DOCSLIB.ORG

Shifting Australian Public Opinion on the Monarchy

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY Loyal to the Crown: Shifting Australian Public Opinion on the Monarchy Prepared for delivery at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Political Studies Association, Sheffield, March 30 – April 1 Luke J. Mansillo 10 February 2015 Over the past half century the Australian public has remained divided on the issue of whether Australia should retain the monarchy or become a republic. Clive Bean (1993) found there had been remarkable stability on the issue and evidence of a long-term trend away from support for the monarchy with a sudden decline in 1992. This article adopts Bean’s (1993) longitudinal cross- sectional methods to examine the social and political basis of public attitudes. This articles analyses the Australian Election Study (1993-2013) to compare Bean’s results and reanalyse earlier data from the National Social Science Surveys and Australian National Political Attitudes surveys (1967-1990). Public opinion has been fluid and is now at a crossroads between the 1980s high and the 1990s lows. Cohort analysis suggests socialisation impacts long term opinions. Gender and ethnic nationalism also influences opinion. It has been put ‘The survival of the monarchy in late twentieth century Britain is a socio- psychological phenomenon of strange proportions’ (Billig [1992]2002:1). If so the monarchy’s survival in twenty-first century Australia is far more outlandish. What is more peculiar is monarchy’s growing antipodean popularity. In the lead up to the 1999 referendum public opinion wilted for the monarchy (Bean 1993: 191) in spite of this the referendum failed (McAllister 2002) as voters took a least risk strategy opting to keep the Queen to one day vote for a congressional system instead of alter a parliamentary one (Davidson et al. 2006: 866; Wellings 2003). In the referendum’s aftermath, there has been a resurgence of public support for the monarchy. The monarchy’s fortunes were expected to continually decline over time given previous cohort analysis evidence (Bean 1993: 204) ‘bolstered by the effects of [...] education and religion and related social change.’ This article investigates the social basis for support for the monarchy and argues events in both the United Kingdom and Australia influenced monarchy’s appeal in conjunction with the processes of banal nationalism. This article is a longitudinal analysis of Australian public opinion on the monarchy-republic issue. It is an update of an article by Clive Bean (1993) which demonstrated opinion on the monarchy-republic issue had then been stable until 1990. Bean noted that commercial polling on the issue showed a shift away from monarchy in the early 1990s. This article demonstrates that public opinion on the issue since 1990 has been anything but stable. Before 1990 was an era of general stability with modest gradual declining support for the monarchy, which is well documented (McAllister 2011: 29). An era of instability has proceeded. First a rapid decline of support in the 1990s, followed by significant gains of support in the twenty-first century. It is opportune to revisit the study of the monarchy-republic issue in Australia. In the intervening years since Bean’s analysis there has been a series of events with the potential to affect public opinion. The 1990s featured significant royal scandals. These include the 1992 annus horribilis, Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s divorce in 1996, and the death of Princess Diana in 1997. This was followed by the failed 1999 republic referendum. More recently, the wedding of Prince William and Princess Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge and the birth of Prince George, has been a boon to the monarchy. The monarchy has been modernised with an end to succession and royal marriage anachronisms (Parpworth 2013). A quarter century since Bean’s analysis it is worth returning to the issue to investigate the social compositional factors behind opinion change over this period. This article uses Bean’s (1993) analysis of Don Aitkin’s Australian National Political Attitudes study (ANPA) (1967-79) and Jonathan Kelley’s National Social Science Surveys (NSSS) (1984-90). It compares Bean’s analysis with data from Ian McAllister’s Australian Election Study (AES) (1993-2013) using Bean’s methods. This is an attempt to update Bean’s article with the most recent AES data; comparing the era of stability with the era of instability. This study compiles 46 years of academic public opinion data building upon previous research (Bean 1993). I find support sharply declined from 58 per cent in 1990 to 40 per cent in 1993 dropping to a low of 34 per cent in 1998. Ian McAllister (2011: 29) described public opinion (as of 2010) as, ‘monarchy has attracted renewed if modest public support.’ There was a 5 per cent increase in support from 42 per cent in 2010 to 47 per cent in 2013. The increase in support from 34 per cent to 47 per cent challenges the assertion of a mere modest support increase for the monarchy as an institution of Australian government. Rather public opinion on the monarchy is at a crossroads. It is 2 | P a g e between the 1998 low of 34 per cent and the 1987-88 high of 60 per cent. It is worth questioning why the movement of public opinion in both directions over the decades. Trends in public opinion Here I shall provide a brief overview of public opinion trends on the monarchy-republic issue as recorded by fourteen academic surveys. It is important to note that responses vary to a small degree on the exact question asked. Bean (1993: 192) noted that ANPA, NSSS and AES all have comparable questions which have only ‘minor differences.’1 The first question asks respondents ‘how important do [they] feel the Queen and the Royal Family are to Australia’ and the second question asks if ‘[they] think that Australia should become a republic with an Australian head of state, or should the Queen be retained as head of state.’ For the first question there are differences with the number of response categories.2 Second there are minor wording changes across the NSSS to the AES and ANPA questions and in the opinion of Bean (1993:192) – and for that matter the author too – ‘[t]here is no reason to assume that [...] these small variations would have any bearing on the comparisons.’ Overall since the referendum support has improved in both absolute numbers who hold monarchist views and in strength. There was reasonably stable support for the monarchy for both measures up to 1990 (see Table 1; Figure 1) which is reinforced by commercial polling (Figures 2 and 3). Curiously before 1993, there were significantly more people who wished to retain the monarchy but did not think the Queen was terribly important; however this had changed by 1993. This probably is due to the 1992 scandals. Commercial polling shows a leap from 36 per cent approval for the republic in 1991 to 57 per cent in 1992 (Bean 1993: 196). Murray Goot (1994: 65) also nominates 1992 as the year when ‘a high level of support for the republic’ emerged – surprisingly royal misbehaviour and public opinion has been neglected in academic discussions despite the 1992 height of public Royal misbehaviour.3 The strength of support for the republic has declined. In 1998 and 2001 respectively, 34 per cent and 38 per cent, believed Australia should ‘definitely become a republic.’ This has declined to 27 per cent and 26 per cent in 2010 and 2013 respectively. There is a similar level of strong republicans in 2010- 13 to 1993; however the weak republicans have fallen away declining from 33 per cent to 27 per cent in 2013. The high level point of weak monarchist support is 2013 with 33 per cent exhibiting weak support for the monarchy. Furthermore strong support for the monarchy is at its highest point since 1990 – the damage from the annus horribilis may have been recovered. In 2013 importance for the monarchy was at a similar level to the 1980s after Prince Charles’s marriage to Diana. The AES results mirror a similar analysis using International Social Science Surveys data (Kelley et al. 1999). Ben Wellings (2003: 47-48) observes ‘the failure of the republican campaign cannot be seen as a 1 The question used in the AES is adopted from the ANPA. Bean referred to the ANPA and NSSS similarities. 2 The ANPA and AES have three response categories: ‘very important’, ‘fairly important’ and ‘not very important.’ The NSSS has the additional category: ‘not important at all’. It is assumed that the ANPA and AES ‘not very important’ category corresponds to the NSSS ‘not very important’ and ‘not important at all.’ In the 1979 ANPA the question ‘should Australia retain the Queen’ did not have the four categories but instead they were collapsed into two categories. In 1967 only the importance of royalty question was asked. 3 Billig (2002: 2-15) wrote of the volumes of popular press and nothingness of academic press on the issue as a function of academic sociologists and social psychologists failing to identity monarchy itself as a ‘problem.’ 3 | P a g e victory for monarchism or Australian attachment to Britain.’ This recovery in both total support and strength of support surely must be seen as a victory for the Palace. Figure 1: Public opinion on the monarchy: Importance and whether to retain 4 | P a g e Table 1: Attitudes towards the Monarchy-Republic issue, 1967-2013 (%)a 1967 1979 1984-85 1986-87 1987-88 1990 1993 1996 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 Importance of the Queen & Royal Family Very important 28 25 16 20 18 17 13 12 10 10 10 11 13 16 Fairly important 26 29 29 29 25 28 22 27 21 21
Recommended publications
  • Nationalism and Human Rights This Page Intentionally Left Blank Nationalism and Human Rights

