SpeCIal New SubSCrIber offer 33011 r I M arch 2012 $8.90 Australia Q ua dr a nt I Subscribe to Quadrant and Vol.56 No3 renodesign.com.au renodesign.com.au Policy for only $104 for one year! M arch 2012 The Threat to Democracy auley Patrick McC fromJohn O’Sullivan, Global Governance The Fictive World of Rajendra Pachauri Tony Thomas Pax Americana and the Prospect of US Decline Keith Windschuttle Why Africa Still Has a Slave Trade Roger Sandall Quadrant is one of Australia’s leading intellectual magazines, Freedom of Expression in a World of Vanishing Boundariesasluck Nicholas H Meyrick Zerilli, John de and is published ten times a year. ConservativesGiffin, and John Same-Sex Marriage Michael Joe Dolce John Stone On Bob Dylan and Christopher Ricks Stephen Buckle On myths about floating the dollarRoss Barham, On David Hume and Mreligionichael Connor Policy is the only Australian quarterly magazine that explores On the art of acting , I Morris Lurie fiction I Les Murray, Russell Erwin, Janine Fraser, Vivian Smith the world of ideas and policy from a classical liberal perspective. Poetry Ron Pretty, Duncan McIntyre, Leon Trainor I I history Patrick Morgan, Victor Stepien, JanI Owen, Trevor Sykes Reviews freedom ofI speechI first person I environment I film I politics I music Society I chronicle I economics LettersI media philosophy & ideas To take advantage of this offer you can: • subscribe online at www.policymagazine.com • use the subscription card in the middle of this magazine • contact The Centre for Independent Studies: PO Box 92, St Leonards, NSW 1590 p: 02 9438 4377 f: 02 9439 7310 e: [email protected] * This offer is in Australian dollars (incl. GST), is only available to new Australian subscribers and is not available to institutions. The renewal rate for a joint subscription is A$114.00 (including GST). AustrAliA’s secret WAr HoW unionists sAbotAged Ten our troops in World WAr ii HAL COLEBATCH’s new book, Australia’s Secret War, tells the Years shocking, true, but until now largely suppressed and hidden story of the war waged from 1939 to 1945 by a number of key Australian trade unions 33011 — against their own society and against the men and women of their of The r own country’s fighting forces during the perils of World War II. Every major Australian warship was targeted by strikes, go-slows and besT renodesign.com.au sabotage at home. Australian soldiers fighting in New Guinea and the Pacific went without food, radio equipment and ammunition because 487 pOems by 169 auThOrs of union strikes. “It has been known for decades”, Les Murray writes in his introduction to this Photographs © australian War memorial verse collection, “that poets who might fear relegation or professional sabotage from the Waterside workers disrupted loading of supplies to the troops and It seems to me the best such occasional critical consensus of our culture have a welcome and a refuge in Quadrant—but only pilfered from ships’ cargoes and soldiers’ personal effects. Other strikes collection I have ever read; better, for if they write well.” by rail workers, iron workers, coal miners, and even munitions workers instance, than ‘The Faber Book of Modern From the second decade of his 20 years as literary editor of Quadrant, Les Murray and life-raft builders, badly impeded Australia’s war effort. Verse’; which is saying quite a bit. here presents a selection of the best verse he published between 2001 and 2010. — BOB ELLIS, Table Talk For you, or As A giFt $44.95 Order This Landmark bOOk $44.95 ONLINE ONLINE www.quadrant.org.au/store www.quadrant.org.au/store POST POST Quadrant, Locked Bag 1235, North Melbourne VIC 3051, Australia Quadrant, Locked Bag 1235, North Melbourne VIC 3051, Australia PhONE FAX PhONE (03) 8317 8147 FAX (03) 9320 9065 (03) 8317 8147 (03) 9320 9065 33011_QBooks_Ads_V2.indd 8 6/09/13 3:21 PM December2013 No.502 VolumeLVII,Number12 , Phil Burcham, Frank Pulsford, Ted Watt, Evan Williams Letters 2 David Campbell, Suzanne Edgar, Phillip Turnbull, Wolfgang Kasper, Bruce Collier Keith Windschuttle Chronicle 6  Institution Cultural a of Edition 500th the Celebrating celebration 8  Keith Windschuttle, John Howard, Tony Abbott, Peter Coleman, Les Murray Cycles Electoral Short-Term on Planning Defence Long-Term defence 16  Michael O’Connor Michael Cook Doctrine Monroe the and ANZUS 20   Daryl McCann Egypt Lost and Won Brotherhood Muslim the How themiddleEast 24  Constitution the in Recognition Indigenous for Case Misguided The aborigines 28  Frank Salter Philip Ayres Perspective Classical A Jesus: religion 42  Bruce Fleming Apple the and Eve 46   Christopher Akehurst Church Suburban the of Decline The 51   Michael Giffin Jews and Christians Between Relations Reappraising 57   Geoffrey Luck Wars Marriage The society 64  Inequality of Claims Illogical and Marriage Same-Sex 72   John de Meyrick Philip Hayward Surplus Consumer of Necessity and Power The economics 76  Mervyn F. Bendle War Great the Imagining worldwarI 80  Michael Connor