United States, leading to deeper economic integration and more investment and jobs in Australia, or will it diminish our capacity to provide social programs that reflect particularly Australian values?

A Win and a Prayer: Scenes from the 2004 Australian Election
edited by Peter Browne and Julian Thomas

A different kind of post-election book, focusing not on the well-publicised issues and events in the campaign, but on the revealing incidents and issues that don't get attention in the heat of the contest. A diverse group of writers report on key events in the election campaign and what they tell us about the state of our political system.

Indonesia's Struggle: Jemaah Islamiyah and the Soul of Islam
Greg Barton

Tracing the religious, cultural and political development of JI, Barton argues that it has important features in common with other organisations linked to al-Qaeda. Based on extensive research in Indonesia, the book assesses the level of support for JI and the Indonesian government's success in dealing with the threat it poses to stability. Barton argues that, while the Indonesian authorities reacted quickly to the events in Bali, their response has not been as effective and timely as is commonly assumed in Australia.

Published to coincide with the introduction of the ACT reforms enacting a state Bill of Rights, this new book outlines a thoroughly revised and updated case for a national Bill of Rights for Australia. Surveying the federal government’s post-September 11 legislation, George Williams shows how the threat of terrorism makes the protection of basic rights more, not less, urgent.

America's Pie: Trade and Culture After 9/11
Jock Given

In this timely book, Jock Given looks at how the events of 11 September 2001 have altered the debate over how countries like Australia can preserve and strengthen their film and television industries. Steering a course between those people who see free trade as a universal panacea and those who fear its homogenising impact, this book offers a vivid account of how culture and trade are interacting in the real world of the early 21st century.

Sexing It Up: Iraq, Intelligence And Australia
Geoffrey Barker

In this book senior journalist Geoffrey Barker takes us step by step through the maze of claims and counter-claims about what US, British and Australian intelligence agencies were telling their governments, and what those governments were telling the media.

Don't Tell the Prime Minister
Patrick Weller
published in the Scribe short books series

The “children overboard”affair formed a dramatic backdrop to the November 2001 federal election, graphically underlining the government’s case against asylum seekers. But very soon truth of the incident began to emerge, revealing a tale of mixed messages, conflicting responsibilities, and pre-election pressure. In a vivid account of the events and their aftermath, Patrick Weller, an expert witness at the Senate hearings on the affair, shows how a politicised senior public service failed to handle this highly charged issue effectively. He argues that reforms are needed to restore bureaucratic accountability and confidence in the independence of the public service.

Western Horizon: Sydney’s Heartland and the Future of Australian Politics
David Burchell
published in the Scribe short books series

Depending on how you define it, Western Sydney contains as much as half of the population of Australia’s largest city, spread out over a vast plain stretching eighty kilometres from north to south, and thirty or forty kilometres west to the foot of the Blue Mountains. It’s one of Australia’s youngest and quickest-growing regions. And as Labor has discovered, it’s highly politically volatile. For decades, Western Sydney was the “other”Sydney, the home of “battlers”and “Westies”who, it was said, lacked cultural resources, amenities and couth. Recently, Western Sydney has become a success story, and it’s the region’s “aspirational”voters who’ve become the quintessential “new class”of the new millennium. Yet the area is a complex patchwork of hard-won success and enduring, grinding poverty, along with everything in between. Since the Tampa the region has become notorious for its supposedly uncharitable attitudes towards migrants and asylum-seekers. Yet it’s still the number-one destination for new arrivals. Supposedly racked by crime and paranoia, it’s also the quintessential Great Suburban Dream, with long stretches of manicured lawns and brand-spanking new project homes. Paradoxes bloom like acacias. Since the 2001 general election, commentators have struggled to explain what it is that makes Western Sydney “different”. This volume is the first serious effort to find answers.

The New Media Theory Reader
Edited by Robert Hassan and Julian Thomas

The study of new media opens up some of the most fascinating issues in contemporary culture: questions of ownership and control over information and cultural goods; the changing experience of space and time; the political consequences of new communication technologies; and the power of users and consumers to disrupt established economic and business models. The New Media Theory Reader brings together key readings on new media – what it is, where it came from, how it affects our lives, and how it is managed.