    Nationalism and Human Rights This Page Intentionally Left Blank Nationalism and Human Rights

    Nationalism and Human Rights This page intentionally left blank Nationalism and Human Rights In Theory and Practice in the Middle East, Central Europe, and the Asia-Pacific Edited by Grace Cheng NATIONALISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS Copyright © Grace Cheng, 2012. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-33856-2 All rights reserved. First published in 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States – a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-34157-3 ISBN 978-1-137-01202-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137012029 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nationalism and human rights : in theory and practice in the Middle East, Central Europe, and the Asia-Pacific / edited by Grace Cheng. p. cm. 1. Human rights—Political aspects. 2. Human rights—Political aspects—Middle East. 3. Nationalism—Middle East. 4. Human rights—Political aspects—Europe, Central. 5. Nationalism—Europe, Central. 6. Human rights—Political aspects—Pacific Area. 7. Nationalism—Pacific Area. I. Cheng, Grace, 1968– JC571.N33265 2012 320.54—dc23 2011040451 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
  • Brand Finance Monarchy 2017 Report

    Brand Finance Monarchy 2017 Report

    Monarchy 2017 The annual report on the value of the British Monarchy November 2017 To coincide with the granting of the Brand Finance Coat of Arms by the College of Arms Contents Foreword Foreword 3 This year marks exactly 25 years since the Windsor Castle fire – the event that came to symbolise the nadir of the sovereign’s annus horribilis. Executive Summary 4 A quarter of a century on from one of its most turbulent years, the British Brand Finance Network Comments 10 Monarchy is enjoying immense popularity. As the Queen and Duke of Methodology 12 Edinburgh celebrate their Platinum Wedding Anniversary and reduce their public engagements, the attraction of the youngest generation of the Royal The Value of Royal Warrants 14 Family ensures the institution’s survival in the future. The Monarchy and British Luxury Brands in China 15 Thanks to this combination of high esteem and universal appeal, the Monarchy’s influence extends far beyond pomp and circumstance, and Coats of Arms – Past and Present 16 generates a substantial uplift to the UK economy, spanning various Why Coats of Arms Matter to Brands 17 David Haigh industries. CEO Brand Finance Coats of Arms Service 18 Brand Finance plc Since its inception in 2012, our study attempts to capture the contribution generated by the Monarchy to tourism, trade, media, and the effect it has on About Brand Finance & Contact Details 19 [email protected] Brand Britain as well as on British corporate brands benefitting from Royal Warrants and Coats of Arms but also informal endorsements from members of the Royal Family.
  • Australian Nationalism and Historical Memory

