{"title":"Boots in Bowral: The Military Occupation of Bowral and Its Effects on Australian Defence Policy","authors":"James Mortensen, Sue Thompson","doi":"10.1111/ajph.70088","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.70088","url":null,"abstract":"<p>On 13 February 1978, the Governor-General of Australia signed an order to call out Australian Defence Forces (ADF) to the New South Wales (NSW) country town of Bowral, on the advice of the Federal Executive Council. The troops were deployed to secure the town while it hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting (CHOGRM), which had been targeted by a bomb explosion at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney that same day. From the 13th till the 16th of February, troops patrolled the town, legitimised by a call-out order made by the Governor-General that some scholars have determined was likely unconstitutional. As such, most scholarship on the Bowral operation focuses on the legal basis for the use of military forces in domestic operations. In contrast, this article investigates the historical circumstances for the Bowral call-out of troops by examining recently released archival material; it explores the political and operational reasons that may have influenced the Australian Government's decision to deploy military personnel in a context that, as has been claimed subsequently, was counter to its legislative and constitutional capacities. In so doing, the article makes four assertions regarding the government's decision in making this legally questionable move; that there was a conscious effort to avoid dissention between various arms of government, an operational concern over the number of police required to secure the approach to Bowral, a deep concern in Canberra regarding the possibility of a terrorist attack, and a pre-existing desire to expand ADF capabilities into the counter-terrorism space. In so doing, the paper concludes by contextualising these decision points against the legislative and policy issues raised by the subsequent investigations into the Bowral operation.</p>","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"72 3","pages":"463-473"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ajph.70088","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148981531","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Fraser Government and Public Inquiries","authors":"Scott Prasser","doi":"10.1111/ajph.70057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.70057","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This paper reviews the Fraser government's use of public inquiries during its nearly eight years in office. This includes both royal commissions and other non-statutory inquiries. In addition to assessing the reasons for their appointment, roles and impacts, the paper also compares their use to its predecessor, the Whitlam Labor government. Although the Fraser government came to office to reverse the Whitlam government's expanded use of public inquiries, the Fraser government itself appointed many public inquiries. Some of these were ‘watershed’ inquiries that had lasting impacts on public policy. Such extensive use of public inquiries by the Fraser government indicates there was more continuity with the Whitlam government than partisan debate indicated at the time.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"72 3","pages":"531-545"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148981441","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Australian Union Movement and the Politics of Full Employment, 1945–1976","authors":"Owen Bennett","doi":"10.1111/ajph.70061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.70061","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article argues that the Australian union movement played a crucial and often overlooked role in both the success and rapid decline of Australia's post-war full employment framework. A particular focus is placed on the unions' response to the Fraser Liberal-Country Party government's 1976 abandonment of post-war full employment and the introduction of its subsequent ‘Fight Inflation First’ economic policy agenda. Two key historical episodes—the ACTU's June 1976 tax cut/wage restraint proposal and the period leading up to the ACTU's July 1976 national stoppage over Medibank—are examined in this context.</p>","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"72 3","pages":"406-420"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/ajph.70061","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148981408","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Politics, Inequality and the Australian Welfare State After Liberalisation. By Ben Spies-Butcher, London: Anthem Press, 2025. 218 pp. £25.00 (paperback; eBook). ISBN: 9781839995323","authors":"Peter Whiteford","doi":"10.1111/ajph.70087","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.70087","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"72 3","pages":"569-570"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148981536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Continuation of Women's Policy Directions from Whitlam to Fraser","authors":"Sara Dowse","doi":"10.1111/ajph.70046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.70046","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Malcolm Fraser became the caretaker prime minister on 11 November 1975, the day now known as the Whitlam Government's Dismissal. The 13 December election confirmed what the polls had predicted. The coalition swept into office with a huge majority and our caretaker prime minister became the actual one. As inaugural head of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet's women's unit from July 1974 to December 1977, I not only witnessed this historical event but also gained particular insights into Malcolm Fraser's position on the political spectrum—insights that were useful as a public servant at a time of deep division and were borne out in his convictions in later life. In July 1974, I was appointed head of the department's Women's Affairs Section, created to provide bureaucratic assistance to Whitlam's women's adviser. In October 1975, the section was upgraded, becoming the Women's Affairs Branch. In 1977, it was upgraded again as the Office of Women's Affairs. The paper is based on my personal reflections of that event and its effects on the development and implementation of women's policy, assisted by the memories of others who worked in what eventually became the Office of the Status of Women towards the end of Fraser's prime ministership.</p>","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"72 3","pages":"546-555"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2026-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148981498","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Military History Supremo: Essays in Honour of David Horner AM FASSA. Edited by Joan Beaumont and Garth Pratten (Canberra: ANU Press, 2025), pp. vii + 400. $80 (PB).","authors":"Mia Martin Hobbs","doi":"10.1111/ajph.70055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.70055","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"72 2","pages":"376-378"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2026-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148343195","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Northern Territory Political Chronicles: July–December 2025","authors":"Robyn Smith","doi":"10.1111/ajph.70042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.70042","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"72 2","pages":"351-357"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2026-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148343308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Revisiting the Anti-Zionism of Sir Isaac Isaacs, Australia's First Native-Born Governor-General—and a Jew","authors":"Derek McDougall","doi":"10.1111/ajph.70039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.70039","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Sir Isaac Isaacs, Australia's first native-born Governor-General (1931–1936) was a leading figure in the controversy on Zionism within the Jewish community in Australia in 1941–1946. Isaacs argued against Extreme or Political Zionism on grounds of prudence and justice. Zionism undermined the British war effort, also leading to conflict within Palestine and beyond. Zionism was unfair to the Arabs of Palestine, also weakening the position of Jews as citizens in jurisdictions where they lived; it ran counter to principles of justice in Judaism. Julius Stone was Isaacs's leading critic: Isaacs lacked sympathy for the plight of Jews in Europe; Jewishness involved nationality, compatible with the right to a Jewish state in Palestine and democratic citizenship elsewhere. Stone was an influence on Dr. Herbert Evatt, the Australian foreign minister who took a pro-Zionist position at the United Nations, whereas Isaacs was not. Isaacs's critique of Zionism remains prescient to many aspects of the contemporary Israel-Palestine conflict but not all.</p>","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"72 2","pages":"237-255"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2026-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148343205","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Australian Capital Territory: July–December 2025","authors":"Chris Monnox","doi":"10.1111/ajph.70066","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/ajph.70066","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45431,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Politics and History","volume":"72 2","pages":"358-360"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2026-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148343222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}