Teses / dissertações sobre o tema "Australian politicians"

Irish-born Sir John Winthrop Hackett (1848-1916) achieved substantial political and social standing in Western Australia through his editorship and part-ownership of the West Australian newspaper, his position as a Legislative Council member and as a layman in the Anglican Church. The thesis illustrates his strong commitment to numerous undertakings, including his major role in the establishment of Western Australia's first University. This thesis will argue that whatever Hackett attempted to achieve in Western Australia, his philosophy can be attributed to his Irish Protestant background including his student days at Trinity College Dublin. After arriving in Australia in 1875 and teaching at Trinity College Melbourne until 1882, his ambitions took him to Western Australia where he aspired to be accepted and recognised by the local establishment. He was determined that his achievements would not only be acknowledged by his contemporaries, but also just as importantly be remembered in posterity. After a failed attempt to run a sheep station, he found success as part-owner and editor of the West Australian newspaper. Outside of his business interests, Hackett’s commitment to the Anglican Church was unflagging. At the same time, he was instrumental in bringing about the abolition of state aid to church schools in Western Australia, which he saw as advantaging the Roman Catholic Church. He was a Legislative Council member for 25 years during which time he used his editorship of the West Australian, to campaign successfully on a number of social, industrial and economic issues ranging from divorce reform to the provision of economic infrastructure. As a delegate to the National Australasian Conventions he continually strove to improve the conditions under which Western Australia would join Federation. His crowning achievement was to establish the state’s first university, which he also generously provided for in his will. One of the most influential men in Western Australian history, his career epitomised the energy and ambition of the well-educated immigrant.

This work documents the personal life and contextual events surrounding an ordinary man in order to investigate the history of his development and education both as a person and as a politician. While there are substantial biographical works tracing the life of a politician, few have used oral history to write the life of ordinary politicians from working class backgrounds. Other issues discussed in relation to the work and central to the understanding of the subject are the choice of subject for biography, humour as power, gender dynamics in politics, and life history methodology. The major source of data is interviews, supported by other accounts including newspapers, biographies, autobiographies, Hansard material and archives. The subject's development and education began well within a supportive family environment and continued with a sound formal education at kindergarten, primary and secondary levels. Sport provided a basis for success and self esteem during his schooling and thereafter throughout his life. Post school development was maintained by a self-motivated drive to accumulate knowledge primarily through reading and observation of other people. His likeable personality, natural charm and wit allowed him to connect with excellent role models from whom he continued to learn throughout his union and political careers. Apart from the negative experiences of the Depression, successes throughout life allowed him to endure with dignity and stoicism any setbacks, especially his forced resignation from the position of Speaker, which was devastating and effectively ended his career.

Given that the basic functions of parliamentary Question Time are to provide information and to hold the Government accountable for its actions, the possibility of evasion occurring in such a context is of crucial importance. Evasion (equivocation) has been identified as a matter of concern in political interviews, but no systematic study has been undertaken in the context of parliamentary discourse, notably Question Time, anywhere in the world. This study applies and adapts Harris's (1991) coding framework on various types of responses, Bull and Mayer's (1993) typology of non-replies and Clayman's (2001) work on how politicians 'resist' answering questions, all of which are based on political news interviews, to the study of evasion in Australia's House of Representatives' Question Time. A comprehensive, unified framework for the analysis of evasion is described, a decision flow-chart for the framework is provided, and an illustrative example of the applied framework is given based on Australia's Federal House of Representatives' Question Time. Put simply, the study was undertaken to determine if evasion occurred, how frequently it occurred and how it occurred. It involved the classification of responses as 'answers' (direct or indirect), 'intermediate responses' (such as pointing out incorrect information in the question), and 'evasions' based on specific criteria. Responses which were considered evasions were further analysed to determine the levels of evasion, whether they were covert or overt in nature and the types of 'agenda shifts' that occurred, if any. The thesis also involved a discourse-analytical study of other factors that appear to facilitate Ministerial evasion in Australia's House of Representatives, including the Speaker's performance and the use of 'Dorothy Dixers'. The research data was sourced from Question Time transcripts from the House of Representatives Hansard for the months of February and March 2003, dealing only with questions and responses on the topic of Iraq. In those months there were 87 questions on the topic of Iraq, representing more than two thirds of all questions on Iraq for the whole of 2003. Of these 87 questions, the majority (48) came from the Opposition party, through its leader. The balance (39) was asked by Government MPs. Analysis of the question/answer discourse for all 87 questions revealed that every question asked by Government members was answered compared to only 8 of the 48 Opposition questions. Of the 40 remaining Opposition questions, 21 were given intermediate responses and 19 were evaded outright. The fact that the overwhelming majority (83%) of Opposition questions were not answered together with other findings such as instances of partiality on the part of the Speaker; the use of 'friendly', prearranged questions by Government MPs; and the 'hostile' nature of questions asked by Opposition MPs casts serious doubt on the effectiveness of Question Time as a means of ensuring the Government is held accountable for its actions. The study provides empirical evidence that evasion does occur in Australia's House of Representatives' Question Time.