    Australian Nationalism and Historical Memory

    UCLA UCLA Historical Journal Title An Ambivalent Nation: Australian Nationalism and Historical Memory Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4dd790wr Journal UCLA Historical Journal, 23(1) ISSN 0276-864X Author Kelly, Matthew Kraig Publication Date 2012 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California An Ambivalent Nation: Australian Nationalism and Historical Memory Matthew Kelly The most important national holiday in Australia falls on April 25. Known as Anzac Day, it commemorates the Australian and New Zealander soldiers who died in battle at Gallipoli, in western Turkey, in 1915.1 Gallipoli’s central position in Australian national consciousness is not immediately comprehensible to an outside observer. Bastille Day in France or Independence Day in the United States seem sensible choices for the national holiday. In the French case, the storming of the Bastille is a suitable emblem of the transi- tion from the ancien régime to a new political order in which all Frenchmen were to be equals before the law. In the American case, the celebration of independence summons the specter of a national consciousness shaking off the last fetters of British imperial rule and so coming to full bloom. But why should a battlefield located thou- sands of miles from Australia, and from which Australians derived no material benefit, serve, in an important respect, as the geographic center of the Australian national narrative? Which overlords did the Australians overturn at Gallipoli? From whose imperial yoke did they at last work loose? The last two questions are rhetorical, of course, for neither applies to the Australian case.
  • 'Asian Australian' Migrant Identity: Brian Castro's Birds of Passage and After China

    'Asian Australian' Migrant Identity: Brian Castro's Birds of Passage and After China

    'ASIAN AUSTRALIAN' MIGRANT IDENTITY: BRIAN CASTRO'S BIRDS OF PASSAGE AND AFTER CHINA CATHY BENNETT of Passage 1982 ]BIRDS was one of the firstnovels to discussAfter theChina Asian migrant experience in Australia. It won the Australian/Vogel Literary Award for and began Brian Castro's successful writing career as a novelist. is Castro's fourth novel and most recent work. These two texts address, in part, the position of the Chinese migrant and the position of those considered 'Asian' in Australia. They also displayBirds a offasc Passageination withAft wordplayer China and with the language and debates of literary theory, features which are characteristic of all four of Castro's novels. I contend in this paper that and place the Asian Australian within the context of a global model as a postmodernindividual. I suggest that the cultural crossings frequently made in these texts, and the fact that Asian migrant characters speak in the cosmopolitan, transnational language of the postmodern, are devices which form part of an opposition to national boundaries and national restrictions. Texts which discuss the Asian migrant experienceBirds of Passage, in Australia emphasise the historical connection of the migrant with the Australian landscape and culture. This is illustrated in the double narrative technique of in which the story of a Chinese migrant's experience in the goldfields is set against that of the contemporary urban life of a young man considered 'Asian'. This double narrative has the effect of emphasisingThe Ch inaman, the length of the Chinese presenceChange inof SkiesAustralia. The device ofThe comparing Ancestor historicalGame. and contemporaryThe Ch migrantinaman, narratives within a text also occurs in Don 'o Kim's Yasmine Gooneratne'sA and Alex Miller's In Don'o Kim's the experienceA Change ofof theSkies, sensitive Japanese student Joe is paralleled by that of an earlier migrant who also experienced racism towards those considered Asian.
  • Copyright by Gregory Scott Brown 2004 the Dissertation Committee for Gregory Scott Brown Certifies That This Is the Approved Version of the Following Dissertation

    Copyright by Gregory Scott Brown 2004 the Dissertation Committee for Gregory Scott Brown Certifies That This Is the Approved Version of the Following Dissertation

    Copyright by Gregory Scott Brown 2004 The Dissertation Committee for Gregory Scott Brown Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Coping with Long-distance Nationalism: Inter-ethnic Conflict in a Diaspora Context Committee: Gary P. Freeman, Supervisor John Higley Zoltan Barany Alan Kessler Ross Terrill Coping with Long-distance Nationalism: Inter-ethnic Conflict in a Diaspora Context by Gregory Scott Brown, B.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December, 2004 Dedication To Dale Acknowledgements Many people helped me finish this dissertation and deserve thanks. My advisor, Gary Freeman, provided guidance, encouragement, and a helpful prod now and again. I owe him a special debt for his generous support and patience. Special thanks are also due John Higley who provided personal and institutional support throughout the process—even when he had neither the time nor obligation to do so. I also thank the other members of my dissertation committee, Ross Terrill, Alan Kessler, and Zoltan Barany. Each of them offered sound advice and counsel during my fieldwork and the writing phase of this project. I also benefited greatly from numerous funding programs; including, the Edward A. Clark Center for Australian and New Zealand Studies, the Australian and New Zealand Studies Association of North America, and various funding sources in the Department of Government, UT-Austin. My fieldwork was also facilitated by generous support from the Australian Centre at Melbourne University and the Parliamentary Internship/Public Policy program at the Australian National University.
  • Australian Nationalist Ideological, Historical, and Legal Archive

