Australian Journal of Politics and History最新文献

A volatile year culminated in the resignation of Chief Minister Natasha Fyles after a series of failures to comply with interest disclosure legislation, alleged breach of public trust and exemplary investigative journalism by the formerly “banned” NT Independent.

While overall the NT voted against the question, the vast majority of remote communities were in favour of establishing an Indigenous Voice to Parliament (ABC News, 15 October 2023).

Former Chief Minister, Country Liberal Party (CLP) President and federal Liberal Party President Shane Stone was elected President of the CLP, replacing Sean Heenan who was himself elected earlier in the year to replace Lawson Broad who resigned over the party's opposition to The Voice (NT News, NT Independent, ABC News, 9, 10, 12 October 2023).

In October, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) cancelled its annual conference without explanation (NT Independent, 19 October; NT News, 20 October 2023).

A government reshuffle resulted in the promotion of Brent Potter and Joel Bowden at the expense of Lauren Moss and Paul Kirby (NT Independent, ABC News, 30 October; NT News, 31 October 2023). Not publicised was the simultaneous separation of NT Police, Fire and Emergency Services into three discrete agencies (NT Independent, 31 October 2023). Neither Moss nor Kirby would commit to contesting the 2024 election (NT News, 11 November 2023).

A Redbridge poll indicated that the ALP government was “unelectable” with only 19.7 per cent of the primary vote (NT Independent, NT News, 25 November 2023).

Following several integrity and transparency issues, the CLP promised to establish a lobbyist register (ABC News, 14 December 2023).

Director of Communications Margaret McKeown was sacked without explanation and a marketing manager from the Department of Chief Minister and Cabinet was appointed in her stead to oversee information released to the media by police (NT Independent, 4 July 2023). Acting Commissioner Michael Murphy denied government interference (NT News, 19 July 2023).

Superintendent Jody Nobbs told the Dhuruputjpi community in Arnhem Land that police were re-opening an investigation into the November 1934 disappearance of Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda in Darwin following his acquittal of murder on appeal to the High Court (NT News, 7 July 2023).

The Chief Minister appointed Acting Commissioner Michael Murphy, a 26-year veteran of the force, as Police Commissioner (ABC News, NT Independent, 24 August; NT News, 25 August 2023). Minister Kate Worden followed up by announcing a review into the police headed by former union boss Vince Kelly whose brief was to report to government by March next year (NT Independent, ABC News, 24 August; NT News, 25 August 2023). Deputy Commissioner Murray Smalpage announced his

In the last quarter of the twentieth century, Aboriginal Affairs was a volatile portfolio. Gough Whitlam signalled a reorientation of policy with self-determination in 1973. However, in the succeeding decade, policy slipped back to self-management and self-sufficiency that were the default of the Coalition. The proposals for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission by Labor in the late 1980s brought self-determination back into the equation and sparked much heated debate. This article focusses on the parliamentary debates around Labor's proposed legislation to establish the Commission, between 1987 and November 1989, when the debates concluded and a severely reduced Act came into being. I argue that the Coalition's hostility to the proposal demonstrated an implacable resistance to self-determination and an agenda that sought to derail its possibility. Furthermore, I argue that the resonances between arguments for and against an Indigenous voice then and now demonstrate the radical nature of Labor's agenda in the late 1980s and suggest that arguments against the Voice to Parliament now might be conceived as unfinished business by conservative Coalition forces.

Recent studies of immigration have questioned assumptions about the effectiveness of government controls. In her work on illegal Jewish immigration to the United States, Libby Garland argues that official immigration quotas may not reflect actual numbers of immigrants and critiques historians for being too ready to take immigration laws at face value. Mae Ngai's work on the racialisation of “illegal aliens” in the United States also documents the failure of legislation to curb illegal immigration. Situating her study within this historiography, Sheila Fitzpatrick has re-examined Australian measures that aimed to limit the entry of Holocaust survivors and concluded that the number of arrivals was substantially higher than previously recognised, in part because migrants and their sponsors found ways around restrictions. In substantiation, Fitzpatrick drew on the archives of the International Refugee Organization and the Australian Government, and the papers of the country's first Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell. This article revisits Fitzpatrick's sources, as well as the records of Jewish organisations she did not consult. It establishes that the Australian government effectively limited Jewish immigration and the estimates of earlier scholars were substantially correct.

This article endeavours to answer the question as to what accounts for the preservation of peace in the United States and Ukraine in 1850 and 2004 when there was a potential for an armed conflict. I argue that parallels can be drawn between the events taking place in both countries in the antebellum period, and, through a detailed empirical comparison, it can be demonstrated that peace endures when, during a supreme moment of crisis, an “oligarchic peace”, that is a compromise, is negotiated at the level of national and regional elites that ensures representation and protection of property rights for the key elites.

With combat in Second World War shifting to the Pacific region after the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the Allied General Headquarters was established in Brisbane, Australia, in July 1942. American military personnel in wartime Brisbane were subject to a two-tier criminal justice system, with the US military claiming extraterritorial jurisdiction over all crimes committed by American troops in Australia. In practical terms, this meant that American soldiers rarely faced local justice, which contributed to existing tensions between the American contingent and the Australian public. Although Americans accused of crimes were typically transferred to US custody, this jurisdictional arrangement did not extend to cases where Americans were victims of crimes allegedly committed by Australians. This article draws on extensive historical research to examine one such case, wherein American soldier Robert L. Norwood was killed by Australian Alma Muriel Morgan. By focussing on this case from the investigatory phase, and through the court process, it is possible to garner insight into the American experience with the Queensland legal system during the Second World War and to consider whether anti-American tensions (particularly around sex) unduly impacted on securing justice where Americans were victims of crime.