Throughout the period 1931-1949, the Australian Labor Party tended to be preoccupied with the role of money as a cause of, and cure for, economic instability. The party was very much influenced by a long tradition of economic thought which saw the business cycle as an essentially monetary phenomenon. In part, this tradition affected the A.L.P. through the influence of 'quack' writers in the 'monetary radical' tradition, who combined a monetary view of the business cycle with a fear of financial manipulation and a commitment to the abolition of interest. At least as significant as this unorthodox. influence was, however, the impact upon Labor thinking of the monetary views of the main school of expansionist economics of the 1920s. Labor's preoccupation with money was due in no small measure to the way in which much of the 'mainstream' economic debate focussed upon money in the 1920s and into the 1930s. Labor economic thinking was not suddenly transformed as a result of a 'Keynesian revolution' following the publication of the General Theory in 1936. The party had absorbed much of the 'Keynesian' policy message - in particular, about the centrality of counter-cyclical public works - well before 1936. Nevertheless, because of its long attachment to purely monetary theories of capitalist economic instability, Labor did not readily absorb the 'Keynesian' view of the way in which the economic mechanism operates. The party was, for example, inclined to view public works not so much as an instrument of 'fiscal' policy, as a conduit for monetary expansion. Even in the 1940s, the A.L.P. remained deeply imbued with the traditional view that monetary mechanisms played an all-important role in the economy. In government, Labor's ideological zeal was directed towards banking reform. By contrast, Labor politicians were not greatly interested in the issues (concerning the role of planning in normal peacetime economic management, and the form and social content of a full employment program) which were dividing economists and public servants at the time.

This thesis analyses the consequences and impacts of maverick politicians on contemporary Australian politics, especially Australian political parties. The thesis uses a case study methodology to argue that maverick politicians are one manifestation of an anti-political mood currently found in the electorate; that they provide parties with a testing ground to develop leaders, although maverickism and leadership are a difficult mix of attributes to sustain; that they can have significant influence on a party’s policy formulation; and that they form strong organisational ties within the party, centred on localism. The research is important because there has been little enquiry into political mavericks in the literature; although the term “maverick” is widely used in the media and scholarly work there is no consensus on what political maverick means, who political mavericks are or the consequences of their actions. This thesis sheds some light on those questions and helps explain the associated concepts of “celebrity politician” and “conviction politician” - concepts which are similarly poorly researched but widely used.