Stalinist Dead a to Song Love theatre 87  Christopher Heathcote Labyrinth Gothic Kubrick’s Stanley film 90  Neil McDonald Ford Admiral and Bellah Colonel 98   Sean O’Leary Annie Disappointing and ... Kalgoorlie story 103  Penelope Nelson Page Geoff by 1953 books 111  Tribute A Usual: The 23: Alan Gould; Self with Quarrel The 19: Poetry  Alan Gould; Summer Afternoon Judy Johnson; 40: Indestructible J.R. McRae; Rhubarb Andy Kissane; 41: Pin Boy Joe Dolce; 45: Years Later Knute Skinner; Lyrebird Paolo Totaro; 62: Puffing smoke; The space you inhabit Robyn Rowland; 75: Carpe Diem in Balmain Paolo Totaro; Quince Andy Kissane; 86: Mango Andy Kissane; 89: The Wily Wall Derek Fenton; 102: Piping Plovers Across from Charles Island Keayr Braxton; Four short poems Peter Bakovski; 110: Little Grandpa Train Ride Joe Dolce; 112: Homo Erectus; Through a Glass Olivia Byard Letters medicine is experiencing a deepen- ing missional crisis fostered by its disconnection from the humane Judeo-Christian values that long Editor The Eugenic Resurgence sustained Western healthcare—is Keith Windschuttle as plausible an explanation as any [email protected] and Abortion for how we found ourselves in this LitEr ary Editor SIR: I thank Dr Renton-Power predicament. Les Murray (Letters, October 2013) for his It is also reasonable to propose dEput y Editor observations concerning my article that an assertive “hard” secular- George Thomas (September 2013) on the corrupting ism that will not acknowledge influence of utilitarianism in pae- the formative influence theistic Contributing Editors diatric hospitals. It is no surprise convictions exerted on the medi- Books: Peter Coleman that some in my circle of acquaint- cal enterprise will struggle to view Film: Neil McDonald ances increasingly seek out experi- the unborn human in sane ways Theatre: Michael Connor enced doctors who respect the old that guard against arbitrariness CoLumnist Hippocratic values he affirms. and selectivity in healthcare deliv- Peter Ryan A recent editorial in the sci- ery. Mr Beaux’s eagerness to stress Editor, Qua dr ant onLinE ence journal Nature (issue of the biological differences between Roger Franklin September 12, 2013) flagged several embryo, foetus, baby and child under- [email protected] concerns regarding genetic screen- standably quells any unease we ing resembling those aired in my might feel in taking an unborn life, Ch air m an of thE Quadrant piece, but included a yet this stance disregards scientific boar d of directors shocking technical detail I over- evidence for the genetic unity of an Elizabeth Prior Jonson looked: “Increasing the number of individual throughout every stage Subscriptions conditions being screened for will of human development. Since an necessarily cause more false posi- individual of any age displays the Phone: (03) 8317 8147 tives—as many as twenty for every same unique genome it possessed Fax: (03) 9320 9065 true positive, according to one esti- in utero, in genetic terms an embryo Post: Quadrant Magazine, mate.” Any other diagnostic lab or foetus is just as fully human as Locked Bag 1235, that gave the wrong answer 95 per a grown-up adult. The belief that North Melbourne VIC 3051 cent of the time would be closed in unborn individuals are less human E-mail: quadrantmagazine@ a heartbeat. than those outside the womb is jus- data.com.au Samuel Beaux’s assertion tified by bad philosophy, not sound (Letters, November 2013) that the science. Publisher Eugenic Resurgence under way in Phil Burcham modern hospitals is unrelated to Quadrant (ISSN 0033-5002) is Beckenham, WA published ten times a year by the abolition of social and legal Quadrant Magazine Limited, restraints upon abortion is not Suite 2/5 Rosebery Place, credible. The duplicitous practices SIR: Samuel Beaux takes Philip Balmain NSW 2041, Australia in which paediatric hospitals now Burcham to task for either being ACN 133 708 424 engage—their PR offices regu- unaware of “the difference between larly bombard us with pious tel- the words embryo, foetus, child, Production evision news stories showcasing baby and infant” or for ignoring heroic efforts to extend the lives or brushing away the differences. Design Consultant: Reno Design of premature newborns or juve- All these words are merely names Art Director: Graham Rendoth nile leukaemia victims, while on a given to the various stages of each Printer: Ligare Pty Ltd separate floor of the hospital they and every person. Mr Beaux could 138–152 Bonds Road, maintain shadowy facilities dedi- have continued with toddler, school Riverwood NSW 2210 cated to the in utero eradication of child, teenager, adult, middle-aged Cover: Colours of Australia carriers of even mild genetic dis- person, old person. Every old per- “Coral” ease—would not have come about son was once an embryo and every if long-standing medical taboos on embryo, unless prevented, will www.quadrant.org.au the practice of abortion had been become an old person just as every upheld.