THE MONTHLY ESSAYS

“The destruction of Kevin Rudd’s prime ministership is unprecedented in the history of the Australian Labor Party. Never before had the parliamentary party treated a successful ALP leader with such disrespect and disloyalty, especially when it was only a few months out from an election battle to determine whether the party would be in office for a second term. That the key powerbroker from the NSW ALP Right played such an instrumental role in both securing the leadership for Rudd and then dragging him down is not, however, unprecedented.”

In “The Hollowmen”, Mark Aarons examines, from the perspective of an ALP insider, the political assassination of Kevin Rudd as prime minister. The former adviser to Morris Iemma reveals the inner machinations of the seemingly omnipotent NSW Right faction, and how it repeatedly manages to install its leaders of choice.

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“Federation, as we might expect, came to us in a very Australian way, one that is consistent with the rather offhand manner in which it has been received and is still considered. Not the flowering of a great utopian ideal, or the coming together, after a long period of yearning, of a people that had known the anguish of division, or the achievement, through national unity, of a ‘manifest destiny’ – though there were some, especially in the latter case, who felt that way.”

In “The States of the Nation”, David Malouf reflects on Australian Federation and what it means to the people of this continent to be united. Compared with countries such as the US, our Federation was achieved almost effortlessly in 1901. Could this be the reason why Australia struggles to create a coherent narrative of nationhood?

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“The latest figures show that 170–180 deals with Chinese businesses have been approved since Labor took office in November 2007, with 60–70 having been processed this year alone. So far, none have been turned down, despite Australia having one of the most restrictive foreign investment regimes in the world. A few have been modified or had conditions attached, but the rest have gone through untouched.”

In “China’s Quarry”, Paul Barry reports on a recent visit to the Pilbara, where small mining companies sit on a wealth of mineral resources until they can find investors to provide essential infrastructure. Yet the cost of such support is often too great for Australian investors, who don’t like the risks involved. Barry examines the country’s relationship with its foreign investors, predominantly from China.

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“The Croydon Day Surgery is an abortion clinic. More than this, it is one of very few places in our part of the world that will perform late-term abortions for what are known as ‘psycho-social’ reasons, where there is no severe abnormality of the foetus or risk to the mother’s health. Here, some foetuses are aborted past the time when premature babies can be born and stand a chance of survival.”

And in “Duty of Care”, Margaret Simons tells the story of a patient who endured a late-term abortion at the Croydon Day Surgery, currently under investigation by health authorities due a cluster of hepatitis C cases traced to the clinic. As well as revealing the woman’s ordeal at finding out she may have contracted the virus from the anaesthetist who administered pain relief during the treatment, Simons examines how medical practitioners are regulated in the interests of public health and safety.

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“‘There is no typical Dunera boy,’ one survivor – himself an intellectual – reminds outsiders who may imagine that they were all academics and artists … Of the 900 who stayed in Australia, uncounted numbers changed occupation, their ambitions encouraged by the openness of Australian society to talented and determined newcomers.”

Plus, in “From Berlin to the Bush”, Ken Inglis looks back with affection at the history of the Dunera boys, men who were interned in the UK during World War II because of their Jewish ancestry and shipped to Australia in appalling conditions. Of those who remained after being released by the British government, most went on to make an indelible contribution to the cultural development of Australian society.

THE NATION REVIEWED

“Gillard, in emerging as a clear-sighted political operative who does not wish to assure anyone she is any particular kind of woman, is free from the patina of the pedestal and unburdened by the guilt and expectation of generations past. She has managed to shake off much of the artifice and coyness women were expected to conform to in order to enhance their electoral prospects.”

In the Monthly Comment, Julia Baird confronts the additional pressures we impose on our female politicians. Women leaders continue to be plagued by the expectation that they will display maternal emotion, don a clean apron and show off their Australian Women’s Weekly cookbooks, while also following suit, literally, and playing politics like men typically have. Baird examines how Julia Gillard defies gender stereotype and forces us to confront our contradictory prejudices and hopes for Australia’s first female prime minister.

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Plus, in “Not Rocket Science”, Anna Funder gazes at the Hayabusa mothership to unlock the secrets of the universe; and in “A Man’s Not a Camel”, Robyn Annear wears a paper beard and parties like it’s 1860 to commemorate 150 years since Burke and Wills embarked on their journey to the Gulf of Carpentaria.

ARTS & LETTERS

“To me, from the very start, words were poor people’s treasures, infinite in variety and potential at no cost. Combining them came later, extracting their colours and music. I spoke them in tongues around the hills. As well as their loom and resonance, I became fascinated by their etymologies and all the cultural freight they carried.”

In "Infinite Anthology: Adventures in Lexiconia", Les Murray celebrates words as our society's most valuable currency. From the recognition of an Australian English in the first Macquarie Dictionary in 1981, Murray marvels at the cultural implications of the inclusion of words, and the significance of distinguishing between, for example, a "wedge" and "camel toe", while inviting us into his complex relationship with lexicography and the history of our living language.

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“In a time characterised by a severing of old links between man and animal, when industrial agriculture has rendered them no more than raw material for manufacturing processes, [Sonya] Hartnett reminds us that they were once magical, oracular, even sacrificial creatures: a crucial means by which we explained the world and understood ourselves.”

And in "Strange Beasts", Geordie Williamson reviews Sonya Hartnett's latest novel, The Midnight Zoo, and reflects upon the ways in which genre expectation can limit our appreciation and even understanding of literary works. Williamson discovers surprising similarities between the treatment of violence and power in The Midnight Zoo and in the criminal world depicted by Peter Temple in his Miles Franklin Award-winning Truth.

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Plus, in “Theatre of Operations”, Luke Davies questions whether High School Musical’s Zac Effron is misplaced in Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles; and in “Connective Tissue”, Delia Falconer is left wanting from the Australian television dramas Tangle and Spirited.