    Australian Nationalist Ideological, Historical, and Legal Archive

    AUSTRALIAN NATIONALIST IDEOLOGICAL, HISTORICAL, AND LEGAL ARCHIVE www.alphalink.com.au/~radnat MISSION STATEMENT (as updated, August 24 2002): This Site is a document archive linked to other Australian Nationalist political and information sites. A few Australian authors are on-line. As further works are prepared for Internet publication, additional Australian authors shall appear here. This document archive shall: (i) Ground Australian Nationalism ideologically and historically; this task is related to the legitimacy of the cause as well as the discussion of its favoured political expressions and historical place and activism; providing an accurate analysis is vital in combatting the misrepresentation of Nationalist ideology and politics by its opponents in politics and the media. (ii) Answer (when appropriate) the State-liberal-political-police propaganda which attempts to delegitimize the Nationalist organizations by an assertion that they have operated, or do operate, in a criminal manner; this task shall be addressed by relevant exposé of various "legal processes" operated against Nationalist leaders and other patriotic identities in the past. This Archive shall be continually updated and maintained as a resource for the instruction of a new generation of Nationalist leaders and activists. Texts of a general relevancy to the development of Australian Nationalist ideology and politics will also be placed upon this site. This includes material drawn from the corpus of Euro-nationalist discourse. The Editors welcome that our attention is drawn to selective material. The Editors will permit some debate around the issue of ideological and political formation and shall not censor any reasonable view on any subject which advances this objective.
  • Introduction Creating White Australia: New Perspectives on Race, Whiteness and History

    Introduction Creating White Australia: New Perspectives on Race, Whiteness and History

    Introduction Creating White Australia: new perspectives on race, whiteness and history Jane Carey, Monash University Claire McLisky, University of Melbourne and University of Copenhagen As the promulgation of the White Australia Policy in 1901 would seemingly demonstrate, ‘whiteness’ was crucial to the constitution of the new Australian nation. And yet historians have paid remarkably little attention to this in their studies of Australia’s past. ‘Whiteness’, as a concept, has only recently been recognised as a significant part of the story of Australian nationalism. In seeking to understand the operations of ‘race’, historians have primarily looked towards Indigenous peoples and other ‘non-white’ groups. Creating White Australia takes a fresh approach to the questions of Australian national formation and the crucial role of race in Australian history. Including contributions from some of the leading scholars in Australian history as well as the work of emerging historians, it argues that ‘whiteness’ has been central to the racial regimes which have so profoundly shaped the development of the Australian nation. This collection is the first to draw together an array of studies dealing with the question of whiteness in Australian history as their central theme. It demonstrates that Australia’s racial past can only be understood by recognising whiteness too as ‘race’. By revealing what ‘white’ meant in a particular place and time, each of these chapters contributes to the elucidation of how race and whiteness have, in effect, ‘created’ the historical, geographical and imagined entity ix known as Australia. They show the multiple, and often contradictory, ways in which whiteness was understood, manifested, and seen, and, sometimes, how it failed to be seen.
  • The Ultimate Insider Trader Is the Queen