Douglas was born in London in 1828 and migrated to New South Wales in 1851 where he represented both the Darling Downs and Camden districts in the New South Wales parliament before embarking on a lengthy parliamentary career in Queensland, one that culminated in the premiership from 1877 to 1879. He was subsequently appointed government resident for Thursday Island in 1885, a position he held until his death, nearly 20 years later, aged 76, in 1904. During this period he also served as special commissioner for the protectorate of British New Guinea, administering the territory prior to it being formally proclaimed a crown colony. Douglass involvement in Queensland public life was significant and encompassed the entire period from the colonys formation in 1859 to the federation of the Australian colonies in 1901. In this respect, his career allows, through a study of his long, eventful and varied life, for this thesis to examine aspects of the development and progression of Queenslands political system as a nascent yet robust, representative democracy, through most of the second half of the nineteenth century until the colonys incorporation in the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia. This thesis argues that John Douglas was an uncompromising Liberal in an age of Liberalism, a principled politician in an era of pragmatic factionalism and shifting political allegiances. Perhapsbecause of this he was more popular with his electorate than with his parliamentary colleagues. Douglass contribution to Queensland life was in large measure shaped by his character and the formative influences on it. This included his aristocratic upbringing, his public school and university education, his abiding religious faith, a profound sense of fair play, and a desire to participate fully and selflessly in the life of the community he lived in, despite the vicissitudes of his personal life. As this thesis further demonstrates, an examination of Douglass life affords us an insight into an energetic, accomplished, erudite, and compassionate man. Yet while his intellectual curiosity, thirst for knowledge and wide-ranging interests marked him as a Renaissance man, he also had many failings, most noticeably that of extreme obstinacy. Therefore, this thesis will analyse Douglass convictions and beliefs while examining the strengths and flaws inherent in his character. It is because Douglas lived a life characterised by complexity and contradiction, leavened by a mixture of accomplishment and failure, that his life, and the times he lived in, are worthy of examination.

In this thesis I argue that food and drink were of central importance to Don Dunstan throughout much of his political and private life. The conventional view of Dunstan always proclaimed that his passionate interest in food and drink was merely peripheral to his life. Food and drink were simply an aberration, of the same idiosyncratic order of importance as his song and dance routine with Keith Michell, his piano playing, or his reciting poetry from the back of an elephant. These various accomplishments were merely confirmation that Dunstan was different from other politicians. I argue that Dunstan was indeed different, but that the difference was rooted firmly in his life-long love affair with food and drink. I argue that his fascination with food and drink drove much of his reform agenda, that it helped his day-to-day survival, and that it provided him with the means of expressing his ove for others. Dunstan's 1976 cookbook announced his arrival as a devotee of gastronomy and furthers my argument that he helped to introduce and establish a new Australian cuisine. After Dunstan left political life in 1979 he tried to establish himself in other spheres, but it was his almost obsessive interest in all of the aspects of a gastronomic life that triumphed. In the final decade of Dunstan's life his long love affair with food and drink became a full-blown passion. I argue that, with his long-overdue adventure as a restaurateur, he finally became the complete Don Dunstan.<br>Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of History and Politics, 2004.

This biography of Francis George Anstey (1865-1940) is a study of a radical in Labor politics. Although he did not achieve fame through high office, Anstey was one of the most prominent and influential Labor politicians of his generation. He was a flamboyant and witty orator who could enthral and delight his audiences on an impressive range of subjects. He was a prolific journalist and occasional editor of a labour weekly he helped establish. His stirring account of the Russian revolution and civil war was received enthusiastically by radicals in Australia and abroad. But his greatest influence was as a popular theorist. It was he more than anyone else who defined and elaborated a radical political economy of finance capital which not only helped sustain pressure for public control over the monetary system, but was at the centre of a tradition which inspited the Chifley government s attempt to nationalise the private banks. He was a publicist, a theorist and, on matters of loyalty to its working class origins, a conscience of the Labor party. Anstey, however, could be a difficult colleague. He was a man of prodigious, if erratic, energy whose extravagant moods could change quickly from elation to despondency. His gently ironic wit could switch suddenly to savage satire and, occasionally, vitriolic abuse. He was also a man of strong principles which often brought him into conflict with his party colleagues who were more willing to accept the limitations which parliamentary politics imposed on the exercise of power, and to make the necessary compromises. Anstey had no taste nor talent for that. He was impatient for Labor to implement its policies and advance the cause of working class emancipation. The thesis argues that the very qualities which brought him to prominence as a romantic, populist radical were ill-suited to the steady, cautious reform which has characterised the work of the parliamentary Labor party. It suggests that the tension between his ideas, principles and personality, and the constraints imposed by liberal parliamentary democracy in a capitalist economy finally condemned him to failure. It further argues that his somewhat romantic vision of the potential for the working class to transform society, in the end, turned his disappointment into an embittered fatalism The tragedy of Anstey's career, it is suggested, was not just the destruction of his faith, but its apparent inevitability,