Community Media: A Global Introduction
Ellie Rennie

This concise text will help readers understand the ongoing fascination with do-it-yourself media around the world. Ellie Rennie explains how community media has, since its beginning, challenged the mainstream. A clear and useful guide for students, Community Media lays out the terrain in which community media theory and advocacy have located themselves, including the ideals of participation, community, and social change.

Royal Historical Society of Queensland Journal
Tropical Transformations: Denis Murphy in Queensland History
Edited by Brian Costar and Kay Saunders

A special edition of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland Journal on the work of the noted political historian, the late Denis Murphy.

The Victorian Premiers: 1856–2006
Edited by Paul Strangio and Brian Costar

In the century and a half since Victoria was granted responsible government in 1856, 44 premiers have presided over the state and colony, from “Honest” William Haines to Steve Bracks. For the first time this book brings together a comprehensive collection of biographical and political portraits of the Victorian premiers written by leading Australian historians and political scientists. The result is a compelling journey through a turbulent, occasionally anarchic, political landscape. A cast of fascinating characters is brought to life—the mercurial Graham Berry, who in the 1870s threatened broken heads and flaming houses in his heroic struggle to tame the colony’s intractably conservative upper house; the roguish Tommy Bent, the turn of the century “can do” premier whose development enthusiasms were unhindered by probities of office; the bohemian Tom Hollway, who conducted Victoria’s affairs from his suite in the Windsor Hotel; the “accidental” leader Henry Bolte, who became Victoria’s longest-serving premier; and the larrikin metropolitan, Jeff Kennett, who turned the state into a neo-liberal laboratory in the 1990s.

People, Parliament and Politics
Walter Jona

A skillful politician, Walter Jona was a member of the Victorian Parliament for 21 years. Engrossing and often controversial, these memoirs are a personal recollection of Jona’s early years during the Great Depression, the war years and, most significantly, his entry into parliamentary politics and the career which lay ahead. People, Parliament and Politics is an insightful and informative account of politics in Victoria from the early 1960s to the mid 1980s.

Giving It Away: In Praise of Philanthropy
Denis Tracey

Philanthropy in Australia remains largely unexplored territory. When Denis Tracey interviewed about 60 individuals and families –some well known and some not –about their philanthropic activities and ideas, he discovered a few surprising realities. Philanthropy doesn’t just do good; it also brings joy and fulfilment to the donors. It also doesn’t have to be the sole preserve of the rich, and it doesn’t necessarily involve money. After reading this book, everyone will understand how and why individuals and families give away their time and money, and how they decide which causes and organisations to support. And they’ll also understand how philanthropy can be intensely satisfying.

Media, Politics and the Network Society
Robert Hassan

The suffusion of the economy, culture, and society with digital interconnectivity is known as the network society. In this innovative book, Robert Hassan unpacks the dynamics of this new information order and shows how media and politics have been affected. Drawing on ideas from media theory, cultural studies, and the politics of the newly evolving “networked civil society,”Hassan argues that the network society is shot through with contradictions and in a state of deep flux. Vital reading for those wishing to understand the network society. For undergraduate and postgraduate students of media, politics, and policy, and general reading.

Visions for Victoria
David Hayward and Peter Ewer

Are unions a “problem”to be “managed”by Labor governments, or are they allies in a project of social justice? Is the public sector an instrument of democratic influence over economic life, or a watering hole where private profit-makers drink from the fountains of privatisation, contract public services and corporate welfare? Visions for Victoria tackles these questions in the context of the current debate about the future of the public sector under a state Labor government. It canvasses a range of policy problems, from the environment to essential services, and reflects more widely on the crisis of labour movement policy-making, the crucial debate over public financing and the continuing vigour of privatisation, re-badged as “public-private partnerships”.

Turning Off the Television: Broadcasting’s Uncertain Future
Jock Given

The Australian “digital broadcasting revolution”–the transition from analogue to digital broadcasting –began some years ago, but so far the public have noticed few changes. Jock Given looks past the hype and explores why this is. As a book about tomorrow’s broadcasting, this is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of the media.