    The Ultimate Insider Trader Is the Queen

    Click here for Full Issue of EIR Volume 23, Number 22, May 24, 1996 to be "philo-Semitic," but in reality he was "philo-banker." 1.,1 Edward had a geopolitical vision in the Venetian tradition, and it was one of brutal simplicity: the encirclement of'Ger­ The ultimateinsider many with a hostile coalition, and the destruction of theWa­ tion-states of Europe. With this ambition driving him, Edward traderis the Queen VII set up the Anglo-Franco-Russian alliance that becatt\.e' known as the Triple Entente. His policies led directly to expIO-l I·, sion of world war in 1914. by Scott Thompson One of Edward VII's leading financialadvisers was HUrl-' garian Jewish banker Baron Hirsch, who purchased an intro­ Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is the wealthiest crone in the duction to Edward in 1890 from Crown Prince Rudolf of world, who gives new meaning to the phrase, "stinking rich." Austria. When Baron Hirsch died in 1896, his position as Her total wealth is divided into two parts. One is a Venetian­ leading adviser passed on to his executor, another Jewish stylefondo, that is, it is inalienable and must be passed on to banker, Ernest Cassel, whose daughter and heiress, Edwina, her heir, free from inheritance tax. The second part of her would ultimately marry Lord Louis Mountbatten, a chief in­ wealth consists of her private collection of castles, jewelry, fluence on Prince Philip and Prince Charles. and art, and a portfolio of blue chip stocks and bonds and real The Rothschilds and the Sassoons, also Jewish bankers, estate investments around the world.
  • The Holy Grail: Searching for the Perfect Accent Psychometric Testing: We Know What You Are Thinking

    The Holy Grail: Searching for the Perfect Accent Psychometric Testing: We Know What You Are Thinking

    ČASOPIS ZA UČENJE ENGLESKOG JEZIKA magazine June / July 2012 No. 2 price 35 kn ON THE ROAD London Olympics NATIVE VIEW EXPERT VIEW The Holy Grail: Psychometric testing: searching for the we know what you are perfect accent thinking Learn more Educational, fun and interactive headlines Lecture time How to... OPENVIEW TO1 2 EDITORIAL The summer is upon us and what a summer it is set to be! The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, Euro 2012, the Olympic Games, magazine maybe the comeback of the Greek drachma, and the second is- sue of View Magazine. Let’s be honest though, the most impor- View – časopis za učenje tant event of the summer is your first appearance on the beach engleskog jezika and what to wear, and we have that covered in How To. Mihanovićeva 20, 10000 Zagreb Tel: 01 457 6639 Thank you for all your correspondence following the first issue. Fax: 01 457 6450 We really appreciate your comments and suggestions and take E-mail: [email protected] them seriously; as a result, you will find a section dedicated to Izdavač: music. We hope you enjoy it! Another new feature is the com- Lingua Media izdavaštvo d.o.o. petition page where you can win some great prizes to develop Tisak: your English further. Tiskara Velika Gorica d.o.o. Trg kralja Tomislava 38, 10410 Velika Gorica Developing and improving a language is no easy thing - there is no magic formula, no quick fix. Hard work is usually the key. Direktorica: Ivana Lieli However, reading in any language has been proven one of the [email protected] most effective ways of increasing vocabulary, improving spell- Glavni urednik: ing, and ingraining good grammar practice.
  • Annus Horribilis

    Annus Horribilis

    MEDICINE IN ART Annus Horribilis Connie Nugent MLS In her Christmas speech of that year, Great organizing effective inoculation schedules. People Britain’s Queen Elizabeth referred to 1992 as her awaiting the vaccine are left wondering when vac- annus horribilis. Members of the Royal Family suf- cines will be available in their area, if any, and how fered through separations and divorces, a suicide, they will be notified, if at all. It’s a double whammy— and relentless gossipmongering in the media. The worrying “Will I get Covid?” and “How and when can I year culminated in the Queen’s being pelted with get the vaccine?” University of California psychology eggs at a commemorative gathering1 and experienc- professor Kate Sweeny asserts that people do not ing a fire at Windsor Castle.2 cope with ambiguity very well, “Our current situation is marked by two pandemics, the viral one [and] a The United States endured its own annus horribilis psychological pandemic of uncertainty … Uncertainty in 2020. Due in part to mismanagement of the health- leaves us scrambling to regain an element of con- care crisis, millions of people became infected with a trol—by hoarding toilet paper, for example.”4 novel coronavirus, and hundreds of thousands died. At the beginning of January 2021, hospitals con- Many of us compound the feelings of uncertainty tinue to be overwhelmed, and overworked and over- and ambiguity by doomscrolling, or focusing inordi- stressed healthcare personnel must wonder when life nately on grim news. Similar to repeatedly touching a will return to “normal.” bad tooth to see if it still hurts, checking social media again and again for the latest governmental shenan- New York Times writer Elizabeth Dias points out igans and the most up-to-date counts of viral infec- that a “raw and unbridled winter has descended upon tions and deaths raises our blood pressure and heart America.”3 She alludes to the literal darkness of the rate.
  • A “Foreign” Country? Australia and Britain at Empire's End

