Frank Bongiorno - Dreamers and Schemers: A Political History of Australia

Penetrating and vividly written, this a political history that broadens our understanding of politics; one that offers genuinely fresh insights and resists tidy generalisations. From First Nations politics to the democracy sausage, Dreamers and Schemers never disappoints. It will stand as one of the most essential works of Australian history for decades to come. Mark McKenna

With acuity and grace, Frank Bongiorno divines the soul of the nation, not on distant battlefields or down glimmering mineshafts, but in the cut and thrust of everlasting political contestation. A masterful, sweeping account of the ideas, aspirations and imagination that have fired Australians relationship to power and its sometimes fair, often sordid distribution. All told with a cheeky eye for detail and nose for skullduggery by a historian in full archival, narrative and rhetorical flight. A landmark work of Australian political history destined to be savoured by teachers, students and lovers of history alike. Clare Wright

Bongiorno is one of our premier historians and this is his masterwork. An original take on our politics and people, written with an open mind and warm Australian heart. George Megalogenis

A perceptive, lucid and wry history of Australian politics. With his characteristic eye for humane detail, Bongiorno reveals what we, the Australian people, have demanded from those who represent us, and the ways that politicians and activists have responded. This rich, sweeping history is an essential primer for all Australians, especially the dreamers and schemers who seek to lead us today. Michelle Arrow

Bongiornos carefully distilled and astutely crafted Dreamers and Schemers brings a singular clarity to our political journey as a nation. He writes the Australian story like no other, with a sharp and sensitive intellect that allows multiple voices and perspectives to speak. Essential reading for anyone wanting to tread the past of Australias formation and to peer into the future for a glimpse of what might be next. Miriam Corowa

Also by Frank Bongiorno

The Peoples Party: Victorian Labor and the Radical Tradition, 18751914

A Little History of the Australian Labor Party (with Nick Dyrenfurth)

The Sex Lives of Australians: A History

The Eighties: The Decade That Transformed Australia

Black Inc. acknowledges the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation and the traditional custodians of the lands on which we work. We pay respects to their elders past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that this book contains images and names of people who have passed away.

Published by La Trobe University Press in conjunction with Black Inc.

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Collingwood VIC 3066, Australia

www.blackincbooks.com

www.latrobeuniversitypress.com.au

La Trobe University plays an integral role in Australias public intellectual life, and is recognised globally for its research excellence and commitment to ideas and debate. La Trobe University Press publishes books of high intellectual quality, aimed at general readers. Titles range across the humanities and sciences, and are written by distinguished and innovative scholars. La Trobe University Press books are produced in conjunction with Black Inc., an independent Australian publishing house. The members of the LTUP Editorial Board are Vice-Chancellors Fellows Emeritus Professor Robert Manne and Dr Elizabeth Finkel, and Morry Schwartz and Chris Feik of Black Inc.

Copyright Frank Bongiorno 2022

Frank Bongiorno asserts his right to be known as the author of this work.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior consent of the publishers.

9781760640095 (paperback)

9781743822722 (ebook)

Cover design by Tristan Main

Text design and typesetting by Marilyn de Castro

Cover illustrations: Sketch of kangaroo and emu for draft Coat of Arms:

National Archives of Australia; wattle illustration: Anna Szonn/Shutterstock

In memory of Stuart Macintyre (19472021)

For a that, an a that,

Its comin yet for a that,

That Man to Man the warld oer

Shall brothers be for a that.

Robert Burns

The memorial service for Gough Whitlam, who died on 21 October 2014, was a grand event in a nation that likes to imagine itself as more relaxed than most in its civic rituals. Two thousand people packed the Sydney Town Hall, a mixture of dignitaries including the then Liberal Party prime minister, Tony Abbott, and six former prime ministers and fortunate members of the public who gained their tickets in a hotly contested ballot. There were twenty Gurindji people from the Northern Territory among the mourners, a reminder of that moment in 1975 when Whitlam had ceremonially poured soil into the hands of Gurindji elder Vincent Lingiari. Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody performed From Little Things, Big Things Grow, a song about the struggles of Lingiari and his people.

Mourners had begun queuing outside three hours before it began; many more watched the service on a screen set up outside the building. The media reported booing when Tony Abbott and John Howard appeared on the screen; some cheered their favourite Labor prime ministers Paul Keating, Julia Gillard and Bob Hawke; others were more muted in their response to Kevin Rudd; and, what would have seemed bizarre a few decades before, the crowd politely received Whitlams nemesis from the Dismissal, Malcolm Fraser.

Whitlams death had been long anticipated, for he was ninety-eight. The obituaries and tributes were prepared; the rolling or not-so-rolling phrases honed, polished and ready to go one of the principal authors of contemporary Australia, intoned Paul Kelly (the journalist, now, not the musician); a giant among men who changed Australia forever, said another veteran of the fourth estate, Ross Gittins.

And yet Whitlams death, like his government, was of its time. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Labor governments of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating and those in the commentariat who cheered the partys rightward turn often appeared not to be able to get far away enough from the Whitlam legacy for their own comfort. Now, they seemed willing to embrace it at last. Media and public responses to Whitlams death expressed the disillusionment of the present as much as the dreams both realised and shattered of a distant past. His passing became an opportunity for reflecting on what had gone wrong in Australian politics. In an age of scepticism, one of declining political trust, there was a recognition here that government mattered, a yearning for a politics that was once again bold, idealistic and grand.

In the most praised eulogy of the service, Indigenous leader Noel Pearson described this old man he repeated the phrase often as the textbook case of reform trumping management. And what did the Romans ever do for us anyway? Pearson asked, taking up a theme made famous in Monty Pythons brilliant 1979 religious satire, Life of Brian. This Roman, he explained of Whitlam, in cadences that for some recalled Martin Luther King Jr, had done much: Pearson proceeded to list the governments many achievements to the applause of the audience. Film star Cate Blanchett spoke in praise of free tertiary education. Everyone seemed to have a story, everyone could find something that they thought mattered above all else. Bob Carr, the Right-wing Labor premier of New South Wales, liked that Whitlam had taken on and defeated the Left. Kelly thought that Whitlams government had shown that all prime ministers had to operate as successful reformers. Greg Barns, a Liberal Party dissident and Tasmanian lawyer, possibly squinting a little too hard, found a classic economic and social liberal in the mould of Paul Keating and John Hewson.