1st Edition
Australian Politics at a Crossroads Prospects for Change
As the 21st century proceeds apace, Australia faces new and old challenges, both domestically and internationally. These include managing complex governance issues, preventing democratic fracture, balancing an ever- shifting geopolitical strategic order, addressing the recognition and identity demands of marginalised groups, and responding to crises and urgent policy challenges, such as climate change.
Bonotti, Miragliotta, and the other contributors to this volume analyse and evaluate the challenges which confront Australia by locating them in their national and comparative context. The various contributions reveal that while these challenges are neither novel nor unique to Australia, the way in which they manifest and Australia’s responses to them are shaped by the country’s distinctive history, culture, geography, location, and size.
The chapters offer a cutting- edge analysis of these pressing challenges faced by Australia and offer reflections on how to address them. The book is a valuable resource for scholars and students of Australian politics, and of comparative politics in a global perspective.
Introduction
Matteo Bonotti and Narelle Miragliotta
Part One: Australian Governance and its Challenges
1. A Party System in Crisis? Assessing the State of the Australian Party System [Narelle Miragliotta and Finley Watson]
2. The Challenges Facing Australian Federalism [Alan Fenna]
3. Australian Governance in an Era of Leadership Instability [Paul Strangio and James Walter]
Part Two: Making Australian Democracy Work – Trust, Integrity and Civility
4. The Challenge of Political Trust [Josh Holloway and Rob Manwaring]
5. Promise Breakers? Rebuilding Trust in Our Government [Frank Algra-Maschio and Robert Thomson]
6. The Integrity Debate in Australia: Perspectives from the Parliamentary Inquiry into the National Anticorruption Commission (NACC) [Zim Nwokora]
7. Incivility in Australia: Challenges and Opportunities [Matteo Bonotti and Steven T. Zech]
Part Three: Australia’s Policy Issues in a Global Context: Climate Change, Migration and Geopolitical Security
8. Turning the Tide on Australian Climate Action [Nathan Fioritti and Robert Thomson]
9. Building a Fair Future: Transforming Immigration Policy for Refugees and Families [Matthew Lister]
10. Exogenous Crises and Australia’s Development Policy [Eleanor Gordon, Samanthi J. Gunawardana and Lauren Lowe]
11. Global Canberra: Leveraging Australia’s Strategic Partnerships [Remy Davison]
12. Nuclear dangers: Australia’s role in global efforts for non-proliferation and disarmament [Marianne Hanson and Maria Rost Rublee]
Part Four: Australia’s Systemic Social Issues: Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination
13. Income Inequality in Australia [Nicholas Barry]
14. The Participation of Young People in Australian Politics [Katrina Lee-Koo, Luke Dean and Zareh Ghazarian]
15. Australia's Woman Problem? The Rise and Fall of Gender Equality [Blair Williams]
16. Speaking with Two Voices: ‘We, the People(s) of Australia’? [Paul Muldoon]
17. Australian Republicanism and the Colonial Fracture: Post-Colonial Nationalist and Decolonial Critiques of Monarchy [Ben Wellings]
Biography
Matteo Bonotti is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Monash University. His research interests include political liberalism, linguistic justice, free speech, civility, food justice, and democratic theory. His work has appeared in journals such as the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Politics, the British Journal of Political Science, and Political Studies. He is the author of Partisanship and Political Liberalism in Diverse Societies (Oxford University Press, 2017), the co-author of Healthy Eating Politics and Political Philosophy: A Public Reason Approach (Oxford University Press, 2021) and Recovering Civility during COVID- 19 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), and the co-editor of A Century of Compulsory Voting in Australia: Genesis, Impact and Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).
Narelle Miragliotta is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Monash University. Narelle’s research spans the study of Australian and liberal democratic political institutions, partcularly constitutions, political parties, parliament, elections and electoral systems. Her work has appeared in journals such as Party Politics, Governance, Electoral Studies, Environmental Politics, Parliamentary Affairs, Government and Opposition, Politics, and the Australian Journal of Political Science.