    A “Foreign” Country? Australia and Britain at Empire's End

    A “Foreign” Country? Australia and Britain at Empire’s End. Greta Beale A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of B.A. (Advanced)(Hons) in History. University of Sydney October 2011 − Acknowledgements – ____________________________________________________________________________________________ I would like to firstly thank my supervisor Dr. James Curran for his patience, support and for sharing with me his incredible knowledge and passion for Australian political history. Your guidance was invaluable and much appreciated. I would also like to thank the 2011 honours coordinator, Dr. Kirsten McKenzie, for guiding me in the right direction and for her encouraging words. To the staff at Fisher Library, the National Library of Australia and the National Archives of Australia, your assistance in the research stages of the thesis was so helpful, and I thank you for going above and beyond your respective roles. To my family, I thank you for talking me through what sometimes seemed an overwhelming task. To Dad and Sasha, my calming influences, and to Mum, for her patient and precise proof reading, day trips to Canberra, and for listening with genuine interest to my ongoing discussions about the finer details of the Anglo- Australian relationship, many, many thanks. 2 - Contents - _____________________________________________________________________ Acknowledgements 2 Introduction Disentangling From Empire 4 Chapter 1 The Myth of “Civic Britannicus Sum” The United Kingdom Commonwealth Immigration Act 27 Chapter 2 “Austr-aliens” The Commonwealth Immigration Act, 1971. 49 Chapter 3 “Another tie is loosed” The transfer of responsibility for Australia House, 1972. 71 Conclusion 95 Bibliography 106 3 − Introduction − Disentangling from Empire ___________________________________________________________________________________________ In July 1973, the Australian Ambassador to the United States, James Plimsoll, received a personal letter from the retired Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Sir Alexander Downer.
  • Honouring Australians in the 1970S

    Honouring Australians in the 1970S

    The definitive version is available at http://wileyonlinelibrary.com http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajph.12317/full The Politics of National Recognition: Honouring Australians in a Post-Imperial World1 Karen Fox and Samuel Furphy Abstract The announcement in January 2015 that Prince Philip had been chosen to receive an Australian knighthood (an honour which itself had been controversially revived the previous year) sparked a fury of debate about honours, and about the continuance of a British connection in Australia’s national life. Such debates were not new, echoing earlier arguments about honours as a national or imperial symbol. Through two related case studies – the Australian honours system and the Australian of the Year award – this article explores the politics of national recognition in 1970s and 1980s Australia. We consider both the politics involved in the creation and alteration of awards by which individual achievement and service are recognised by the nation, and the politics involved in imagining and recognising an Australian nation as expressed in those awards. We argue that these two institutions were more than a means to acknowledge hard work or sacrifice; they were also significant sites for contests over the nature of Australia’s post-imperial identity. Like most modern nations, Australia uses an official system of honours to acknowledge and celebrate the services and achievements of its citizens. This formal system is complemented by the more populist Australian of the Year award. In the twenty-first century these two honorific institutions are familiar and – with some notable exceptions – widely valued and accepted elements of the social and symbolic landscape.