To restore federalism, strengthen the states and make Australia more republican

The reform of Australia’s federation is under review. In this special series, we ask leading Australian academics to begin a debate on renewing federalism, from tax reform to the broader issues of democracy. The University of Wollongong’s Gregory Melleuish explains how the current state-federal relationship has warped from the ideals of Australia’s constitution and why a return to republican principles must be the remedy.\u3ep\u3

Public won\u27t back a \u27politicians\u27 republic\u27, so Turnbull needs to offer a better model

The word republic has many meanings - but they can probably be reduced to two. The first simply means a political order in which there is no king or queen at its apex. The Romans who invented the term res publica (public matter) were adamantly opposed to the idea of having a king. Julius Caesar was assassinated because it was believed he wished to make himself king. The second describes a political system composed by individuals motivated by an idea of virtue and by a series of institutional arrangements through which power is divided so it is not concentrated in the hands of an individual

Queensland Liberals and Nationals have long had an uneasy cohabitation, and now should consider divorce

There can be no doubt that in matters political Queensland is different from the rest of Australia. It is the only state that has a single house of parliament. It is the only state that has a single council for its capital city. It is the only state in which the Country (and later National) Party has been the dominant force on the non-Labor side of politics and, for a time in the 1980s, held government in its own right. The rhythm of Queensland politics has been for one party to hold power for long stretches of time. Labor was in government from 1932 to 1957, losing government that year as the Labor Party split. The Country Party held power, first in coalition with the Liberals and then in its own right, from 1957 to 1989. Subsequently, Labor was in office, except for a short time in 1996, from 1989 to 2012. Queensland voters, at least in recent times, also seem to be more volatile in their voting habits, perhaps more resembling Canada than other parts of Australia. In Sydney, for example, there are electorates that are so rusted on to a political party that electing a member from another party is unthinkable

To avoid relegation, Turnbull must restore an authority missing since Howard

Being an Australian political leader is a little like being an English Premier League manager. While the team plays well you have the adulation of fans and management; fail and your time in the job will not be long. Tony Abbott’s removal should come as no surprise to any student of Australian politics. He had made a few poor calls and the team was headed for defeat. He paid the price for failure

Australian Universities: Bureaucracy, Scholasticism and the End of Beauty

This article argues that development of the modern university in many ways mirrors that of the modern state. Over time it has become increasingly centralized and bureaucratic with power passing from its members to the central administration. This has led to a bureaucratization of the university mind. In turn this has increased the tendency of universities to more extreme forms of scholasticism. The consequence is the creation of knowledge which is removed from the wider world and which mirrors its bureaucratic nature. In such a world there can be no true creativity or beauty. The only way to reverse this trend is create smaller, flexible entities which seek to maximize their creative potential

Randolph Hughes's Religion: Anti-Christianity and the Cult of Beauty

This paper deals with the religious beliefs of Randolph Hughes, an Australian literary figure of the first half of the twentieth century. A student of Christopher Brennan, Hughes violently rejected Christianity and adopted his own philosophical/aesthetic religion based on the primacy of creativity. His religious beliefs led him to support Nazism during the 1930s. This paper examines his religious ideals, his criticisms of Christianity and the connections between those ideas and his view of the nature of European civilisation. It concludes that his attempts to find a substitute for Christianity in a religion of beauty led Hughes to a narrow and intolerant dogmatism that could be described as fundamentalist in nature

Limits of Naturalism: Plasticity, Finitude and the Imagination

This paper argues that the two primary features defining human beings are their finitude and plasticity and that this is the consequence that human beings live in a world which is constantly changing, hence historical.  This means that the relationship between humans and their world is constantly changing and hence that relationship cannot be understood in a simple naturalistic fashion.  Not only is there no ‘innocence of language', but humanity relates to the world in a variety of ways ranging from prose to poetry to art and music.  It is the continuous creation of this multiplicity of approaches to the world as the product of historical dynamism which constitutes the real meaning of naturalism

Philosophy of History: Change, Stability and the Tragic Human Condition

This paper contends that the role of a philosophy of history in the twenty first century is as a meta-discourse which explains and attempts to understand the role of history as part of human being-in-the-world.  Such a philosophy of history will not, as in the past, take the form of a universal history. Instead it will take a phenomenological approach which seeks to explore the historical enterprise as a means through which human beings attempt to come to terms with the fact that, despite their craving for being, they live in a world which is marked by becoming.  Change and its implications are at the core of any philosophy of history.  History is an attempt to master change and to keep its somewhat frightening consequences under control.  Humans both crave being and stability and appreciate that change is their constant companion.  That is part of the tragic nature of human existenc